Michael Adcock

Recently, I worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft Research through a contract with MAQ Consulting. In the past I had managed two projects while serving as software development lead (at RAF Technology and Bsquare Corporation).

Project Tuva

• Although the website had launched in 2009 with the first of Feynman’s Messenger Lectures fully annotated, the remaining six lectures did not have any extra commentary or features. I was brought in to collect, prepare, and launch new content for these remaining lectures.
• I worked remotely with Robert Jaffe at MIT, a subject matter expert, who provided his commentary and thoughts on the lectures. I packaged these into interactive “extras” inside Tuva. While the content was largely from Bob, I came up with a strategy that produced small articles, gave them appropriate titles, and did extensive background research to add links to additional resources.
• In addition to content strategy and information architecture efforts, I worked with the image acquisitions and licensing team, and assisted with marketing efforts.

Microsoft Research Connections

• The enthusiasm I developed for Feynman led to other activities, including encouraging Microsoft Research involvement in InfoCamp (and my own presentation there), and assisting Tony Hey with the slides and some background research for his TEDx Caltech presentation, which I happily attended.
• I spent some time working with Microsoft Surface devices, collecting and installing research applications (like Garibaldi and LADS), and giving Surface technology demos to local visitors and at the iConference.
• In addition to Microsoft Surface, I also researched and analyzed several other Microsoft technologies including Microsoft Academic Search.
• I also began the update and redesign of the Education and Scholarly Communication section of the Microsoft Research Connections website.

eBook Demo

• While in the Platform Solutions team at Bsquare Corporation, I researched and implemented this software demonstration package to showcase a new hardware platform.
• After speaking with the stakeholders, I wrote a detailed software specification document describing features, the user interface, and operating system requirements.
• I worked directly with and managed other engineers to implement the design, and ensured it was ready for planned trade shows.
• I also scripted some walkthroughs and shared them with Sales and Marketing.

Verification Engine

• While at RAF Technology, I led the development effort on this identity authentication product, managing multiple software releases and shipments to the Treasury department.
• I supported and coordinated with personnel at several government locations including a secure facility, various commercial database providers, and at RAF.
• Internally, I often collaborated with the QA manager at RAF, and managed a small team of two or more developers that changed depending on requirements and availability.
• I created and managed schedules, work proposals, design documents, and worked closely with the offsite user documentation writer.
• Before delivery to the client, I coordinated the release management process.