• Ph.D. Computer Science; University of Alberta, 1999
• M.S. Computer Science; University of Saskatchewan, 1995
• B.S. Computer Science; University of Saskatchewan, 1993
• B.S. Double Math-Physics; University of Punjab, 1989

Professor Upal has 25 years of technical leadership experience in academia, government, and industry. He led the Information, Influence, and Effects Group at Defence Research and Development Canada from 2008 to 2017 and served as a department chair from 2017 to 2023, first as a Founding Chair of the Computing and Information Science Department at Mercyhurst University and then at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

Professor Upal is interested in developing a truly integrated science approach to understand changes in shared beliefs of various types of groups. His works integrates various social science approaches (including social identity theory) with computer science-based approaches (including agent-based social simulations and data science) to understand changes in social beliefs of artificial societies of various configurations. His recent work is focused on the role of social identity entrepreneurs (SIEs) in driving changes in social identity beliefs of their ingroups and how SIEs use counterintuitiveness to make their messages memorable for their target audience.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Cognitive Science
• Machine Learning
• Social Media Text Mining
• Modeling & Simulation

• Upal, M. A. (2022). Cognitive Science of Religion & Unified Theories of Cognition, in Y. Lior & J. Lane (eds) Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion, 82-93, London: Routledge.
• Upal, M. A. (2021). The Cultural Genetics of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, in M. A. Upal & C. Cusack (eds) Brill Handbook of Islamic Sects & Movements, 637-657, Leiden: Brill.
• M. A. Upal & C. Cusack (2021). Brill Handbook of Islamic Sects & Movements, Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic.
• M. Harmon-Vukic & M. A. Upal (2020). Understanding the Role of Context on Memory for Maximally Counterintuitive Concepts, Journal of Cognitive Science of Religion, 5(2): 238–254.
• M. A. Upal (2019). Are ISIS Sympathizers More Like Republicans or “Water For All” Charity Members?, Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Great Lakes Data Science Symposium, Mercyhurst University.
• M. A. Upal, P. Marupaka, S. Bulle (2018). Mirror, mirror on the wall, which tweet will be trendiest of them all, Proceedings of the 1st Annual Great Lakes Data Science Symposium, Mercyhurst University.
• M. A. Upal (2017). Moderate Fundamentlists: Ahmdiyya Muslim Jama’at in the lens of cognitive science of religion, Warsaw, Poland: DeGruyter Academic Press.
• L. Legault, N. Weinstein, J. Mitchell, M. Inzlicht, K. Pyke, M. A. Upal (2016). Owning Up to Negative Group Traits: How Personal Autonomy Promotes the Integration of Group Identity, Journal of Personality, 85(5): 687-701.
• M. A. Upal (2015). Countering Islamic Jihadist Movements, Journal of Terrorism Research, 6(2): 57-69.
• M. A. Upal (2015). Alternative Narratives for Preventing the Radicalization of Muslim Youth, Journal of Deradicalization, 15(2).
• M. A. Upal (2014). Three Practical Lessons from the Science of Influence Operations Message Design, Canadian Military Journal, 14(2): 53-58.
• K. Nielbo, D. Braxton, M. A. Upal (2013). Computing Religion: A New Tool in the Multilevel Analysis of religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 24(2): 267-290.
• M. Harmon-Vukic, M. A. Upal (2012). Understanding the Memory Advantage of Counterintuitive Concepts, Religion, Brain & Behavior, 2(1): 121-139.
• M. A. Upal (2011). Memory, Mystery & Coherence: Does the Presence of 2-3 Counterintuitive Concepts Predict Cultural Success of A Narrative? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 11(3-4): 101-134.
• M. A. Upal (2011). From Individual to Social Counterintuitiveness: A Cognitive Model of the Spread of Culturally Counterintuitive Ideas, Mind and Society, 10 (2): 235-246.
• M. A. Upal (2010). An Alternative View of the Minimal Counterintuitiveness Effect, Journal of Cognitive Systems Research, 11(2): 194-203.
