Howard Stearns

3303 Oak Knoll Drive, Redwood City, CA 94062
650-817-5956
stearns@alum.mit.edu

A two-page printable version is here.
LinkedIn

Skills Summary

Adept with Wacky Tech: Multi-user realtime distributed systems (LINDEN, HIGH FIDELITY, TELEPLACE, WISCONSIN), VR (HIGH FIDELITY), blockchain (HIGH FIDELITY), symbolic AI (WISCONSIN, ICAD), mobile (LINDEN, TELEPLACE), low-level embedded systems (ELWOOD), social media (SHOCASE, HIGH FIDELITY), and see CRYPT, RULES, and MILLION
Technical Manager: Proven track record in product-oriented development, technical leadership, apropos innovation, and team mentorship (HIGH FIDELITY, SHOCASE, HP, WISCONSIN, CURL, ICAD), with a high rate of re-employment among colleagues (LINDEN, TUNEUP, HP, TELEPLACE, ENGINEERING INTENT, CURL).
Language Polyglot: Used over a dozen languages professionally, including C++ (LINDEN, HIGH FIDELITY, TUNEUP, ELWOOD), C# (LINDEN), Javascript (LINDEN, HIGH FIDELITY, SHOCASE, HP, TUNEUP), and also wrote native extensions for NodeJS (TUNEUP) and Smalltalk (TELEPLACE, WISCONSIN), and an entire ANSI standard Lisp implemention (ELWOOD)).
Opportunistic Framework Consumer: Express (LINDEN, HIGH FIDELITY), Rails (HIGH FIDELITY), React (LINDEN, HIGH FIDELITY), Angular (SHOCASE), Material Design (LINDEN, HIGH FIDELITY), Unity (LINDEN) …
Passionate About Results: Self-directed with extensive experience in cross-functional team collaboration. On-time delivery of prototype-through-product iteration via modified Agile methodologies and test-driven development. (HIGH FIDELITY)
Effective Communicator: Ability to simplify complex problems, crafting functional solutions and collaborating with industry thought leaders. (HIGH FIDELITY, TELEPLACE, WISCONSIN, CURL, ELWOOD)

Open Source

CRYPT: Cryptography and Key-Management

RULES: Rule-Based Expert Systems and Symbolic AI

MILLION: Partition a computation over a million nodes, with no back-end

Publications and Conferences

Programming

SPEC

"Curl Language Specification." Curl Corp. internal memo, 2001. 664 pages, including rationale, language comparisons with Java, C++ and others, and extensive cross-index.

LISPC

"Lisp/C Integration in Eclipse," in Proc., 40th Anniversary of Lisp Conference, Berkeley, CA, 1998.

ECLIPSE-DOC

"Eclipse Product Documentation," Elwood Corporation, 1997.

ALU

"Association of Lisp Users" site, circa 1996. Board member 1997-2002. Co-organizer and fixture at biennial conferences.

Technical (non-programming)

IK

Avatar Body-tracking-IK, in WETMACHINE: Inventing the Future, 2015

BRIE-LANG

Howard Stearns, Joshua Gargus, Martin Schuetze, and Julian Lombardi. "Simplified Distributed Authoring Via Component-based Object Construction and Deconstruction in Collaborative Croquet Spaces," in Proc., Fourth Conference on Creating, Connecting, and Collaborating through Computing (C5 ‘06), IEEE Computer Society Press, 2006.

KAY 2005

Rieko Kadobayashi, Julian Lombardi, Mark McCahill, Howard Stearns, Katsumi Tanaka, and Alan Kay. "Object and Annotation Authoring in Collaborative 3D Virtual Environments," in Proc., 15th International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence (ICAT ‘05). The Virtual Reality Society of Japan, 2005.

KAY 2006

Rieko Kadobayashi, Julian Lombardi, Mark McCahill, Howard Stearns, Katsumi Tanaka, and Alan Kay. "3D Model Annotation from Multiple Viewpoints for Croquet," in Proc., Fourth Conference on Creating, Connecting, and Collaborating through Computing (C5 ‘06), IEEE Computer Society Press, 2006.

SHIP

"Designing a Knowledge Based Ship Design System," in Proc. 4th International Marine Systems Conference, Kobe, Japan, 1991

General Audience

USER

High Fidelity company blog three part series on social metaverse content discovery, or on user safety, live-streaming, 2016-2017

WETMACHINE

Croquet Blog wetmachine: Inventing the Future, including "Controlling Time," 2011, a seven part survey of the overall accomplishments of the Croquet Project.

NEWS

Croquet@UW Newsletter. 2007.

Education

MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA

B.Sc. Ocean Engineering 1986
B.Sc. Electrical Engineering 1987
Humanities Concentration: Economics

Experience

Linden Lab

Senior Developer - San Francisco, CA 2021-2024

Second Life is the original multi-user metaverse (50M+ users), created by Philip Rosedale in 2004. I joined when Rosedale sold the assets of High Fidelity and remaining talent to Linden. The streaming-Web prototype was solo work using pre-release tech from Amazon, and the mobile app was with an external company. source

Spearheaded development for a mobile app and a streaming-Web prototype, collaborating with external teams to enhance user engagement.

