Hi there citizen of the Internet! My name is Esra’a, pleasure to meet you!

I am a Computer Science PhD Researcher / Student at Mila and the University of Montreal working with Dr. Glen Berseth and Dr. Aaron Courville. Prior to that, I completed my Computer Science Masters with Dr. Michael Bowling at the University of Alberta, AMII and the RLAI Lab.

My interests are broadly in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. I like adopting problems in Representation Learning and Reinforcement Learning. I’m fairly obsessed with figuring out how agents can build world models in order to learn and adapt quickly. Within a sequential decision making setting, I am currently experimenting with ideas in, model-based RL, generalization, incorporating inductive priors, planning, and long-term decision making.

Outside of my direct research activities, I love mentoring aspiring Computer Scientists, downhill skiing, tinkering with electronics, and creative writing! I also strongly believe in the principles of open science in all aspects from open collaboration to open data. I currently serve as a Cohere For AI open science community lead to further this cause.

I enjoy talking with new people and learning from their life experiences, so feel free to reach out. Here’s a dedicated form for scheduling research or career chats. If I’m slow to get to your request sometimes, I hope you would forgive me. I usually get to most requests eventually and I’m deeply committed to being as open to conversation as possible.