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I am a PhD candidate at The Pennsylvania State University, College of Information Sciences and Technology, advised by Frank Ritter.

I am interested in understanding how the mind works. During my Ph.D., I study computational human cognition and its integration with AI agents and systems.

Prior to my Ph.D., I earned my M.Sc. in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences from Utah State University, where I studied computer based modeling & connected learning with Hillary Swanson, Uri Wilensky, and Bruce Sherin.

Recent news

April 2026: Invited as a reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics, and Frontiers in Computer Science.

March 2026: Selected as a sponsored participant in the Human-Computer Interaction Consortium (HCIC) by the College of IST.

Jan 2026: Invited as a reviewer for NeSy 2026.

Patents

• System and Method for a Cognitive Architecture Utilized in Manufacturing.
  Siyu Wu, and Alessandro Oltramari
  Pending, Bosch LLC, 2025.
  

• HARP: Human-like Robot Adaptation through Remediation and Memory Driven Planning.
  Dan Kushnir, and Siyu Wu
  Submitted for patenting review, Bell labs, Nokia, 2025.

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
  

Selected talks

• 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
  

Grants

• Cognitive Multi‑Agent Decision Support: Investigating users’ understanding of decision support in the context of neurosymbolic integration using cognitive architectures, Co-PI, Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) seed grant, PSU.

Teaching

• 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: Apr 2026)