I am a neurosymbolic AI researcher specializing in cognitive architectures and expert systems, integrating symbolic reasoning with machine learning to develop accurate, explainable, and adaptive AI systems for physical and digital environments.
My research focuses on human-centered AI for decision-making, analytics, and intelligent operations. I investigate symbolic reasoning and its integration with neural models to develop personalized cyber-physical AI systems. Applications include large language models for predictive maintenance, autonomous agents for product prototyping, and robotics for automated operations.
Currently I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor of AI and Information Sciences and Technology in the School of Business Administration at Penn State Harrisburg, with co-hire at the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS). I earned Ph.D. in Informatics from Penn State University, advised by Frank Ritter, and M.S. in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences from Utah State University, where I studied agent-based modeling and connected learning with Hillary Swanson, Uri Wilensky, and Bruce Sherin. I had bachelor in Finance and previously worked as a certified metals trader at Jinrui Futures Co., Ltd in Shanghai, China.
Recent news
Nov 2026 — Interdisciplinary FinTech and AI grant funded by Penn State Harrisburg, with Indrit Hoxha.
Oct 2026 — Presented A Neurosymbolic Rural Primary Care Diagnostic Recommender at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Oct 2026 — Awarded undergraduate research funding in health informatics by Penn State Harrisburg.
Aug 2026 — Decode the Mind of the Machine, with Aritra Bandyopadhyay, Alessandro Oltramari, Jonathan Francis, and Frank Ritter, accepted for presentation at ACM HCOMP 2026; invited to review for the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making.
May–Aug 2026 — Earned my Ph.D. in Informatics and joined Penn State Harrisburg as a tenure-track Assistant Professor, with an ICDS co-hire and an affiliate appointment in Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Selected publications
- CogDriver: The Longest-Running Autonomous Driving Cognitive Model Exhibits Human Factors.
Christian Wasta, Siyu Wu, Frank E. Ritter.
AHFE 2025, Cognitive Computing and Internet of Things
🏆 Best student paper
paper - VSM-ACTR 2: A Human-Like Decision Making Model with Metacognition for Manufacturing Solutions.
Siyu Wu, Alessandro Oltramari, Frank E. Ritter.
Journal of Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory 2025
paper - Cognitive LLMs: Toward Human-Like Artificial Intelligence by Integrating Cognitive Architectures and Large Language Models for Manufacturing Decision-making.
Siyu Wu, Alessandro Oltramari, Jonathan Francis, C. Lee Giles, Frank E. Ritter.
Journal of Neurosymbolic AI 2025
paper - LLM-ACTR: from Cognitive Models to LLMs in Manufacturing Solutions.
Siyu Wu, Alessandro Oltramari, Jonathan Francis, C. Lee Giles, Frank E. Ritter.
AAAI-MAKE 2025 Oral
paper | slides - Neurosymbolic Cognitive Methods for Enhancing Foundation Model-based Reasoning.
Kaushik Roy, Siyu Wu, Alessandro Oltramari.
Handbook on Neurosymbolic AI and Knowledge Graphs 2025
book chapter - VSM-ACT-R: Toward Using Cognitive Architecture For Manufacturing Solutions.
Siyu Wu, Alessandro Oltramari, Frank Ritter.
SBP-BRIMS 2024 Oral
🏆 Best student paper
paper | repo - Comparing LLMs for Prompt-Enhanced ACT-R and Soar Model Development: A Case Study in Cognitive Simulation
Siyu Wu, Rodrigo F. Souza, Frank Ritter, Walter Lima Jr.
AAAI Symposia 2023 Oral
paper | repo | slides - Long Road Ahead: Lessons Learned from the (soon to be) Longest Running Cognitive Model
Siyu Wu, Amir Bagherzadeh, Frank Ritter, Farnaz Tehranchi.
ICCM 2023 Oral
paper | repo | slides | simulation
Selected awards & fellowships
- Future Leader in Responsible Data Science & AI, UMichigan Institute for Data Science, 2024.
- Merit based scholarship, SBP‑BRiMS, Carnegie Mellon University, 2023 -2025.
- Robert Graham Endowed Fellowship for outstanding graduate students, PSU, 2023.
- Graduate Enhancement Award for academic excellence, Utah State University, 2022.
Work
- 2025 ML/AI intern at Bell labs, Nokia advised by Dan Kushnir.
- 2024 Neurosymbolic AI intern at Bosch Center for AI advised by Alessandro Oltramari, collaborated with Cory Henson, and Jonathan Francis .
performance review | slides - 2021 Instrutional Tech intern at Brex.
portfolio
Patents
-
System and Method for a Cognitive Architecture Utilized in Manufacturing.
Siyu Wu, and Alessandro Oltramari
Pending, Bosch LLC, 2024. -
HARP: Human-like Robot Adaptation through Remediation and Memory Driven Planning.
Dan Kushnir, and Siyu Wu
Unissued patent application , Bell labs, Nokia, 2025.
Selected talks
- A neurosymbolic rural primary care diagnostic recommender, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Oct 2026.
- HARP: Human‑like robot adaptation through remediation and memory driven planning, Statistics and Data Science Lab, Bell Labs Solutions Research, Aug 2025.
- From Cognitive Models to LLMs in Decision-making, 2025 Soar Workshop, Center for Integrated Cognition, UMichigan.
- 2024 Annual Ethical AI symposium, Michigan institute for data & AI in society, UMichigan.
Talk sketch| In proceedings - LLAMA-ACT-R, a Neuro-Symbolic Architecture (ACT-R) for LLM Decision Making, 2024 Soar Workshop, Center for Integrated Cognition, UMichigan.
slides
Teaching
I develop and teach a wide range of foundational and interdisciplinary AI courses. Please visit my faculty website at Penn State Harrisburg for the full list of my courses and teaching schedule.
- IST557 Data Mining, TA, Fall 2025 & Fall 2024, fundamental for MS and PhD in AI & DS tracks
- IST510 Computational Informatics, TA, Spring 2025, fundamental for Informatics PhD
(Last updated: Oct 2026)