Aida Afshar

Aida Afshar

PhD Student

Boston University

About Me

I’m a PhD student at Boston University, where I’m fortunate to work with Aldo Pacchiano. My primary research interests are Reinforcement Learning and Statistical Foundations of Continual Learning.

Previously, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science from Sharif University of Technology. During my undergrad, I spent two summers at TU Wien and Aalto University as a research intern.

Interests
  • Sequential Decision Making
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Continual Learning
Education

  • Ph.D. in Data Science, 2023-Present

    Boston University, MA, USA

  • B.Sc. in Mathematics, 2018-2023

    Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

News

[December 2025] Presented our Neurips workshop paper in San Diego!
[November 2025] I passed my PhD Qualifying exam!

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Boston University
PhD Researcher
Boston University
September 2023 – Present Boston, MA
 
 
 
 
 
Aalto University
Research Intern
Aalto University
August 2023 – September 2023 Espoo, Finland
 
 
 
 
 
TU Wien
Research Intern
TU Wien
January 2022 – December 2022 Vienna, Austria
 
 
 
 
 
Sharif University of Technology
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Sharif University of Technology
July 2021 – October 2022 Tehran, Iran

Selected Papers

Improved Training Mechanism for Reinforcement Learning via Online Model Selection
PDF Code
Improved Training Mechanism for Reinforcement Learning via Online Model Selection
Learning Rate-Free Reinforcement Learning: A Case for Model Selection with Non-Stationary Objectives
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Learning Rate-Free Reinforcement Learning: A Case for Model Selection with Non-Stationary Objectives
DeLF: Designing Learning Environments with Foundation Models
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DeLF: Designing Learning Environments with Foundation Models
A Reinforcement Learning Approach to Lightning Network Fee Policy
PDF Code
A Reinforcement Learning Approach to Lightning Network Fee Policy

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