ALFA Staff

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Una-May O’Reilly

Founder, Principal Investigator

Email: unamay@csail.mit.edu

  • Doctor of Laws (honoris causa), Dalhouse University, 2024
  • PhD, Carleton University, 1995
  • Scientific Awards from ACM SIGEVO (2005/2023) and EVO-STAR - SPECIES (2010)

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Erik Hemberg

Research Scientist

Email: hembergerik@csail.mit.edu

  • M.Sc, Chalmers University of Technology, 2003
  • PhD, University College Dublin, 2010


Amanda Abrams

Administrative Assistant II

Graduate Students

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Steven Jorgensen

PhD Student, started Sept 2023

Research Area(s):

  • Evolutionary Computation
  • Open-Ended Evolution


Eric Liu

S.M. Student, started Sept 2024

Research Area(s):

  • Cyber Agents


Ambroise Borbely

Visiting Masters Student, EPFL

Research Area(s):

  • Highly Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms
  • Open-Ended Evolution

Undergraduates


Supriya Lall

UROP Student


Cristián Colón

UROP Student


Lucille Fuller

UROP Student

Active Collaborators

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Dr. Per Kristian Lehre

Research Collaborator

University of Brimingham, UK

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Dr. Jamal Toutouh

Research Collaborator

University of Malaga, Spain

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Andrea Vignali

Research Collaborator

University of Naples Federico II, Naples Italy

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Giancarlo Sperlì

Research Collaborator

University of Naples Federico II, Naples Italy

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Simon Romano

Research Collaborator

University of Naples Federico II, Naples Italy

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Dr. Yair Allouche

Research Collaborator

IBM Research


Matan Levi

Research Collaborator

IBM Research


Joy Bhattacharya

Research Collaborator


Finn Westenfelder

Research Collaborator

Past Visitors and Collaborators

Full List
    Dr. Mario Hevia Fajardo, University of Brimingham, UK
    Dr. Masataro Asai, IBM AI Lab
    Sofia Ocampo Quinche, Andres Felipe Leguizamon Lopez, Carlos David Sánchez Niño, Germán Camilo - Bogotá, Colombia
    Ms. Giorgia Nadizar, University of Trieste, Trieste Italy
    Dr. Gloria Pietropolli, University of Trieste, Trieste Italy
    Industrial Machine Learning Group, GE Global Research (leader Anil Varma, lead - Weizhong Yan), Niskayuna New York USA
    Ms. Ying Lin, Li Ka Shing Foundation, Hong Kong HK
    Dr. Babak Hodjat, CTO, Genetic Finance, Wilmington DE USA
    Dr. Muhammad Mamdani, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto Ontario Canada
    Dr. Leonardo Vanneschi, Department of Informatics, Systems and Communication (D.I.S.Co.), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan Italy
    Markus Wagner, University of Adelaide, Adelaide Australia
    Prof. Katya Vladislavleva, U. of Antwerp, Antwerp Belgium
    Prof. Frank Neumann, University of Adelaide, Adelaide Australia
    Dr. Ying Becker, State Street Global Advisors, Boston MA USA
    Pedro Fazenda, Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica, Lisboa Portugal
    Xiang Ye, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY USA
    Daniele Ramazzotti, University Milano-Bicocca, Milan Italy
    Alex Waldin, Eldgenossische Technische Hochsule (ETH), Zurich Switzerland
    Monica Vitali, Politecnico di Milano, Milan Italy
    Sylvain Cussat-Blanc, University de Toulouse, Toulouse France
    Srecko Joksimovik, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Scotland UK
    Alfredo Cuesta Infante, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles Spain
    Conor Ryan, University of Limerick, Limerick Ireland
    Kzystof Krawiec, Poznań University, Poznań Poland
    Ashray Anand, University of Washington, Seattle WA USA
    Nataniel Ruiz, L' Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau France
    Dr. Sarah al Hamoud, Professor, Imam Mohammad Bin Saud University, Riyadh Saudi Arabia
    Chi-En Lee, National Taiwan University, Taipei Taiwan
    Dr. Stjepan Picek, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven Belguim
    Dr. Huamin Qu, Professor Vislab, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong HK
    Dr. Nancy Law, Professor, Founding Director of CITE, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong HK
    Alejandro Baldominos, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid Spain
    Pasquale Salza, University of Salerno, Salerno Italy
    Mucong "John" Ding, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong HK
    Mahek Maheshwari, Harmony School of Advancement, Houston TX USA
    Robert Gold, Weston Highschool, Weston MA USA
    Ruggiero Dargenio, Eldgenossische Technische Hochsule (ETH), Zurich Switzerland
    Alessandro DePalma, Eldgenossische Technische Hochsule (ETH), Zurich Switzerland
    Dr. Edilberto Amorim De Cerqueira Filho, MD - Mass General Hospital (MGH) Fellow, Boston MA USA
    Yuanzhe Chen, Hong Kong University of Technology, Hong Kong HK
    Mucong "John" Ding, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong HK
    Tom Schmiedlechner, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austra, Hagenburg Austria
    Joseph Ortiz, University of Oxford, Oxford England UK
    Gili Rusak, Standford University, Stanford CA USA
    Yanbang "Abel" Wang, Hong Kong Universityof Science and Technology, Hong Kong HK
    Zhi Yong "Ignavier" Ng, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong HK
    Carl Im, CEO, Solomon Strategic Consulting Limited, Seoul Korea
    Sagar Biswas, Manipal University, Jaipur India in collaboration with Hong Kong University, Hong Kong HK
    Dr. Yisroel Mirsky, Cyber Security Researcher, Cyber Security Research Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba Israel
    Alexander Shashkov, Intern, Weston High School, Weston MA USA
    Dhruv Sumathi, Intern, Weston High School, Weston MA USA
    Dr. Şebnem Özdemir, Assistant Professor, Istinye University, Istanbul Turkey
    Nicolas Lesimple, L’Ecole Polytechnique Federale (EFPL) de Lausanne, Lausanne Switzerland
    Chathika Gunaratne, University of Central Florida, Orlando FL USA
    Dirk Schweim, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Mainz Germany
    Michal Shlapentokh-Rothman, Postgraduate Researcher, MIT, Cambridge MA USA
    Alexander "Shasha" Shashkov, Williams College, Williamstown MA USA
    Hannah Burd, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH USA
    Jacob Springer, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA USA
    Jaeyoon Kim, University of Korea, Seoul Korea