• M. A. Upal (2008). Artificial Intelligence and Religion, Journal of Cognitive Systems Research, 8(3): 232-235.
• M. A. Upal, L. Gonce, J. Slone, and R. Tweney (2007). Contextualizing counterintuitiveness: How context affects comprehension and memorability of counterintuitive concepts, Cognitive Science, 31(2), 193-218.
• J. Slone, L. Gonce, M. A. Upal, A, Tweney, R., & Edwards, K. (2007). Imagery effects on recall of minimally counterintuitive concepts, Journal of Cognition & Culture, 7(3-4), 355-367.
• L. Gonce, M. A. Upal, J. Slone, & R. Tweney (2006). The role of context in the recall of counterintuitive concepts, Journal of Cognition & Culture, 6(4): 521-547.
• R. Tweney, M. A. Upal, L. Gonce, D. J. Slone, K. Edwards (2006). The Creative Structuring of Counterintuitive Worlds, Journal of Cognition and Culture, 6(3): 483-498.
• M. A. Upal (2005). Learning to improve plan quality, Computational Intelligence, 21(4): 440-461.
• M. A. Upal (2005). Towards A Cognitive Science of New Religious Movements, Journal of Cognition & Culture, 5(2): 214-239.
• M. A. Upal (2005). Simulating the Emergence of New Religious Movements, Journal of Artificial Societies & Social Simulation, 8(1).
• M. A. Upal, and S. Rogers (2005). Learning to improve reasoning, Computational Intelligence, 21(4): 333-335.
• A. Marco, M. A. Upal, B. K. Chesney (2005). Game Theory and the Operating Room Staff: Cooperation in a Prisoner's Dilemma Game, in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
• M. A. Upal (2005). Role of Context in Memorability of Intuitive and Counterintuitive Concepts, in Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2224-2229, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
• M. A. Upal & R. Erfani (2005). Cognitive Capacity and Ideological Group Formation, in Proceedings of the 13th Annual Meeting of the North American Association for Computational Social & Organizational Sciences.
• M. A. Upal & R. Erfani (2005). Emergence of Ideological Groups, in Proceedings of the 13th Annual Meeting of the North American Association for Computational Social & Organizational Sciences.
• M. A. Upal (2003). What-if Planning for Military Logistics in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent System Design & Applications, 149-158, Springer Verlag, New York.
• M. A. Upal (2003). Performance Evaluation Metrics for Link Discovery Systems in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent System Design & Applications, 273-282, Springer Verlag, New York.
• M. A. Upal & F. Fung (2003). Dynamic Plan Evaluation for Military Logistics in Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Soft Computing, pp 87-92, ACTA Press, Anaheim, CA.
• M. A. Upal (2003). Sexual Selection of Co-operation in Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO), pp 98-109, Springer, New York.
• M. A. Upal (2003). Learning General Graphplan Memos through Static Domain Analysis in Proceedings of the Sixteenth Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 510-514, Springer , New York.
• 37. M. A. Upal (2001). Learning plan rewrite rules using static domain analysis, in Proceedings of the 14^th International Conference of the Florida AI Research Society, 412-417, AAAI Press: Menlo Park CA.
• J. MacInnes, O. Banyasad, and M. A. Upal (2001). Watching you watching me: opponent modeling using FSMs, in Proceedings of the 14th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 361-364, Springer Verlag: New York
• M. A. Upal & R. Elio (2000). Learning search control rules versus rewrite rules to improve plan quality, in Proceedings of the 13th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 240-253, Springer Verlag, New York.
• M. A. Upal & R. Elio (1999). Learning rationales to generate high quality plans, in Proceedings of the 12^th International Conference of the Florida AI Research Society, 371-377, AAAI Press, Menlo Park CA.
• M. A. Upal & E. Neufeld (1996). Comparison of unsupervised classifiers in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information, Statistics and Induction in Science,342-353, World Scientific Press.