Carnegie Mellon University

Oklahoma State University

UX/UI Foundations Part 1

Director of Artificial Intelligence at Phase Change Software LLC

Driving client value by providing advisory services, technology strategy and thought leadership, with a  focus on AI, ML and other disruptors.

Avanade

Group Manager

Current work: Developing several Generative AI products using GPT LLM’s.

Aletheia Innovations

Principal Consultant

TransfrVR has a compelling mission - transform the way people acquire the trade skills necessary for thriving in the modern workforce using XR Sim-based training. This approach opens up whole new career horizons for 'unskilled' labor to train and re-skill. 

I joined Transfr to bring Data, AI and ML driven intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) to VR-based manual skill education. I recruited and led a ‘Learning Intelligence’ (or, ‘LI’) team of learning, data, and ML/AI scientists together with a supporting team of skilled research engineers, enacting a rapid data-driven discover-and-prototype approach. Selected accomplishments:

Innovation, Collaboration and Discovery
-Collaborated with LI to develop a cognitive model of manual skill, grounding quantitative models of learning, knowledge, and instruction 
-In conjunction with LI ML and data scientists, researched and developed a composite mastery algorithm that quantified both psychomotor and knowledge domains of skill execution in VR
-Drove the development of a cognitive task analysis for manual skill that aligned with cognitive and curricular models, enabling ‘smart’ targeting of instruction to customer needs and learner career goals
-Spearheaded R&D on modular, reusable VR content, automated ‘tutoring’ systems (ITS), and adaptive AI/ML-driven curriculum 

Strategy and Leadership
-Worked with LI data scientists and CX team to design and drive a customer-facing strategy to gather empirical data on product efficacy.
-Enabled the development and execution of a lab-based scientific experimental strategy to measure skill transfer from VR to ‘real world’   
-Recruited and led a multi-disciplinary team of applied researchers and R&D engineers from industry and academia. Established a data-driven culture of collaborative problem solving

Transfr

Vice President, Learning Intelligence

Scaled software systems have digitally transformed just about every aspect of our lives, and converted whole sectors the old analog economy into exponential digitalized processes. Software development itself has not scaled, though. Contemporary tools allow developers to do more with less code, but the amount of code a developer can comprehend, refactor, debug and deliver to production has advanced at a comparatively slow rate. 

Phase Change aims to disrupt software development - not by automating repeatable robotic processes, but by automating the process of understanding software. Our intelligent agent, Mia, comprehends software and the human intentions it encodes. Form there it collaborates with human colleagues to raise their productivity.

As Director of AI, my role is to lead the R&D team, help teach Mia to be smarter, and to define and drive the development of the architectures that will make her scale exponentially. My duties include:

Enterprise, System and Solution Architecture.
Development of new IP via prototype and specification.
Leadership and mentoring of a cross-functional team of researchers, programmers, mathematicians and architects.
Contributing to product specification, product strategy, company planning and company strategy. 
Individual contribution to IP development and problem solving in Computer Science, AI, Logic and Cognitive Science.

Phase Change Software LLC

Director of Artificial Intelligence

ProKarma is a transformational IT Services company. ProKarma leverages centers of excellence in Digital, DevOps, Enterprise Architecture, Data Science and AI to provide digitally transformative strategy support to Fortune-500 Enterprises. 

My client-focused approach begins with the understanding that every technical problem exists in the broader business context, as well as the landscape of digital technology.  I joined ProKarma to help transform their Mobile Practice into an authentically digital practice, with service offering in Digital Technology (with services in Mobile, AR, VR and CUI), Experience (with services in UX, UI, IA and Creative Design) and Strategy (including mobile and digital strategy). 

As Director, Digital Practice, my work has included:
• Senior-most Architect on mobile and digital portfolio projects providing architectural support for Fortune 100-1,000 clients on the enterprise level, as well as large-scale multi-system application architectures.
• Training and leading ProKarma mobile and digital architects and establishing architectural best-practices and standards.
• Leading up the the Mobile Technology Center of Excellence with a multinational team.
• Driving practice responses to client requests, as well as coordinating and providing Digital CoE support to teams engaged in delivery on strategy and IT Services.
• Providing technical pre-sales support for mobility across industry verticals (Healthcare, telecom and etc)
• Providing technical CoE leadership to mobile development teams across the US and India (over 100 mobile dev's, leads and architects) for applications with up to 10,000,000 unique users. 
• Innovating IP, designing and leading Proof-of-Concept/R&D work and establishing company-wide best practices.

I have provided technical leadership and CoE support for applications that are #1 in their app store category and support over 100,000 concurrent users as well as strategic advisory services fortune 1000 enterprises.