Alumni

Postdocs

Dr. Stephen Moskal (2025)

Dr. Jamal Toutouh (2020)

Dr. Chathika Gunaratne (2020)

Dr. Abdullah Al-Dujaili (2019)

Dr. Behnaz Bostanipour (2019)

Dr. Bryce Kim (2017)

Dr. Stjepan Picek (2017)

Dr. Ali Jahanian (2016)

Dr. Ignacio Arnaldo (2015)

Dr. James McDermott (2012)

PhD Students

Dr. Shashank Srikant (2023)

Dr. Miguel Paredes (2018)

Dr. Bryce Kim (2017)

Dr. Minkyu Kim (2008)

Dr. Maria R. Thompson (2007)

Masters Students

    2025
      Miguel Tulla (M.Eng)
      Ben Wettstein (TPP)
    2024
      Iris Kremer (MSc)
      Ethan Garza (M.Eng)
      Sam Laney (M.Eng)
      Ivy Wang (M.Eng)
    2023
      Cyril Vallez (MSc)
      Katherine Wicks (M.Eng)
      Thomas Benchetrit (MSc)
    2022
      Ashwin Srinivasan (M.Eng)
      Helen Landwehr (TPP)
      Beong Jo Kong (SDM)
      Matthew Turner (M.Eng)
    2021
      Bryn Reinstadler (SM)
      Urmi Mustafi (M.Eng)
      Afra Ansaria (SDM)
      Sanja Simonovikj (M.Eng)
      Diana Flores (M.Eng)
    2020
      Michal Shlapentokh-Rothman (M.Eng)
      Jordan Wick (M.Eng)
      Srilaya Bhavaraju (M.Eng)
      Chetan Sharma (M.Eng)
      Sofiane Djeffal (SDM)
      Urmi Mustafi (M.Eng)
    2019
      Jonathan Kelly (M.Eng)
      Ayesha Bajwa (M.Eng)
      Li Wang (M.Eng)
      Andrew Zhang (M.Eng)
      Linda Zhang (M.Eng)
      Carolyn Holz (M.Eng)
      Kifle Waldu (M.Eng)
      Saeyoung Rho (TPP)
    2018
      Daniel Prado Sanchez (M.Eng)
      Marcos Pertierra (Unknown)
      Rahoul Khouri (M.Eng)
      Alex Huang (M.Eng)
      Jitesh Maiyuran (M.Eng)
      Alice Tiang Zhang (M.Eng)
    2017
      Brian Bell (M.Eng)
      Steven Fine (M.Eng)
      Steven Rivera (M.Eng)
      Anthony Erb Lugo (M.Eng)
      Dennis Garcia (M.Eng)
      Austin Liew (M.Eng)
    2016
      John O'Sullivan (M.Eng)
      Benjamin Schreck (M.Eng)
      Yonlin "Jason" Wu (M.Eng)
      Neha Patki (M.Eng)
      Brian Sun (M.Eng)
      Fahad Alasoun (SM, CDO)
    2015
      Bryan Collazo (M.Eng)
      Max Kanter (M.Eng)
      Michael Wu (M.Eng)
      Alex Wang (M.Eng)
      Minshu Zhan (M.Eng)
      Edwin Zhang (M.Eng)
      Sebastien Boyer (SM, TPP)
      Franck Dernoncourt (SM)
      Jacob Rosen (SM, TPP)
    2014
      Elaine Fang Han (M.Eng)
      Colin Taylor (M.Eng)
      EJ Emeagwali (M.Eng)
      Vineet Gopal (M.Eng)
      Osama Badar (M.Eng)
      Brian Bell (M.Eng)
      Will Drevo (M.Eng)
    2013
      Owen Derby (M.Eng)
      Tito Mbagwu (M.Eng)
      Chidube Ezeozue (SM)
    2012
      Skye Wanderman-Miln (M.Eng)
      Daniele Ramazzotti (M.Eng)
      Constantin Berzan (M.Eng)
    2011
      Lawrence Chan (M.Eng)
      Maciej Pacula (M.Eng)
      Anthony Kim (M.Eng)
    Before 2011
      Varun Aggarwal (M.Eng)
      Lynne Salameh (M.Eng)
      Meng Mao (M.Eng)
      Eric Fellheimer (M.Eng)
      Kathy Chen (M.Eng)
      Michael Terry (M.Eng)
      Jonathan Marcus (M.Eng)
      Matt Farrell (M.Eng)
      Kevin Rice (M.Eng)
      Martin Hemberg (M.Eng)
      Eric O'Reilly (M.Eng)
      Cesario Julaton (M.Eng)

