Patrick O’Neil, MS ’15, PhD ’17, is the chief data scientist at BlackSky, a global monitoring firm leveraging high-resolution satellite imagery and advanced artificial intelligence to map global activity in real time. In his role at BlackSky, he is responsible for building BlackSky’s analytics business and developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems.
With extensive technical expertise in statistical modeling, deep learning, and mathematical modeling, O’Neil has spent his career building artificial intelligence solutions in the remote sensing domain. A strong proponent of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, O’Neil teaches university courses on machine learning for remote sensing and is an advisor to the Virginia Department of Education’s data science initiative.
Prior to working at BlackSky, O’Neil worked as a research scientist for geospatial intelligence companies including SPADAC, GeoEye, and OpenWhere. In 2017, O’Neil received his PhD in mathematics from George Mason University, where his research analyzed point clouds using methods derived from topological data analysis. While at Mason, O’Neil led industry outreach efforts for the Department of Mathematical Sciences and worked alongside researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developing high performance computing solutions for materials science research. Prior to his graduate work, O’Neil received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Virginia Tech.