Mirka Saarela is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Educational Technology and an Academy of Finland Research Fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Jyväskylä (JYU/IT), Finland. She holds a doctoral degree in Mathematical Information Technology (JYU/IT, 2017). Her research lies at the intersection of learning analytics, machine learning, education, and artificial intelligence. She is especially interested in explainability and fairness in algorithmic decision making. Her research on explainable AI was supported and awarded by several foundations, such as the Otto A. Malm Foundation, the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion, the K. H. Renlund Foundation, and the Ulla Tuomisen Foundation.