Undergraduate Students

    2025
      Anahita Srinivasan (UROP)
    2024
      Jason Li (UROP)
      Ronald Xu (UROP)
    2022
      Joie Le (UROP)
      Tamara Mitrovska (UROP)
      Eileen Li (UROP)
      Muhua Xu (UROP)
      Mark Jabbour (UROP)
    2021
      Tamara Mitrovska (UROP)
      Krittamate "Boom" Tiankanon (UROP)
      Kate Xu (UROP)
      Rene Reyes (UROP)
      Ashwin Srinivasan (UROP)
      Renee Silva (UROP)
      Jenny Gau (UROP)
      Anna Wong (UROP)
      Evan Rubel (UROP)
      Ray Dedhia (UROP)
      Haimoshri Das (UROP)
      Xinhe Zhou (UROP)
      Ness Vera (UROP)
      Alexandra Dima (SuperUROP)
      Sabrina Tseng (SuperUROP)
      Tamara Mitrovska (SuperUROP)
    2020
      Sanja Simonovikj (UROP)
      Ashwin Srinivasan (UROP)
      Shannon Hwang (UROP)
      Amanuael Gidey (SuperUROP)
      Kenneth Acquah (SuperUROP)
      Sule Kahraman (SuperUROP)
      Teodor Begu (SuperUROP)
      Subhash Nalluru (SuperUROP)
    2019
      Milka Piszcek (UROP)
      Jordan Wick (UROP)
      Michal Shlapentokh-Rothman (SuperUROP)
    2018
      Alyssa Weiss (UROP)
      Akshat Bubna (UROP)
      Jonathan Kelly (UROP)
      Emmanuel Azuh (UROP)
      Carina Quiroz (UROP)
      Srilaya Bhavaraju (SuperUROP)
      Liang Zhou (SuperUROP)
      Abigail Russel (SuperUROP)
      Michael Delaus (SuperUROP)
    2017
      Emanuel Azuh (UROP)
      Emily Segler (UROP)
      Ashwath Thirumalai (UROP)
      Ashkat Bubna (UROP)
      Abigail Choe (SuperUROP)
      Hugo Zul (SuperUROP)
    2016
      Anthony Liu (UROP)
      Alexandra Suorakov (UROP)
      Xueqi Fan (UROP)
      Justine Jang (UROP)
      Nathan Landman (SuperUROP)
      Zara Permual (SuperUROP)
      William Spitzer (SuperUROP)
      Fernando Torja (SuperUROP)
      Hannah Pang (SuperUROP)
      Nicole Schmidt (SuperUROP)
      Anying Li (SuperUROP)
    2015
      Austin Hess (SuperUROP)
      Srinidi Viswanathan (SuperUROP)
      Yuqing Zang (SuperUROP)
      Kevin Wen (SuperUROP)
    2013
      David Xiao (UROP)
      Ulziibayar Otgonbaatar (SuperUROP)
      Sebastian Leon (SuperUROP)
    2012
      Manushaqe Muco (UROP)
      Dennis Wilson (UROP)
      Stephanie Bian (SuperUROP)
      EJ Emeagwali (SuperUROP)
      Seo Jin Kim (SuperUROP)
    2011
      Alex Teuffer (UROP)
      Minshu Zhan (UROP)
      Jennifer Jang (UROP)
      Owen Derby (UROP)
      Greg Durett (UROP)
      David Li (UROP)
    Before 2011
      Caitlin Mehl (UROP)