Reinforcement Learning Graduate Researcher (Summer 25)
Are you a motivated graduate-level researcher eager to shape the future of AI and robotics? Onki, an ambitious very early-stage startup led by former big-tech senior innovators, is seeking a talented research intern to join us in defining the future of human-robot/AI interaction with the application of reinforcement learning, contributing to the development of hardware and software that understands people in public spaces through audio, video, and on-screen interactions, enabling the dynamic delivery of highly personalized service.
What You’ll Gain
- Skill Development: Work with experienced product managers and software developers to push the boundaries of real-world applied AI and gain practical expertise.
- Solve Hard Problems: Bridge cutting-edge RL with the messy reality of human behavior.
- Put Your Research into the Wild: Deploy your RL models in live retail environments, gather real-world data, and refine your algorithms based on real customer interaction data.
- Build a Moonshot: Contribute to cutting-edge AI design to transform in-person shopping into more engaging and productive experiences.
- Mentorship from Experts: Collaborate with seasoned leaders from top tech companies and unicorn startups, learn and experience the practice of top tech companies
- Career Boost: Make an impressive achievement by contributing to the design of our AI first interactive platform and gain a competitive edge for a tech career
- Networking & Recommendations: earn referrals and access to a robust professional network, including leaders at Amazon, Microsoft, Google and more.
This internship is unpaid. For exceptional candidates with proven expertise and significant contributions, we are happy to discuss equity compensation.
In addition to this internship position, Onki is also recruiting for additional internship roles in software development, UX/UI, Cognitive/Behavioral Science, Computational Linguistics/Psychology, Mechanical Design, Electrical Engineering, Financial, Venture Capital and Fundraising, Marketing & Market Research, Customer Experience, OR/Decision Science and Data Science. Please see details and application on our website.
Note: the robotic carrier video on our public website is an earlier product direction we explored in 2023. We moved into a more AI-centric direction last spring. With a combination of highly sophisticated software and hardware, we are developing a groundbreaking AI platform for interactions in public spaces. We'll share more details during the interview process.
Key Responsibilities
- Design an HMI-aware RL framework that optimizes for business objectives, customer satisfaction, and ethical considerations
- Develop reward functions balancing business metrics and user experience
- Prototype multi-modal RL policies: voice + touchscreen + vision for seamless, real-time customer understanding and interactions.
- Collaborate with UX designers and software developers in implementation, testing, and optimization
Qualifications
- Recently completed or currently pursuing a graduate degree in data science, computational psychology, computer science, decision science, cognitive science, or a related field with a research focus in RL.
- Proven RL Expertise: Hands-on experience deploying RL systems in real-world settings (industry, research labs, or applied projects).
- HMI Fluency: Understanding of how RL intersects with human behavior (e.g., exploration-exploitation tradeoffs, ethical guardrails, user trust).
- Technical Mastery: Python, data pipelines, RLlib. Experience with noisy, sparse, or imbalanced datasets.
- Business Acumen: Ability to translate algorithmic performance into measurable outcomes
- Passion: for retail tech, AI, and customer experience innovation.
Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with conversational AI, recommendation systems, or adaptive interfaces.
- Experience in computer vision or AR/VR applications.
- Understanding of retail segment.
Program Details
- Flexible Schedule: A minimum of 300 hours of commitment over 8 to 12 weeks
- Locations: NYC, Seattle, or Remote.
Our rigorous selection process ensures a high-quality experience. Current and past interns include students from Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, Duke, UC Berkeley NYU, University of Michigan, and more.
As part of the application, please attach a Word document with a response to the following questions on a single page (<300 words total).
- Describe your long-term career objective.
- What do you expect to gain from this internship?
- What’s your most relevant previous experience?
- What makes you stand out from the hundred+ applicants we are expecting? why should we work with you?
- What's your GRE score? and what's your overall undergrad GPA?
- Github, and link to your published research, etc. that may help us understand your expertise.
- Your preferred start date, duration, and weekly hour commitment.
- Please state that you understand the internship is unpaid.
The Word file should be named as firstname_lastname_application.doc. Applications without response to the above questions will be automatically rejected. Please do not submit anything other than your resume and the Word response file requested. We welcome applications from all graduate students and recent alums (including international students). We encourage early submission as applications will be considered on a rolling basis.