I am a neurosymbolic AI researcher specializing in cognitive architectures and expert systems, integrating symbolic reasoning with neural models to develop accurate, explainable, and adaptive cyber-physical AI systems. My research focuses on human-centered AI for decision-making, analytics, and intelligent operations, with applications in 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 - Invited as a reviewer for Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
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)