cv
Basics
| Name | Matteo Merler |
| Label | Research Scientist |
| mmerler@fbk.eu | |
| Phone | +39 342 3646961 |
| Url | https://merlerm.github.io/ |
| Summary | I am a pre-doctoral researcher at FBK NLP in Trento, Italy, with an MSc in Machine Learning, Data Science, and AI from Aalto University in Helsinki. My research focuses on bridging large-scale models (such as LLMs and VLMs) with methods like Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Symbolic Planning (SP). I aim to explore how RL's ability to learn from experience can complement the strengths of LLMs, which currently lack this capacity. I'm particularly interested in model-based RL and world models, investigating how large-scale models can be trained to plan ahead and imagine future states, helping them to adapt to complex reasoning and long-horizon planning beyond pattern matching. |
Work
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2025.01 - Present Trento, Italy
Researcher
Fondazione Bruno Kessler
Working as a pre-doctoral researcher ("Researcher 4 contract") in the Natural Language Processing Lab under the supervision of Bernardo Magnini.
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2024.08 - 2024.09 Helsinki, Finland
Research Assistant
Aalto University
MSc Thesis worker in the Foundation Models for Language and Reinforcement Learning (Larel) group, supervised by Prof. Pekka Marttinen.
- Published two papers, of which one in NeurIPS 2024.
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2022.02 - 2022.06 Trento, Italy
Internship
ThinkIN
Worked as a software developer intern in collaboration with the University of Trento.
- Designed and built a prototype for an indoor navigation system specifically targeted for supermarkets, to be used with the company's own location tracking system.
Education
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2022.09 - 2024.09 Helsinki, Finland
Master of Science
Aalto University
Machine Learning, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Final Score: 5/5, graduated with honors
- Thesis: Generating Code World Models with Large Language Models Guided by Monte Carlo Tree Search, supervised by Prof. Pekka Marttinen.
- Thesis awarded as one of the three best MSc theses of 2024 at the School of Science.
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2019.09 - 2022.07 Trento, Italy
Bachelor of Science
University of Trento
Computer Science
Final Score: 110 cum laude/110
- Thesis: Route Optimization for Indoor Spaces, supervised by Prof. Alberto Montresor (in Italian).
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2014.09 - 2019.07 Trento, Italy
Awards
- 2025.03.05
Master's Thesis Award
Aalto University School of Science
My Master's thesis was awarded as one of the three best MSc theses of 2024 at the School of Science.
Publications
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2024.12.13 Generating Code World Models with Large Language Models Guided by Monte Carlo Tree Search
Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 37
We investigate the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for generating world models for Reinforcement Learning. Our approach uses the LLM to generate a Python program that acts as a simulator for the environment, using a novel code generation strategy we call GIF-MCTS
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2024.08.01 In-Context Symbolic Regression: Leveraging Large Language Models for Function Discovery
The 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 4: Student Research Workshop)
We propose a novel approach to Symbolic Regression that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to propose candidate functions that are iteratively scored and refined using the LLM itself.