Post by Sankalp Sagar

I successfully defended my Master's thesis yesterday! 🎓 Yesterday, I defended my thesis "Patronus - Value Alignment of RL Agents in Text-Based Games Using MFT Profiles" where I explored how to morally steer reinforcement learning agents in interactive fiction games using personalized moral profiles. It was the culmination of several painstaking months: a lot of failed ideas, a lot of deliberation and a lot of exciting breakthroughs. Even in moments of failure, I was able to get my hands dirty on things I was proud to accomplish even if they didn't make the final cut. I learned how to isolate environments using Apptainer to avoid dependency errors, how to host LLMs as a standalone service using FastAPI, how to think about system design and finally, but perhaps most importantly, how to communicate about my research through accessible presentations. It'd be remiss not to thank my lovely supervisors - Dr. Pradeep Kumar Murukannaiah, Dr. Enrico Liscio, and Antonio Mone. I am very grateful for the support and mentoring throughout my thesis. A special thanks to Enrico, who acted as my daily supervisor, for giving me the freedom to make my own decisions while always providing thoughtful nudges in the right direction when I needed it. I am also grateful to Dr. Chirag Raman who acted as the external chair and challenged me to think more critically about the mathematical foundations of my methodology. These past two years have been unforgettable. I am very grateful about getting the chance to study at Delft University of Technology, one of the best research universities in the world. Learning from world-class professors and working alongside like-minded, passionate peers has been a privilege and I got to understand how to think about engineering in a holistic and responsible way. I'm proud to have left my tiny, enthusiastic mark on this incredible institution. I'm so excited for what's to come as I try to find my feet in this post-graduation market. I am actively exploring roles in AI Engineering and Data Science and I'm looking forward to applying everything I've learned to new challenges. It is truly a big, exciting, and a intimidating world and I can't wait to sink my teeth into it!