2026 Founders Medal
Manuela M. Veloso is a global leader in artificial intelligence, computer science and roboticism who has inspired generations of technologists through decades of visionary research, mentorship, philanthropic support and dedicated service to Carnegie Mellon University and its students.
From 2018 to 2026, she was the founder and head of JPMorganChase AI Research and the Herbert A. Simon University Professor Emerita at CMU, where she also was faculty in the Computer Science Department and head of the Machine Learning Department. Her research interests include multiagent systems, autonomous robots, continual learning agents and AI in finance.
At JPMorganChase, she built a team of more than 100 talented members who focused on pillar areas of AI in finance, including data-driven optimization, planning and search, multi-modal document analysis, trustworthy AI, AI and mathematical reasoning, continual learning and multiagent systems. Manuela’s team published their research in academic venues and addressed and contributed to business needs and vision.
Manuela has a licenciatura degree in electrical engineering and a Master of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, a Master of Arts degree in computer science from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. She also has honorary doctorates from the Örebro University, Sweden, the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal, the Université de Bordeaux, France, and the Universidade Católica of Portugal.
She served as president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and she is co-founder and a past president of the RoboCup Federation. She is a fellow of the main professional organizations in her field: AAAI, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Computing Machinery. She is the recipient of the ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award, the Einstein Chair of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an NSF Career Award and the Allen Newell Medal for Excellence in Research. Manuela is a member of the National Academy of Engineering with a citation “for contributions to artificial intelligence and its applications in robotics and the financial services industry.” She is also a member of the Academy of Sciences of Portugal.
I am honored and humbled for having been chosen as a recipient of the Carnegie Mellon University Founders Medal. I am an extremely proud alumna of Carnegie Mellon, where I learned everything about AI from founders and giants in the field. I persistently enjoyed and taught AI to undergraduate and graduate students for three decades as the core discipline of Carnegie Mellon. With my Ph.D. students, we learned to pursue fantastic AI research and engineering goals, always thinking big and aiming high. In my wide professional life, including the last years in the finance industry, I find myself as a true product of the Carnegie Mellon spirit and amazing vision. I am very thankful and moved by this award.
Manuela M. Veloso