Mark A. O'Neill (born 3 November 1959) is an English

computational biologist Computational biology refers to the use of techniques in computer science, data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and d ...

with interests in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological system ...

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components that may interact with one another. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...

and

image analysis Image analysis or imagery analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images; mainly from digital images by means of digital image processing techniques. Image analysis tasks can be as simple as reading barcode, bar coded tags or a ...

. He is the creator and lead programmer on a number of computational projects including the Digital Automated Identification SYstem (DAISY) for

automated species identification Automated species identification is a method of making the expertise of taxonomists available to ecologists, parataxonomists and others via digital technology and artificial intelligence. Today, most automated identification systems rely on imag ...

and PUPS P3, an

organic computing Organic computing is computing that behaves and interacts with humans in an organic (model), organic manner. The term "organic" is used to describe the system's behavior, and does not imply that they are constructed from Organic matter, organic ma ...

environment for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

Education

O'Neill was educated at

The King's School, Grantham The King's School is an 11–18 boys grammar school with Academy (English school), academy status, in the market town of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The school's history can be traced to 1329, and was re-endowed by Richard Foxe in 1528. Lo ...

Sheffield University The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Firth College in 1879 ...

and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Research interests

O'Neill's interests lie at the interface of biology and computing. He has worked in the areas of

artificial life Artificial life (ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline ...

and

biologically inspired computing Bio-inspired computing, short for biologically inspired computing, is a field of study which seeks to solve computer science problems using models of biology. It relates to connectionism, social behavior, and emergence. Within computer science, b ...

. In particular, he has attempted to answer the question "can one create

software agents In computer science, a software agent is a computer program that acts for a user or another program in a relationship of agency. The term ''agent'' is derived from the Latin ''agere'' (to do): an agreement to act on one's behalf. Such "action on ...

which are capable of carrying a useful computational payload which respond to their environment with the flexibility of a living

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

?" He has also investigated how computational methods may be used to analyze biological and quasi biological systems for example:

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s and

economies An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with ...

. O'Neill is also interested in

ethology Ethology is a branch of zoology that studies the behavior, behaviour of non-human animals. It has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithology, ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th cen ...

, especially the emergent social ecosystems which occur as a result of

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

on the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. His recent projects include the use of artificial intelligence techniques to look at complex socio-economic data. On the computer science front, O'Neill continues to develop and contribute to a number of other

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

and commercial software projects and is involved in the design of cluster/parallel computer hardware via his company
Tumbling Dice Ltd
Long-running projects include DAISY; PUPS P3 an organic computing environment for Linux;

Cryopid Checkpointing is a technique that provides fault tolerance for computing systems. It involves saving a snapshot of an application's state, so that it can restart from that point in case of failure. This is particularly important for long-running a ...

, a Linux process freezer; th
[Mensor digital terrain model generation system]
and RanaVision, a vision based motion detection system. He has also worked with public domain agent based social interaction models such as

Sugarscape Sugarscape is a model for artificially intelligent agent-based social simulation following some or all rules presented by Joshua M. Epstein & Robert Axtell in their book ''Growing Artificial Societies''. Origin Fundaments of Sugarscape models c ...

and artificial life simulators, for example physis, which is a development of Tierra. O'Neill has been a keen naturalist since childhood. In addition to his interests in complex systems and computer science, he is a member of the

Royal Entomological Society The Royal Entomological Society is a learned society devoted to the study of insects. It aims to disseminate information about insects and to improve communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological S ...

and an expert in the rearing and ecology of

hawk moth The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as hornworms. It includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but species ar ...

s. He is also currently convenor of th
[Electronic and Computing Technology Special Interest Group]
(SIG) for the Royal Entomological Society. He is also interested in the use of

precision agriculture Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that gathers, processes and analyzes temporal, spatial and individual plant and animal data and combines it with other information to support management decisions according to estimated varia ...

methodologies to monitor agri-

ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

, and has been an active participant in a series of projects looking at the automatic tracking of

bumblebees A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

, and other insects using vision, and using both

network analysis Network analysis can refer to: * Network theory, the analysis of relations through mathematical graphs ** Social network analysis, network theory applied to social relations * Network analysis (electrical circuits) See also *Network planning and d ...

and

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

techniques to monitor ecosystem health. Latterly, he has become interested in applying these techniques in the commercial sphere to look at issues of

corporate responsibility Corporate responsibility is a term which has come to characterize a family of professional disciplines intended to help a corporation stay competitive by maintaining accountability to its four main stakeholder groups: customers, employees, shareh ...

and

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

in industries like mining and agriculture which have significant ecological footprints. He has also been involved in both

computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematics, computer science, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand th ...

and

, the former association resulting in many papers while working at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. Work in the latter area led to the successful flotation in 2007 of a systems biology company, e-Therapeutics, where O'Neill was a senior scientist, assisted with the establishment of the company, and was named in a number of seminal

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s. O'Neill is a fellow of the

British Computer Society image:Maurice Vincent Wilkes 1980 (3).jpg, Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957. The British Computer Society (BCS), branded BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, since 2009, is a professional body and a learned ...

, the

Institute of Engineering and Technology Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow (IET, Lucknow) is a state government-funded technical institute in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is a constituent college of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University (erstwhile Utta ...

, and the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

. He is also a

chartered engineer Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thr ...

, a

chartered IT professional Chartered IT Professional (in full, Chartered Information Technology Professional) denoted by CITP is a professional qualification awarded under Royal Charter to IT professionals who satisfy strict criteria set by the British Computer Society (B ...

and a member of the

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and inco ...

. He was one of the recipients of the ''BCS Award for Computing Technology'' in 1992.

Publications

* *

References

External links

Tumbling Dice

e-Therapeutics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Mark A. 20th-century British biologists 21st-century British biologists British artificial intelligence researchers English computer scientists Systems biologists Computational biologists Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society Fellows of the British Computer Society Living people 1959 births People educated at The King's School, Grantham