Arshia Rafieioskouei

Hi! I’m Arshia Rafieioskouei, a second-year PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University, working under the supervision of Dr. Borzoo Bonakdarpour in the TART Lab. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.

My research focuses on specification-based reinforcement learning, where I use logical specifications (such as temporal-logic formulas) to guide agents so that their learned policies satisfy high-level objectives and strict safety constraints. By encoding desired behaviors and forbidden scenarios as logical formulas, I can shape learning, constrain exploration, and verify that the resulting policies are safe and reliable in complex, real-world environments. In parallel, I work on causality, formalizing causal reasoning in temporal logic and translating it into a Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) problem. This enables scalable causality analysis in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) to uncover causal relationships between events and understand why failures occur. I am also working on optimizing these techniques for better efficiency and exploring applications in medicine, nanoscience, and beyond.

Additionally, I’m actively seeking internships in fields such as RL, Safe Planning, Formal Methods, and CPS. You can learn more about my work and experience on my website or through my CV.

“The appearance of a cause always conveys the mind, by a customary transition, to the idea of the effect.”

– David Hume