Working at Autodesk within the Platform Services and Components group as a senior researcher, I lead cross-functional groups through strategic and tactical research to improve the experience of developers using Autodesk’s cloud API‘s. Achievements include building the research discipline with the discipline lead from the ground up for a 600 person team, including research processes and practices, building a research tracking system, and teaching research fundamentals workshops to level-up colleagues’ research skills. Fluent in a wide array of qualitative and quantitative methods, I work to use mixed methods research to tell the story and back it up with data.
I was previously a senior experience engineer at Autodesk, working on improving the user experience of Autodesk EAGLE at Pier 9 in SF. Before joining Autodesk I was a software engineer and prototyper on Project Soli in the Advanced Technologies and Projects group (ATAP) at Google, and a researcher in the education department at SparkFun Electronics.
I received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where I worked in the Craft Technology Lab building toys aimed at getting children involved in designing objects for 3D printing. Prior to Colorado I’ve spent time in New York City, working at Eyebeam, a premier art and technology center, and earning a Master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), a hotbed of the DIY and maker movements. I have taught, presented, and published at numerous academic conferences, Maker Faires, hackerspaces, universities, and other informal learning spaces on building and teaching emerging technology to children and incorporating it into learning spaces of all shapes and sizes.