Bio
I was an Assistant Research Professor in the UW Department of Computer Science & Engineering from 1999-2003, long before the department became the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science. I then left the university to embark on an entrepreneurial career that included three VC backed startups (Teranode, Impinj, and Xnor.ai) two bootstrapped companies including my current role as CTO and co-founder of Simply Augmented, A Generative AI solution provider.
I did my PhD work at Carnegie Mellon University, focused on optimization algorithms for the automatic synthesis of digital integrated circuits, and remained in the semiconductor industry for several years, including four years living and working in Japan for Cadence Design System from 1994-1998. Working closely with the famous and beloved Dr. Gaetano Boriello and several other UW CSE faculty members, I explored what we called “ubiquitous computing”, which led to the life-sciences laboratory automation technology that formed the basis for Teranode, my first startup. Returning to semiconductors in 2007, I joined Impinj, which was founded by Dr. Chris Diorio, another CSE professor. At Impinj, I transitioned into a business development leadership position as we drove adoption of RAIN RFID across the global retail supply chain. If you’ve ever heard of the “trough of disillusionment” that is where the RFID industry was when I joined, but we put our heads down, got to work, and emerged with an IPO in 2016 as retailers began tagging and tracking billions of items every year. Since then I helped Xnor.ai, yet another UW spinout, validate edge-AI in vision applications, leading to acquisition by Apple. I then returned to my CTO roots, to co-found AirTerra with Brent Beabout, former Chief Supply Chain Officer of Nordstrom, for a supply chain infrastructure play that was acquired by American Eagle Outfitters in 2021.
