Jeff Morgan

About Me

Work Experience

1. Senior Principal Technologist

   08/2016 – Present

   Samsung Research America (Artificial Intelligence Center) · Mountain View, CA

   Vesta:

   Led the creation of a personal video broadcasting solution designed to create a limited social network between live publishers and Viewers. The Viewers were presented with a TV channel experience for content generated by friends and family. Publishers used a Smart Phone to broadcast content. The system was built on a unique implementation of WebRT allowing multiple viewers to see live broadcasts. This system was transferred into TV business group.

   Contextual Voice:

   Within a home multiple voice agents are waiting for a wake word, designed a voice platform and fulfillment model (based on Bixby Capsule) which could accept Voice requests and successfully route the intent to the target device. Experimented with offline voice support for simplified Out of box experience and to route simple commands to devices without traversing the cloud.

2. Engineering Director

   10/2015 – 08/2016

   Samsung Research America (Mobile Innovation Lab) · Mountain View, CA

   ​Led engineering team in numerous projects aligned with lab objectives. Defined engineering strategy for the lab.
   Much of my technical work focussed on ensuring best practices for the Android development , devOps and services within the team. Implemented a comprehensive Android template application utilizing the MVP model. This template is used as the starting point for all of the application prototypes we create in the lab. I migrated our service infrastructure to use Amazon lambdas and created a node based development platform which enable fast deployment and local testing. I led the development of a health related application which demonstrated the concept of actionable insights based on raw health data collected by S-Health and Google Fit.

3. Senior Distingushed Technologist

   01/2015 – 10/2015

   Samsung Research America (Mobile Innovation Lab) · Mountain View, CA

   ​In Jan 2014 we transferred to the mobile business group within Samsung and became the only US based UX lab for the mobile products. I was involved in many core strategic projects and provided key technology for a large demonstrator of a 2020 vision for Samsung around voice enabled pervasive services.
   Much of my technical work during this period focused on Voice User interfaces and device integration. I built a simple voice agent based on Raspberry PI which launched voice actions as one of our main projects. I created an MQTT protocol for devices within a space identified by a beacon. Implemented a voice enabled Android Application that allowed users to control the device on the bus using voice. I created a Micro-service based environment for deploying our service implementations secured with a private security domain.

4. Senior Distinguished Technologist,

   04/2013 – 12/2014

   Samsung Research America (UX services) · San Jose, CA

   Lead architect/developer embedded within a small user experience team. When I arrived into the team there was no software methodology and although the team had ambitions of delivering Android applications into the Play store there was no technical basis to do so. I built up
   the methodology from scratch based on elements of Xtreme programming. The enabled both local and remote teams to build in an agile manner and automatically deploy features to both Android devices and services running on Amazon. I was involved in two projects that were delivered as private beta Applications within the Play store and used by our beta users; both of these projects were transferred out to business teams.

5. Distinguished Technologist

   12/2011 – 04/2013

   Snapfish · San Francisco, CA

   Lead architect for Snapfish mobile solutions. Developed a cross platform application architecture based on HTML5/Backbone/JQuery & Phonegap. Seconded with the main product team to help with the design and development of new service to provide a more social experience for web and mobile users of Snapfish. This work was done at Pivotal Labs where I was exposed to the Xtreme programming development methodology that included TDD/BDD and pair programming for Rails, JavaScript and IOS solutions. Using this methodology the product went from zero to release in 9 months.
   On return to Snapfish I lead the IOS team inside Snapfish. We created a brand new social application which was released into the app store in April 2013. This work utilized the Xtreme programming skills learned at Pivotal Labs and it took just over 3 months to go from nothing to final app store submission.

6. Distinguished Architect

   03/2010 – 12/2011

   Nokia Smart Phones · Sunnyvale, CA

   Web Platform for Qt/QML:

   Conceived, and designed the architecture to support deep integration with the social web, commerce web and web of things that enables developers to create Qt/QML applications which need to incorporate those elements. Prototyped a proof of concept library to support general access to OData information sources and specifically access to the Windows Live OData provider.

   Microsoft Alliance​:

   Conceived and designed a platform component to route URL clicks to a native service specific applications This is a particular mobile issue where bespoke apps for services (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) are installed and replace the tradition web browser but links to these services which are sent in communications are by default routed to the browser when clicked. The URL router component enabled applications to register support for URL patterns and other detectable service traits. When a link is clicked by a user the platform can now determine if the request should be routed to the browser or a specific application.

7. Distinguished Technologist

   10/1999 – 03/2010

   Hewlett-Packard Laboratories · Palo Alto, CA

   Contextual Services and Experience:

   Infrastructure​: Conceived, designed and implemented a platform to enable the creation of contextually aware services and applications for the delivery of in the moment experiences to mobile users. The platform enabled the decentralized collection and publication of contextual information to context engines that could do processing, inference, aggregation etc. The system exposed a consistent information model accessed via a RESTFul API that

   allowed the collection, navigation and sharing of contextual information (and associated meta data) across many sources and formats.

   Management As A Service​:

   Seconded into an enterprise oriented research project to bring web expertise and investigate the impact of web 2.0 on systems management. Created a platform that enhanced existing management products to expose management data through a web2.0 API and developed a notion called Management Data As A Service. Management Data As A Service separates the collection of management data from the processing and allows centralization and reuse of large complex analysis algorithms hosted in the cloud.

