Who are you and what do you do? With whom are you collaborating (industry partner)?
I am Kai Cui, a 5th year PhD student at the Self-Organizing Systems Lab under the supervision of Professor Heinz Koeppl at the Technical University of Darmstadt. My research focuses on multi-agent reinforcement learning, Mean Field Games (MFG) and their applications. Before my PhD, I graduated from the Technical University of Darmstadt with a Master of Science in Computer Science, as well as Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. My industry partner is Huawei Technologies Düsseldorf GmbH.
Since when are You a participant at Software Campus and what do you expect from Software Campus?
I joined Software Campus at the beginning of 2024, one of the main expectations of Software Campus is that I will gain influential experience as a project manager for my own research projects, since the program ideally allows me to build my own team at the university. As a PhD student, I personally believe that this is an experience that would otherwise be difficult to combine with my own work. I think that Software Campus is an excellent opportunity to think outside of the box. Additionally, I would like to improve my soft skills and leadership skills through different training at the Software Campus, which also gives me an insight into their industry partners.
What is your IT-Project about – core topic – and how could it be used in the long run?
Within the scope of Software Campus, we are currently working on methods of multi-agent reinforcement learning based on mean-field games for solving large-scale route planning problems in the context of operations research. Briefly, this is an approach that assumes an infinite number of agents, and in terms of statistical physics, it only requires modeling the statistics of the agents. This helps to rigorously control large numbers of agents – and their microscopic performance – through macroscopic reinforcement learning. Future applications can be found, for example, in the optimization of delivery services or autonomous vehicle fleet.
What exactly was your personal reason to pursue a career in computer science?
Personally, I was always fascinated by the increasing and large-scale automation or optimization processes. That’s why it was the best decision I have made—to study and do my PhD. at the Technical University of Darmstadt in the interdisciplinary field of electrical engineering, information technology, and computer science.
Which ‘specific’ character traits are fundamental for a top management in the field of computer science?
In my opinion, the key qualities of top management depend on the specific situation. Some important general traits, in my opinion, are a solid understanding of the team’s roles for efficient organization, as well as flexibility and a keen understanding of when to assign or delegate individual responsibilities to team members.
Source language of this interview: German
