The Name is Michael

It's nice to meet you 👋

I am an entrepreneur, computer scientist, and software engineer. My expertise includes

• subfields of Artificial Intelligence, like deep learning and machine learning;
• computer networking and hardware acceleration/optimization; and
• Internet Technologies and network installation.

I can also make computers sing in C, or with TidalCycles.

I have a deep love for music, history, and community.

I used to work with:

• The Rocket Science Group (opens in a new tab), a contractor group in Half Moon NY focused on extending the workforce of in-house game studios.
  • The Epic (opens in a new tab)/Mediatonic (opens in a new tab) video game "Fall Guys." (opens in a new tab) Led a team of 5 software engineers across 3 different timezones (6 hours difference); designed and implemented a refactor of the event-driven architecture for in-app-purchase (IAP) framework in anticipation of the Mobile Launch; Implemented new schema of challenge types for an in-house superuser tool for extended game play; Implemented a new image processing endpoint for high resolution images and down-scaling to the supported image size; Implemented content validation for the in-house content management system
  • 2K (opens in a new tab)/Take-Two (opens in a new tab) studios infrastructure improvement project. Bootstrapped the team's ability to locally develop the project. Wrote a white paper defining a statistical approach to easing excess load from crashing the system in anticipation of Civilization VII's launch 2025Q1.
  • K-ID (opens in a new tab), a Singapore/Seattle startup focused on protecting children online. Designed and Implemented large-system designs with a multi-team federacy of constractors across 6 timezones (+-12 hours). Designed and implemented a multi-region telemetry pipeline and dashboard for the core product. Re-designed and implemented core-business logic, focused on distributed, fault tolerate, six 9 uptime services. Refactored DevOps pipeline, focused on building and archiving the product for smooth roll out and roll back processes. Established CI/CD practices such as feature flagging, naming conventions, and enterprise habits.
• Velan Studios (opens in a new tab), a medium startup in Troy NY with a focus on creating "breakthrough games that are magic." For Knockout City, I designed and implemented a suite of internal tools to enhance Customer Service, Player Moderation, and Player Behavior Analysis. Additionally, I managed updates to production and development infrastructure across 10 different environments.
• IPPSec, a startup I co-founded to change the landscape of community security; I designed "tongue to tail" the platform-system from the server cluster anatomy to the UX on phones. Ask me about it.
• Updox (opens in a new tab), a medium startup in Dublin OH, focused on improving the patient experience at clinics. I implemented a prototype of V2 of their flagship product in ReactJS (the new tech at the time).
• Microsoft (opens in a new tab), a large startup with an office in Cambridge MA. I created analytics tools to realize 10,000s of users were being underuserved with the product Intune (opens in a new tab).

Some of my hobbies/interest include:

• games, like chess (play me on Lichess.org (opens in a new tab)), Catan, Wingspan, Squance, rummy, and Civ 6;
• music, like playing piano and guitar, or deep listening to ambient, metal, and jazz (my favorite band is The Mountain Goats);
• home restoration, like foundation repairs, wood refinishing, and garden pruning; and
• reading, like theater plays, non-fiction, A.I., quantum computing, and anything by William Kennedy.

• GitHub @MJGTwo (opens in a new tab)
• LinkedIn /in/michael-gardner (opens in a new tab)