   Social Media​:

   This activity examined the social use of media and how this enhances social interaction. The core of this project was an intense user study of the way people interact in social situations. Two studies were done, one to identify the user segments followed by a more detailed user experience study on the Tweens (8-14 year olds) segment. Co-Led this project and developed a space/time model for characterizing social interaction. Led a number of innovation sessions based on output the Tween study and created a set of prototypes. Developed a viral model to monetize legal sharing of commercial media between users.

   E-ME:​

   Defined, created and led the E-ME project. This project was a major extension of Cooltown and was created based on the experience of deploying cooltown enabled systems. E-ME was a pervasive information model that allowed users’ access to their information assets and services anywhere and at any time depending on the security constraints attached to the asset and the means of accessing the information either carried or recruited by the user. E-ME demonstrated an innovative access control system which enabled easy sharing with federated protection domains and digital rights management.

   Cooltown:

   Defined, created and led the Cooltown project. Conceived and created the technical basis and vision for Cooltown. Cooltown was a pervasive computing infrastructure layered on the web which blended the physical and virtual world through web services, smart spaces and devices. This was seen as the first concrete example of web based pervasive computing in the industry and became a vision for the company. It was evangelized widely throughout and beyond the company. Cooltown is referenced today both in HP and externally as seminal work on the use of the web to support the integration of the physical and virtual worlds.

8. Master Scientist

   08/1994 – 10/1999

   Hewlett-Packard Laboratories · Palo Alto, CA

   Returned to HP-laboratories from business organization to continue research on distributed computing and started to focus on the impact of the web as a computing infrastructure. Became one of pioneers on the use of the embedded web to control and manage devices. Co-created the Hehaw (Hey everything Has a Webpage) project and developed an object based software architecture called Smallweb which later become an HP product called Chai and was eventually embedded in HP’s laserjet printers as a remote management and control facility. The work in embedded web led to some fundamental IP and the creation of a new HP business around embedded web systems. This work attracted the attention of a number of companies including Microsoft who leveraged the Smallweb architecture in the definition of SOAP as part of an inter-company collaboration. This work was selected as one of the top innovations in 40 years of research at HP.

9. Lead Architect

   10/1989 – 08/1994

   Hewlett-Packard · Cupertino, CA

   Lead architect for Cooperative Computing Architecture which became the basis for HP’s initial foray into the distributed computing platform business. As part of this work I also led a team of senior engineers in the creation of a set of prototypes to demonstrate the use of distributed computing in real applications. The resulting prototype was used internally to validate and promote the architecture and also used to show leading CEO’s of other companies (IBM,Apple,Microsoft) the power of this new approach to computing and this in turn led to the formation of a number of industry consortiums such as OSF-DCE and CORBA. Inside the company this work became the nucleus for HP’s distributed computing environment on HP-UX/MPE3000 and also influenced the development of the HP OpenView management platform. Finally I became the leader of the OSF-DCE Innovation committee and designed and implemented OODCE, an object oriented environment for simplified development of DCE applications and services. This became the first HP product in this space.

10. Research Manager

    03/1988 – 09/1989

    Hewlett Packard Research Laboratories · Bristol, Avon, UK

    Led a large team of researchers investing various aspect of distributed computing infrastructure. Contributed to many ISO standards and ANSA, an industry consortium creating an architecture for distributed computing. Promoted use of distributed computing technology and architecture within HP and in 1989 was seconded to Cupertino to lead the development of the Cooperative Computing Architecture.

11. Member of Technical Staff

    02/1986 – 03/1988

    Hewlett Packard Research Laboratories · Bristol, Avon, UK

    I was the 65th employee recruited to work at the newly formed laboratory in Bristol, researching distributed computing environments for office systems. Worked on number of projects including secure messaging, graphical design layout and remote procedure call infrastructure. Created HP’s first implementation of an X.400 email system which was transferred to the business teams and constituted the first success for the laboratory.

12. Software Engineer

    06/1984 – 02/1986

    Rank Xerox · Old Welwyn, Hartford, UK

    Member of software team creating and maintaining internationalization tools for the Xerox Star workstation and services. Seconded to Palo Alto to be part of the development team for the Viewpoint workstation and services platform as part of the Office systems business unit.

Education

1. Bsc Hons Electrical and Electronic Engineering

   09/1981 – 05/1984

   University of West Glamorgan · Pontypridd, Rhondda Taf, Wales, UK

   Engineering degree with studies in Physics, Math, Computer Science, Electrical and Electronic theory and its application. Final dissertation on software simulation of hardware. Was placed on honors program after completion of two years of study and finally achieved a 2.1 Honors distinction graduating in the top 2% of class.

2. Engineering Apprenticeship

   08/1976 – 06/1984

   Rank Xerox · Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire, UK

   Broad base engineering training in electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering. One year in training school followed by 4 years of departmental placement featuring time in machine shop, production line, site management, quality control, service, production engineering, research and development. Spent remaining time teaching basic electrical and electronic engineering skills to new apprentices in training school when not attending school. Got a full company sponsorship to attend a 4 year university degree program.