Kale-ab Tessera

I am a PhD candidate in the Autonomous Agents research group at the University of Edinburgh, supervised by Dr. Stefano Albrecht and Dr. Aris Filos-Ratsikas. My work focuses on making Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) algorithms more robust and reliable for real-world collaboration.

Before starting my PhD, I gained 4.5 years of experience in machine learning, including 2.5 years as a research engineer at InstaDeep. Prior to that, I worked for 3 years as a software engineer. I am also passionate about supporting impactful technology projects in Africa and promoting diversity within the machine learning community.

For more information, you can view my resumé.

news

Aug, 2025	📅 Co-Programme Chair for the DLI and Head of Practicals and Tutorials.
Aug, 2024	🗣️ Taught “Introduction to ML” at DLI.
Jul, 2024	🏅 Awarded a scholarship to attend the CIFAR Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning (DLRL) Summer School in Toronto, Canada.
Jan, 2024	🗣️ Begin co-hosting the UOE RL reading group, YouTube.
Sep, 2023	🎓 Started my PhD at the University of Edinburgh (UOE), with the Autonomous Agents Group, through the Informatics Global PhD Scholarship.
Aug, 2023	🛠️ PC member and Practicals Chair of DLI - notebooks 2023, RL Prac.
May, 2023	🗣️ Talk on “Introduction to Deep Reinforcement Learning” at the University of Pretoria and Indaba X Ghana.
Apr, 2023	🌟 Attended ICLR.
Aug, 2022	🛠️ Co-Organiser of the ML Efficiency Workshop at the DLI.
Aug, 2022	🛠️ Programme committee member and Practicals Chair of Deep Learning Indaba (DLI) – notebooks 2022, ML Prac, RL Prac.
Jun, 2022	🗣️ Taught an “Introduction to Machine Learning” course at Africa to Silicon Valley.
Mar, 2021	🤖 Joined the Multi-Agent RL research team at InstaDeep.
Dec, 2019	🌟 Attended NeurIPS.
Aug, 2019	🏆 Won Best Poster (1 out of 194) at the Deep Learning Indaba, sponsored by Microsoft.