Zachary Serlin

Zachary Serlin is a researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory specializing in formal methods for control, reinforcement learning, and autonomous systems.1 He obtained his PhD from Boston University, focusing on distributed formal methods and sensing for autonomous systems.1

Serlin's research interests include:

1. Multi-agent systems
2. Robotics
3. Formal methods
4. Machine learning
5. Computer vision1

Prior to his PhD, Serlin earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Tufts University in thermal fluid transport.2 His doctoral work, supervised by Calin Belta and Roberto Tron, explored distributed formal methods for large teams of systems operating under temporal logic constraints.2

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Serlin works in an autonomy group within the air, missile, and maritime defense mission area.2 His current research focuses on:

1. Verifying safe control for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
2. Developing strategies for autonomous systems in adversarial environments
3. Combining formal methods with reinforcement learning
4. Zero-shot task composition for reinforcement learning policies2

Serlin's approach to neuro-symbolic AI involves influencing neural networks and reinforcement learning policies indirectly by modifying reward encodings and environmental parameters.2 His work has applications in defense, aviation safety, and human-robot interaction scenarios.2