Ruben de Boer

MSc Artificial Intelligence student, Utrecht University

Hi, I'm Ruben — I build AI systems that hold up outside the benchmark.

I'm a Master's student in Artificial Intelligence at Utrecht University, researching federated learning over heterogeneous streaming data. Alongside that I build LLM agents, RAG systems, and practical software — and spend a lot of time teaching other people how to do the same.

whoami.py

status = "MSc AI, Utrecht University"

thesis = "federated learning, streaming data"

focus = ["LLM agents", "RAG", "reliable AI"]

teaching = 200 # hours, 8+ courses

What I care about

Research interests & focus areas

Federated & streaming learning

Training under non-IID, partially labelled, constantly-arriving data — the focus of my thesis.

AI agents & multi-agent systems

LLM-driven agents that reason over structured knowledge and act reliably, not just fluently.

Neuro-symbolic AI

Combining symbolic reasoning (ontologies, logic) with neural generation for consistency.

Reliable & responsible AI

Evaluating language models honestly, and building systems that fail predictably.

Edge & distributed ML

Machine learning that has to operate under real constraints, not ideal benchmark conditions.

Teaching & mentoring

200+ hours as a TA across 8+ CS courses — I like explaining hard things clearly.

Working on something interesting?

I'm looking for a part-time role (14–20 hrs/week) in AI or software engineering alongside my Master's — or just enjoy talking about federated learning, agents, and reliable AI systems.