Carol Elizabeth Reiley (born 1982) is an American business executive,

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

, and model. She is a pioneer in teleoperated and

autonomous robot An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control. Historic examples include space probes. Modern examples include self-driving Robotic vacuum cleaner, vacuums and Self-driving car, cars. Industrial robot, Industrial robot ...

systems in

surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

, disaster rescue, and

self-driving car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. They are sometimes called robotaxis, though this term refers specifica ...

s. Reiley has worked at Intuitive Surgical,

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

, and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

. She co-founded, invested in, and was president of Drive.ai, and is now CEO of a healthcare startup, a creative advisor for the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...

, and a brand ambassador for

Guerlain Guerlain () is a French perfume, cosmetics, and skincare house which is among the oldest in the world. Many traditional Guerlain fragrances are characterized by a common olfactory accord known as the "". The house was founded in Paris in 1828 b ...

Cosmetics. She is a published children's book author, the first female engineer on the cover of ''MAKE'' magazine, and is ranked by Forbes, Inc, and Quartz as a leading entrepreneur and influential scientist.

Early life and education

Carol Elizabeth Reiley was born in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city in Genesee County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Flint River (Michigan), Flint River northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the Central Michigan, Mid Michigan region. Flin ...

, in 1982. Her family soon moved to

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...

. Her father is an engineer and her mother a flight attendant; Reiley credits both for her interest in technology and global humanitarian work. She has a younger brother who is also an engineer. Reiley's parents are from

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

and she grew up in a

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

-speaking household. Reiley's first invention was a humane mousetrap she fashioned at age eight to catch her runaway pet hamster. She started her first business at age ten, inspired by the '' Babysitters Club'' book series. Her first professional job was at age 15 as a television personality on ''Homework Helpline'', a local cable show geared toward K-12 graders, answering math and English questions on the air. She then enrolled in a Ph.D. program (ABD) specializing in

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. She spent a year at Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Lab with her Ph.D. advisor, who was on sabbatical there. She dropped out to move to Silicon Valley while writing her dissertation because she had a startup idea to pursue. Reiley married

Andrew Ng Andrew Yan-Tak Ng (; born April 18, 1976) is a British-American computer scientist and Internet Entrepreneur, technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Ng was a cofounder and head of Google Brain and ...

in 2014. The MIT Tech Review named Ng and Reiley an "AI power couple." Their engagement announcement was featured in

IEEE Spectrum ''IEEE Spectrum'' is a magazine edited and published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The first issue of ''IEEE Spectrum'' was published in January 1964 as a successor to ''Electrical Engineering''. In 2010, ''IEEE Spe ...

. They have two children.

Career

Reiley has built products for surgical robotic systems at Intuitive Surgical, space robotic systems at

, and self-driving cars at drive.ai. She was an instructor at Johns Hopkins University, co-teaching intersession courses Haptics For Surgical Robotics (2006) and Developing Facebook Apps (2009). Reiley is a serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. She founded the education company Squishybotz and is the author and publisher of ''Making a Splash'' (2015), a children's book about

growth mindset A mindset refers to an established set of attitudes of a person or group concerning culture, values, philosophy, frame of reference, outlook, or disposition. It may also arise from a person's worldview or beliefs about the meaning of life. Som ...

. In 2015, Reiley co-founded and was president of Drive.ai. She was the initial investor and seed funded the company from her wedding fund. In 2018 she started a healthcare startup. Reiley sits on the technical advisory board of

Harman Kardon Harman/Kardon is a brand of US-based Harman International Industries. Harman Kardon was originally founded in Westbury, New York, in 1953 by business partners Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon. The company is focused on three audio equipment b ...

and the Santa Clara University Engineering Advisory Board. She is a limited partner of Sequoia Capital and AI2 Incubator, and advises/invests in several startups. In 2018 she joined All Raise, a nonprofit diversity and inclusion organization, as a mentor and a Founder for Change. She is also part of NEO, a mentorship community and VC fund founded by Ali and Hadi Partovi that brings together tech veterans to accelerate tomorrow's leaders. Reiley has given two Ted talks and been a featured speaker at the MIT Technology Review Conference, ''The Atlantic'', the World Government Summit, the Microsoft CEO Summit, and the

USA Science and Engineering Festival The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a bi-annual science festival held in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2010 by Larry Bock, the festival is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the U ...

