Una-May O'Reilly is an American-Canadian computer scientist and leader of the Anyscale Learning For All (ALFA) group at the

MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is a research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) formed by the 2003 merger of the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) and the Artificial Intelligence Lab ...

Early life and education

O'Reilly earned her undergraduate degree at the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

. She was a graduate student at the

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

, where she studied computer science. During her doctorate O'Reilly worked as a graduate fellow at the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

. Her dissertation was one of the first to explore

genetic programming Genetic programming (GP) is an evolutionary algorithm, an artificial intelligence technique mimicking natural evolution, which operates on a population of programs. It applies the genetic operators selection (evolutionary algorithm), selection a ...

. She was awarded a Doctor of Law (honoris causa) degree from

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

, Canada, and addressed the graduating Computer Science class of 2024. She joined the

as a postdoctoral fellow in 1996.

Research and career

O'Reilly is a principal research scientist at the

, where she leads a team focusing on Artificial Adversarial Intelligence. The vision of her research group, Anyscale Learning For All (ALFA), is to computationally replicate Adversarial Intelligence. Her goal is to reveal new insights into the nature of Adversarial Intelligence and Adversarial Behavior, including questions like: How can it be used to strengthen defenses? How can it be used to anticipate what an adversary may do? How and why does it continue or cease? How does it lead to escalation? She consequently studies regulatory compliance, information security, and cyber security. Prior ALFA research topics include intelligent data analytics and the modelling of medical data. O'Reilly has designed computational models for a variety of different problems, including calculating the

financial risk Financial risk is any of various types of risk associated with financing, including financial transactions that include company loans in risk of default. Often it is understood to include only downside risk, meaning the potential for financi ...

of renewable energy investments and creating a flavor algorithm that replaces taste testers. O'Reilly has developed statistical models to inform the design of renewable energy systems, including predicting wind speed. In 2013 she was awarded the EvoStar award for Outstanding Contribution to Evolutionary Computation in Europe. O'Reilly has received other various awards and honours for her work in

, including being elected to multiple terms serving on the executive board of the ACM Special Interest Group on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, SIGevoSIGevo
/ref> (formerly International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation).

Select publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OReilly, Una-May Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Massachusetts Institute of Technology people MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory people Carleton University alumni University of Calgary alumni American women computer scientists American computer scientists 21st-century American women