Akshil Patel

Welcome to my page! I’m Akshil, a Reinforcement Learning PhD candidate with a strong machine learning background. I’m based at the interdisciplinary UKRI ART-AI research centre at the University of Bath. I’m lucky to be supervised by Professor Özgür Şimşek and Dr. Iulia Cioroianu as a member of the Bath Reinforcement Learning Lab. My research focuses on bounded rationality, intrinsic motivation and skill hierarchies for sample efficiency in reinforcement learning. I enjoy learning about what guides human decision-making and how the brain represent knowledge.

I have experience teaching on computer science and maths units and supervising AI projects at the University of Bath. Before this, I also spent time as an Junior Data Scientist at Mango Solutions (now acquired by Ascent).

Beyond research, I’m into Kickboxing and ITF Taekwondo. I’ve been training for over six years and regularly compete and coach. I love games (video, card and board), and meeting new people that introduce me to new games!