ProKarma

Digital Practice Director

Aletheia Innovations is a consulting practice that offers Solution and Enterprise Architecture, IT Strategy and Product Design. We help clients chart a course for their business, we help clients flesh out the initial vision for products, we specify system architectures using rigorous and proven techniques, we help clients make appropriate technological choices and we even implement and rigorously test mission-critical portions of the resulting systems to produce enterprise-ready proofs of concept. We work with companies as small as tech startups, all the way to multinationals and fortune 100's. Aletheia remains a vehicle for my entrepreneurial endeavors between executive roles.

examples of my services:
FedEx:
• Advised FedEx in charting a new IT Strategy for mobile, helping them leverage and monetize the latest developments in mobile technology.
• Helped flesh out a new system architecture to put the IT Strategy into play.
• Proposed UX engineering 'best practices'​, showing a path forward to agile-ready User Centered Design.
• Developed a field-ready 'proof of concept'​ that embodied the strategy, architecture and UX design principles. 
• Delivered Whitepapers and briefings on mobile tech and changes in the mobile landscape.
 
Prominent Fluid Controls:
• Helped Prominent specify and design a disruptive industrial HMI product utilizing cutting edge mobile technologies.
• Performed risk analysis and quantification. 
• Helped source, price and specify system components.
• Performed Requirements specification for multiple products.

Aletheia also provides key services for startup clients. These services range from CTO Services for pre-product teams, to assistance in sourcing and managing offshore and alternative delivery models. We work with startups to bring in top-shelf talent on a 'just enough, just in time' basis, so teams can stay lean without sacrificing depth in expertise.

Guerrilla Mobile is a hybrid software and marketing firm that helps small local businesses connect to their customer base in new ways.

•	Architected and implemented a scalable and agile network architecture for real-time 'in pocket' coupon and add delivery. 
•	Developed a framework for the rapid development of customized mobile applications which 'plug in' to clients' business model.
•	Designed and implemented a cloud-based enterprise architecture for social and software network support and management, location based services and social network integration.
•	Managed development timelines, innovated business plans, subcontracted, networked, developed clients, handled client and investor relations and managed legal and IP issues as founder and CEO.
•	Built and lead a team of seasoned Engineers, Marketers and Salespersons.
•	Successfully offshored multiple products, bringing new products to market faster.

Guerrilla Mobile

CEO/CTO

Guerrilla Mobile joined forces with Idea Foundry in May 2012 to explore a unique 'ground up' approach to the construction of a Socio-Technical Infrastructure. Guerrilla Mobile is partnering with local Pittsburgh businesses and investors to develop a disruptive technology for the retail space.

GMobile graduated from the Idea Foundry fellowship in September 2012 and remains an Idea Foundry portfolio company.

Idea Foundry

Transformation Fellowship

• Served as screening committee member, contributing expertise in technology and systems engineering.
• Evaluated funding candidates in terms of business, market, traction, and potential for technological and market disruption

BlueTree Capital Group

Technical Advisor

•	Served as Lead Developer for a software development team working on multiple interrelated educational and research software projects. 
•	Played strong leadership roles training new Java programmers, setting best practices for software architecture and implementation, managing software revision/QA cycles and serving as technical lead for several software packages.
•	Played a key role in all stages of the SDLC for multiple applications and toolkits.
•	Using Java, XML and web search technologies, developed a new architecture and interface for adaptive feedback systems,  shortening development time and reducing  costs.
•	Architected a uniform development and integration software kit (API) for LSEC software projects, dramatically reducing development, maintenance, integration time and costs for new applications.
•	Developed a common data mining and logging infrastructure for LSEC educational apps, allowing for data driven improvements in application design and use, improving effectiveness and reducing costs through development of a common infrastructure.
•	Gathered feature requests, developed and implemented software upgrade, testing and QA strategies.
•	Set architectural and software implementation standards across multiple apps.
•	Continued research and implementation related to automated theorem proving heuristics, education, cognitive tutoring and online courseware.
•	Served as client management coordinator, managing the response to bug reports, feature suggestions and help/support requests from client institutions.
•	Developed and delivered lectures  as professor of the Logic course at Carnegie Mellon University.

Principal Research Programmer

•	Took on the training, supervision and leadership of other developers working on several LSEC software projects, ultimately leading to my promotion to Project LSEC Principal Research programmer (see above).
•	Participated in the development of specifications for a new generation of educational and research software.
•	Designed and implemented two new software projects based on specifications using Java technologies (client and server side), XML technologies and industry standard design patterns to reduce implementation time and costs. These projects are still active in the marketplace at this time.
•	Integrated software into the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) delivery engine, allowing LSEC apps to be delivered at institutions globally.

Davin Lafon