PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Fiona McNeill

Fiona McNeill is a computing education researcher whose AI work spans ontology repair, multilingual semantic matching and generative AI in schools. After a degree in pure mathematics at St Andrews, she began an AI MSc at Edinburgh in 1999 and completed a PhD on dynamic data integration and ontology matching in 2006. With Alan Bundy, she coauthored a 2007 paper describing the ORS ontology-repair system; at Heriot-Watt, she coauthored 2017 research on NuSM's multilingual matching method. At Edinburgh, she became a Reader in Computing Education in 2020, received the University's 2020 Principal's Medal for Informatics Connect, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2023. She led a Generative AI in Secondary Schools project in 2024–2025 and is the Personal Chair of Computing Education in the University's School of Informatics.

Links
Website and Google Scholar

Timeline

  1. By 1999

    From mathematics to AI

    She completes a degree in Pure Mathematics at St Andrews before beginning an MSc in Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh in 1999.

  2. 2006–2007

    A PhD and ontology repair

    She earns a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2006, focused on dynamic data integration and ontology matching. With Alan Bundy, she coauthors a 2007 paper describing ORS, a system designed to repair ontologies that do not accurately model their domain.

  3. 2017

    NuSM at Heriot-Watt

    At Heriot-Watt, she is an Assistant Professor and chairs the Computing in Schools working group in the RSE Young Academy of Scotland. She coauthors a 2017 paper on NuSM, a matcher that parses ontology labels with multilingual NLP and uses language-independent, domain-aware background knowledge.

  4. 2020

    Reader and Principal's Medal

    She takes up a Reader post in Computing Education at the University of Edinburgh in 2020. The University awards her its 2020 Principal's Medal for Informatics Connect, which helps first-year students form peer connections and adapt to hybrid teaching.

  5. 2023

    A Royal Society fellowship

    The Royal Society of Edinburgh elects her as a Fellow in 2023 while she is a Reader in Computer Science Education at Edinburgh.

  6. 2024–2025

    Generative AI in schools

    During 2024–2025, she leads the Generative AI in Secondary Schools project at Edinburgh's Generative AI Laboratory. In June 2025, she is a Reader in Computing Education and Director of Students in Informatics at the University of Edinburgh.

  7. As of October 2026

    Personal Chair at Edinburgh

    In 2026, she coauthors a study on embedding accessibility in computer science education through student voice. She is the Personal Chair of Computing Education in Edinburgh's School of Informatics.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Fiona McNeill yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. School of Informatics in Edinburgh: Our Students inf.ed.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Learned Societies’ Group on Scottish STEM Education rse.org.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Dynamic, Automatic, First-Order Ontology repair by Diagnosis of Failed Plan Execution ideas.repec.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. A Celebration of the First Lego League in Scotland edinburgh.bcs.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Language and domain aware lightweight ontology matching researchportal.hw.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. 2020 Principal’s Medal Winners principals-office.ed.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Fiona McNeill Awarded Principal’s Medal for Helping Students Adapt to Hybrid Teaching informatics.ed.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Leading thinkers and practitioners elected as RSE Fellows in 2023 rse.org.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. Building student community in computing: how partnership with students can support engagement sicsa.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  10. Annual Report 2024/25 gail.ed.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  11. Fiona McNeill – data integration and communication homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  12. Fiona McNeill – University of Edinburgh Research Explorer research.ed.ac.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.