Valentin Lacombe

Hi, I am Valentin

Valentin

AI Research Engineer at INRIA

AI Research Engineer at INRIA specializing in Large Language Models (LLMs), reinforcement learning, and causal reasoning. Building on a background in applied mathematics, I co-develop open-source procedural data generation tools and supervise undergraduate research projects. Highly motivated to leverage this expertise for a PhD position focused on Agentic AI and Kantian evolutionary game theory.

Mathematics
Research
Programming
Problem Solving
Agriculture
Sports
French (Native)
English (Advanced)
Italian (Intermediate)

Skills

Experience

1
INRIA

Jan 2025 - Present

Lille, France

Research Engineer

Jan 2025 - Present

Responsibilities:
  • Open-Source Development: Co-author and primary developer of reasoning_core, an open-source library that generates synthetic procedural data for LLM training purposes (SFT + RLVR).
  • Causal Reasoning: Implemented structural causal models within reasoning_core — observational, interventional, and counterfactual queries based on Judea Pearl’s Ladder of Causation.
  • Academic Supervision: Supervised third-year (L3) Informatics students for their projets de stage, managing project launches, defining technical scopes, and providing ongoing methodological guidance.

Lycée Louis Pasteur

Jan 2024 - Jul 2024

Le Blanc, France

Physics and Mathematics Teacher

Jan 2024 - Jul 2024

Responsibilities:
  • Full-time replacement teacher, teaching mathematics and physics to high school students.
  • Prepared students for the French Baccalauréat.
2

3

Milano, Italy

Research Intern — Master Thesis

2022 - 2023

Responsibilities:
  • Thesis titled ‘Kantian Evolutionary Game Theory’, in collaboration with my Game Theory professor, which led to a published paper.
Research Intern — Hospital Projects

2022 - 2023

Responsibilities:
  • Computer Vision applied to pulmonary disease detection.
  • Categorization and evaluation of different therapies for heart failure.
  • Developed a report on the evolution of tobacco consumption in OECD countries using non-parametric statistical methods.

LORIA Laboratory

2019 - 2020

Nancy, France

Research Intern

2019 - 2020

Responsibilities:
  • Internship with two computer science researchers, involving the optimization of a cryptographic protocol verification algorithm.
4

5

Nancy, France

Research Intern

2020 - 2020

Responsibilities:
  • Research on stochastic processes with a specialist in the field.

Education

M.Sc. in Statistical Learning
Mention: 105/110 out of 110
Taken Courses:
  • Statistics/Probability (Applied, Bayesian, Non-Parametric, Stochastic Processes/Calculus)
  • Deep Learning (Computer Vision, NLP, Reinforcement Learning)
  • Software Engineering (C++, Python)
  • Machine Learning
  • Game Theory
  • Economics and Climate Change Simulation
French graduate school of Engineering
Mention: 3.6/4 out of 4
Taken Courses:
  • Advance Mathematics
  • Advance Physics
  • Computer Science
  • Quantitative Finance
  • Economics
  • Management and Accounting
Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles (Mathematics and Physics track)

Projects

reasoning_core
Co-author & Lead Developer 2025 - Present

An open-source Python library for generating synthetic procedural data for LLM training (SFT + RLVR). Implements structural causal models supporting observational, interventional, and counterfactual queries based on Judea Pearl’s Ladder of Causation.

Reasoning Core — Interactive Demo
Author 2025 - Present

A live Streamlit playground for reasoning_core: pick one of its 40 procedural task families (logic, sets, graphs, code execution, planning…), choose a difficulty level, then try to solve the generated problem yourself and get scored instantly. Source on GitHub.

Gaec des Viennières — Farm Direct Sales
Author 2025 - Present

A production site for a working farm selling direct to its customers: product catalogue, pre-orders with a choice of collection point and day, stock and order management, customer ↔ farm messaging, printable picking sheets and sales statistics. Card payment handled through Stripe. Built with Node/Express, EJS and SQLite, and self-hosted on my own VPS behind Caddy.

Culturoscope — Cultural Events Platform
Author 2026 - Present

A classifieds-style platform for cultural events — concerts, exhibitions, workshops, theatre — built around three access levels: members browse, favourite and book; organisers publish and manage their own events once vetted; admins verify organisers and moderate. The same events are browsable as a card grid or on a split-screen map, where the list on the left always shows exactly what is visible on the map on the right. Addresses are geocoded once through France’s Base Adresse Nationale, and the map is drawn with Leaflet over OpenStreetMap. Node/Express, EJS and SQLite, installable as a PWA and backed by a JSON API meant for a future Android app. Self-hosted on my VPS behind Caddy. Live demo — all events shown are fictional.

Kantian Dynamics — Interactive Dashboard
Author2026

An interactive companion to my paper with Gianni Arioli on Kantian evolutionary game theory. Explore the prisoner’s dilemma, hawk–dove, stag hunt, and cow–stag–hare games through editable payoff matrices, morality parameters, population trajectories, and basins of attraction. Available in English and French.

Kantian Evolutionary Game Theory
Researcher 2022 - 2023

Master thesis exploring the integration of Kant’s categorical imperative into evolutionary game theory. Developed a population dynamics model combining selfish gain with moral cooperation. Led to a published paper in the International Game Theory Review.

Medical AI Research — Lombardy Hospitals
Researcher 2022 - 2023

Three research projects conducted at Politecnico di Milano: Computer Vision for pulmonary disease detection, categorization of heart failure therapies, and a non-parametric statistical study on tobacco consumption trends across OECD countries.

Publications

Kant’s categorical imperative states: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” Game Theory has recently borrowed this idea from moral philosophy to introduce a new driver in strategic decisions — a motivation that adds cooperation to selfish reasoning. This paper presents a model describing the dynamics of a population whose strategies evolve not only from selfish gain, as in the replicator dynamics, but also from a moral inclination toward cooperation. We apply our model to well-known game-theoretic problems.

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