I am fascinated by the capacity of collectives to achieve outcomes beyond the reach of isolated individuals. My research investigates the interplay between individual agency and collective dynamics, focusing on how incentives shape this relationship. I draw upon models from cognitive science and computational economics, analysing them through a complex systems framework that incorporates information theory, dynamical systems theory, game theory, and Bayesian inference.
Passionate about empowering individuals equitably and sustainably, I believe that democratizing information and technology, along with fostering local communities, will have the greatest impact toward this goal.
I have studies in robotics and mechatronics engineering, statistics and data science, complex systems, AI. I have experience in deep reinforcement learning and computer vision research. I’m a certified AWS Solutions Architect Associate with several years of industry experience in cloud infrastructure and 10 years of Python expertise in automation, data engineering, and machine learning.
News
| Jul 2026 | Participating in the 2026 Human-aligned AI Summer School (HAAISS) | Prague, CZ |
| Jun–Sep 2026 | PIBBSS Fellowship | London, UK |
| Jan 2026 | Attended a symposium on the Great Filter Hypothesis, and collaborated on a “Algorithmic bottlenecks in evolution” preprint with some participants | Heron Island, AU |
| May 2025 | Presented Active Inference x Game Theory work at AAMAS’25 | Detroit, US |
Selected Publications
Sweeney P, Ruiz-Serra J, Harré MS. Decision, Inference, and Information: Formal Equivalences Under Active Inference. Entropy, 2025. DOI:10.3390/e28010001
Ruiz-Serra J, Sweeney P, and Harré MS. Factorised Active Inference for Strategic Multi-Agent Interactions. AAMAS ’25, Detroit, US, May 2025. DOI:10.5555/3709347.3743815
Ruiz-Serra J, White J, Petrie S, Kameneva T, and McCarthy C. Learning scene representations for human-assistive displays using self-attention networks. ACM Trans. Multimedia Comput. Commun. Appl., 2024. DOI:10.1145/3650111
Ruiz-Serra J and Harré MS. Inverse Reinforcement Learning as the Algorithmic Basis for Theory of Mind: Current Methods and Open Problems. Algorithms, 2023 (Awarded “Editor’s Choice”). DOI:10.3390/a16020068
Ruiz-Serra J, White J, Petrie S, Kameneva T, and McCarthy C. Towards self-attention based visual navigation in the real world. ACRA ’22, Brisbane, AU, Dec 2022. arXiv:2209.07043
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Education
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Oct 2022 Present |
The University of Sydney PhD, Complex Systems and Artificial Intelligence |
Sydney, AU |
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Mar 2021 Nov 2022 |
MITx on edX MicroMasters, Statistics and Data Science |
Online |
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Feb 2016 Dec 2020 |
Swinburne University of Technology BEng (Hons) (4.00 GPA), Robotics and Mechatronics |
Melbourne, AU |
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Jun 2013 May 2014 |
CATC Design School DipDes, Graphic Design |
Melborune, AU |
Experience
PIBBSS, Principles of Intelligence (London, UK)
Research Fellow (Cooperative AI Foundation track), AI Safety, Complex Systems
Jun 2026 – Sep 2026
Vistra (Sydney, AU)
AI Engineer, Artificial Intelligence, LLMs, RAG, Azure
Mar 2025 – Sep 2025
The University of Sydney (Sydney, AU)
Teaching Assistant, Machine Learning, Complex Systems
Feb 2023 – Nov 2024
Swinburne University of Technology (Remote/Melbourne, AU)
Research Assistant, Deep Reinforcement Learning, Computer Vision
Sep 2020 – Jan 2024
National Australia Bank (Remote/Melbourne, AU)
Analyst, Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure (AWS)
Jan 2018 – Sep 2020
Youth Without Borders (Melbourne, AU)
State Staffing Manager, Spark Engineering Camp
Nov 2016 – Sep 2017
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