Ruiqi He

ruiqi.he@outlook.com

PhD reseacher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany.

My research lies in the intersection between machine learning and cognitive science, where I design and conduct online experiments and apply machine learning frameworks to model and understand the underlying mechanism behind metacognitive learning in the context of planning.

My research interest include cognitive modelling, reinforcement learning, multi-agent systems and game theory.

Apart from doing research, I enjoy most of my time travelling and cooking.

Awards and Funding

  • AAAI-24 Scholarship & Volunteering Award 1.500$
  • MPI-IS Grassroot 2025 14.000€

Publications

  • Experience-driven discovery of planning strategies. He, R., & Lieder, F. (2025). In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 47, No. 47).
  • Individual differences in the cognitive mechanisms of planning strategy discovery. He, R., & Lieder, F. (2025). In The Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making.
  • Structurally Guided Task Decomposition in Spatial Navigation Tasks (Student Abstract). He, R., Correa, C. G., Griffiths, T. L., & Ho, M. K. (2023). Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
  • What are the mechanisms underlying metacognitive learning in the context of planning?. He, R., & Lieder, F. (2023). In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 45, No. 45).
  • Learning planning strategies without feedback. Srinivas, S. C., He, R., & Lieder, F. (2023). In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 45, No. 45).
  • A computational process-tracing method for measuring people’s planning strategies and how they change over time. Jain, Y. R., Callaway, F., Griffiths, T. L., Dayan, P., He, R., Krueger, P. M., & Lieder, F. (2023). Behavior Research Methods, 55(4), 2037-2079.
  • Have I done enough planning or should I plan more?. He, R., Jain, Y. R., & Lieder, F. (2022). Workshop on Metacognition in the Age of AI. Thirty-fifth Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
  • Measuring and modelling how people learn how to plan and how people adapt their planning strategies the to structure of the environment. He, R., Jain, Y. R., & Lieder, F. (2021). In International conference on cognitive modeling (ICCM).

Research Experience

PhD Researcher

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

Modelling human learning behaviour in the context of planning by implementing novel machine learning algorithms using metacognitive reinforcement learning and providing insights into the human mind through Bayesian model inference

January 2021 - Present

Visiting Researcher

University College Los Angeles (UCLA)

Visiting my academic supervisor to continue my Ph.D. research.

October 2023 - November 2023

Visiting Researcher

New York University (NYU)
Structurally guided task decomposition in spatial navigation tasks

Collaborating with Dr. Mark Ho and Carlos Correa to research how people learn to decompose planning tasks and choose subgoals using the options framework (hierarchical reinforcement learning)

April 2023 - May 2023

Education

Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

Ph.D. Computer Science
Metacognitive reinforcement learning: a theory of how people learn how to plan
Main supervisor: Dr. Falk Lieder
Co-supervisors: Dr. Charley M. Wu, Prof. Dr. Peter Dayan
January 2023 - present

University College London (UCL)

Master of Science
Computational Statistics and Machine Learning

Grade: First

September 2018 - September 2019

University College London (UCL)

Bachelor of Science

Grade: Upper second with honours

September 2012 - June 20215

Entrepreneurial and Industry Experience

Founder

GZChilli

Founded GZChilli, a company specializing in artisan chilli spices and innovative chilli-based snacks, inspired by traditional recipes from Guizhou, China. Leading all aspects of the business, from product curation and branding to sales and marketing, with a focus on expanding our presence in the gourmet food industry.

Webshop: https://gzchilli.store, Instagram: @GZChilli

July 2024 - present

Data Science Project Manager

Breuninger

Ownership own an omnichannel fashion recommendations product with over 11 million monthly users, driving a 12\% increase in conversion rate, a 29\% uplift in orders, and a 69\% increase in order value, while identifying business opportunities, defining product vision and roadmaps, and coordinating with stakeholders and service providers to deliver innovative digital solutions.

October 2020 - present

Senior Consultant / Data Scientist

Ernst & Young

Led the development of data science products for tax forecasting and identification of permanent establishments, managed a team of developers, facilitated cross-functional collaboration, and advised customers on technology transformation strategies.

March 2016 - November 2019