. She has been a guest contributor to ''IEEE Spectrum'', ''Techcrunch'', and ''MIT Tech Review''.

Research and publications

Her research continued for several years, and her interest expanded to haptics and industrial robotic arms. She was selected as a Computing Research Association Distributed Undergraduate Research Fellow. Reiley was named a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (2008–2010) to research strategies for improving human and robotic interaction for her PhD. She was elected to serve on the

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS) is a professional society of the IEEE that supports the development and the exchange of scientific knowledge in the fields of robotics and automation, including applied and theoretical issues. ...

board in 2008–09 to put together key initiatives for thousands of graduate researchers. She was the youngest member to serve on the board. As of 2018, Reiley has eight technical

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

, and has authored more than a dozen papers published in various scientific conference proceedings, refereed journals and conferences.

Maker

Reiley is a well-known DIY hacker. She has published several open-source tutorials including the first hack to

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead guitar, lead, bass guitar, bass, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Players match ...

("Air Guitar Hero", enabling the game to be played with electrical signals from arm muscles to act as a rehabilitation exercise for amputees) and a DIY blood pressure monitor system for developing countries. She has keynoted at

Maker Faire Maker Faire is a convention of do it yourself (DIY) enthusiasts established by '' Make'' magazine in 2006. Participants come from a wide variety of interests, such as robotics, 3D printing, computers, arts and crafts, and hacker culture. Hist ...

and USA Science and Engineering Festival several times. Her 3D printed designs have been featured at the CES fashion show. In 2011, Reiley founded and ran Tinkerbelle Labs, an open-source company focused on empowering hobbyists to build low-cost DIY projects.

The arts and modeling

In 2018, Reiley became a spokesmodel for

and ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

'' China, to launch a new international beauty campaign. She has been profiled in ''British Vogue'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', and ''Wired'' for her work in AI. In graduate school, she worked as a commercial model for fashion companies like Hard Candy, Betabrand, and Oil of Olay. She was the first female engineer featured on the cover of '' Make'' magazine for her contributions to the open source community. In 2018, Reiley joined the

as a founding member of the creative advisory board under its new musical director,

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conducting, conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Sw ...

. In 2020, she cofounded and launched DeepMusic.ai with violinist

Hilary Hahn Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors, and as a recitalist. She is an avid supporter of contemp ...

to amplify human creativity through AI. She is CEO of the organization and commissioned pieces from David Lang, Michael Abels, WEF YGL, and

Dana Leong Dana Leong is a 2011 Latin Grammy Award Winning multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, US Ambassador of Music, adventurer, philanthropist & entrepreneur from the San Francisco Bay Area, who is known for mixing elements of traditional instrum ...

Diversity advocate

Reiley has been an active advocate for diversity in engineering and AI. At Johns Hopkins, she was on the founding board of the Graduate Women's Organization and the Whiting School of Engineering Diversity Board. At Santa Clara University, she cofounded chapters of

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

and Society of Women Engineering. She led the JHU Robotics Systems Challenge (2004–2011), SWE and ACM events, and Computer Mania Day workshops for thousands of underserved minority students. She published a study in an education journal about diversity of middle and high school students in robot competitions.

Awards

* Women's Entrepreneurship Day Science Pioneer Award at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(2023) * ''Forbes'' Top 50 women in tech (2018) * Quartz founder index (Ranked #18, 2018) * ''Inc. Magazine''s Most Innovative Women Entrepreneurs (2017) * Silicon Valley's Most Influential Women in 2016. * National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (2008–2010) *

Society of Women Engineers The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and ...

top graduate award (2007) * Computing Research Association Distributed Undergraduate Research Fellow (2003)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiley, Carol 1982 births Living people American computer businesspeople American health care chief executives American roboticists Women roboticists American people of Chinese descent American software engineers American technology chief executives American technology company founders American technology writers American women academics American women chief executives American women computer scientists American women company founders American company founders American female models American artificial intelligence researchers Businesspeople from California Computer vision researchers Scientists from California Writers from California 21st-century American women San Francisco Symphony