High Fidelity

Lead Developer - San Francisco, CA 2015-2021

High Fidelity was Rosedale’s separate VR re-conception and ground-up re-implementation of the Second Life concept. I started as an early engineer, and eventually managed six senior engineer direct reports + four embedded from other teams. source, IK, USER

Managed a team of senior engineers to optimize avatar data handling, achieving record synchronization of 600 concurrent animated avatars from one server, and 3000 users in one audio space. See video.
Deployed the first NFT marketplace in the metaverse, with a blockchain payment system for user-generated content. See writeup.
Developed and iterated on prototypes for innovative features in user safety and content discovery, integrating UI tools and persistence models to address immediate and future scalability needs.
Owned multiple product features, defining requirements in collaboration with users and iterating over multiple deployments produced by my team. Consistently prioritized high-impact tasks that aligned with user needs.
Developed a modified Agile approach, identifying specific business outcomes for each two-week sprint, consistently delivering on-time throughout four years.

Shocase

Senior Developer / Lead - San Francisco, CA 2014-2015

This social network for marketing professionals automatically gathered new-user portfolios from their public work. After my prototype, I put my system into production with two direct reports and three from other teams.

Led the prototyping and production of a new-user portfolio collection mechanism, managing a cross-functional team that harvested 100+ portfolios, significantly enhancing the platform’s user engagement and the new-user experience.

TuneUp Media

Senior Developer / Lead - San Francisco, CA 2011-2014

TuneUp is an app that attaches to iTunes, and uses the GraceNote service to identify and fix missing or incorrect track metadata for 9M Mac and Windows users. The CEO had been my CEO at Teleplace.

Collaborated closely with product management and other teams to re-architect a metadata correction system, enhancing user experience in personal music collections.

HP

Senior Application Lead - Sunnyvale, CA 2011

I joined Palm shortly before the release of Palm’s WebOS tablet, following an engineer I had worked with at Teleplace and at the University of Wisconsin, and I brought in the product manager from Teleplace. Soon after the release, HP announced that Palm would be wound down.

Delivered Palm’s most complex mobile app (email) and managed our first Agile and test-driven development.
Identified and developed a "missing app" (calculator) for the tablet launch, enhancing product offerings and user experience.

Teleplace

Member of the Technical Staff - Redwood City, CA 2007-2011

Teleplace (originally called Qwaq) was the enterprise commercialization of the Croquet project, advised by Alan Kay. source, PERFORMANCE, WETMACHINE

Delivered multiple diverse features in enterprise virtual worlds, including bandwidth-efficient avatar animation on 2005 hardware without a graphics card, enabling operation over edge cellular networks.
Delivered an innovative mobile streaming app for collaborative meetings.

University of Wisconsin

Lead Developer - Madison, WI 2004-2007

The multi-institution Croquet Project was convened by computing pioneers Alan Kay and David Reed to advance multi-user 3D virtual worlds for real-time, persistent collaboration. I managed the UW development team (three direct reports). BRIE-ARCH, BRIE-LANG, KAY 2005, KAY 2006, NEWS

Drove funding by leading the team to produce the first virtual world classroom experiences, integrated with the university’s learning systems and pedagogy.
Completed a successful contract with a Japanese government agency.
Published an innovative interactive language for non-programmers using symbolic AI techniques.

Engineering Intent

Applications Consultant - Waltham, MA 2003-2004

Engineering Intent was a Windows re-implementation of ICAD, founded by three of colleagues from ICAD.

Delivered rule-based applications with clients on-site and in remote office, lining up customer wins in advance of acquisition by Oracle.

Curl

Technology Strategist - Cambridge, MA 1999-2002

Curl was an MIT startup created by Tim Berners-Lee that created the rich internet architecture model of Web apps - everything that became HTML5. I followed one my colleagues from Curl and brought in another, starting as an application engineer, and creating the role of Technology Strategist. TOUR, SPEC

Identified technical strengths and developed applications for Tim Berners-Lee’s rich internet architecture model, enhancing competitive positioning in the market.
Developed the language specification and produced an interactive architectural tour, enhancing product visibility and understanding.
Developed the "executive dashboard" app around which the company was sold.

Elwood

Technology Director - Oak Creek, WI 1992-1999

Elwood is a small industrial firm with products in electronics, hydraulics, and robotics that transformed the artificial diamond market. source, LISPC, ECLIPSE, ALU

Developed low-level system software and factory automation controls, driving innovation in the artificial diamond market.
Produced all aspects of the Eclipse Common Lisp system from concept to new industrial customers for Elwood.

ICAD

Manager Of Applications - Cambridge, MA 1987-1992

ICAD was a rule-based expert-system startup for 3D mechanical engineering that spawned an IPO, three spin-offs and sale to Oracle. I started as a travelling on-site application consultant, and filled a hole in our "whole product" offering. SHIP

Prototyped and architected a smart integration between our rule-based 3D expert systems and external CAD systems, subsequently creating a team around this initiative with 13 products.

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