Michael Travers
Pacifica, CAmt@alum.mit.edu
(415) 378-7033http://xenia.media.mit.edu/~mt
  Summary of Qualifications
  • Excellent programming and design skills
  • Ability to take technical leadership roles
  • Good communication skills
  • Experienced in delivering customer-ready enterprise-scale products
  • Creative approach to software and UI design
  • Experienced with a broad range of technologies
  Professional Experience
BioLingua ProjectPalo Alto, CA
Knowledge Representation and User Interface Lead Designed and implemented an open-source system for biological knowledge representation, including web-based interface. Worked on design of programming languages for biologists. (2003-present)
Afferent Systems / MDL, Inc.San Francisco, CA
Director, Human-Computer Interaction; Principal Software Engineer; Architect Developed applications for pharmaceutical drug discovery. Responsible for user interface design and implementation, including a sophisticated search facility. Other responsibilities included designing and implementing an object-relational mapping facility, and redesigning architecture for operation in a worldwide enterprise environment. Participated in project planning and management. (1999-present)
IBM Watson Research CenterHawthorne, NY
Research Scientist Worked with the Java Tools research group designing advanced interactive programming and visualization tools; explored agent-based component architectures. Worked on XML-related application tools and contributed to schema standards effort. Developed web-based knowledge management tools for corporate intranet. (1997-1999)
Independent consultantCambridge, MA
Consulted to many companies, including Apple Computer, TERC, IS Robotics, Digitool, MCC, the Berkeley Boxer project, and Grasp, on projects involving interaction design, agent-based systems, programming environments, knowledge visualization, and advanced web searching tools. (1980-97)
Epistemology and Learning Group, MIT Media LaboratoryCambridge, MA
Research Affiliate Designed and prototyped a visual programming system for the Virtual Fishtank Exhibit at the Boston Computer Museum. (1996-97)
Lisp Machine Inc.Cambridge MA
Senior Software Engineer Designed and implemented programming environment tools including a graphic interface toolkit; a hypertext documentation browser and an object-oriented API for 3D graphics. (1985-6)
Centre Mondial Informatique et Resources HumaineParis, France
Software Engineer Designed and implemented a knowledge base and graphic editor for a medical diagnostic expert system. (1983-84)
MIT Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryCambridge, MA
Research Staff Member Developed and maintained system software; developed logic design tools for early work on Connection Machine parallel processor. (1981-82)
  Selected Publications and Presentations
BioLingua: A programmable knowledge environment for biologists. BioInformatics 21(2):199-207, 2005 (with J.P. Massar, J. Elhai, and J. Shrager).
A Brief Overview of the Narrative Intelligence Reading Group. In Narrative Intelligence, eds. Michael Mateas and Phoebe Sengers. 27-38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Company, 2003 (with Marc Davis)
Dynamic Interaction in Java (retitled What is Interactive Scripting?), Dr. Dobb's Journal 25(1), January 2000.
Behave!, visual programming system for the Virtual Fishtank exhibit, The Computer Museum, Boston, 1998.
Recursive Interfaces for Reactive Objects, Proceedings of CHI '94, in Boston, 1994.
Two Approaches to Informal Interaction Over Computer and Video Networks. In Proceedings of CHI '91 in New Orleans, 13-19, 1991 (with Alan Borning).
A Visual Representation for Knowledge Structures. In Proceedings of Hypertext '89, 147-158, 1989.
The Electric Anthill (interactive computer installation), in SIGGRAPH 1989 Art Show and Traveling Exhibition.
Animal Construction Kits. In Artificial Life: SFI Series in the Sciences of Complexity, ed. C. Langton. Addison-Wesley, 1988.
  Education
MIT Media Laboratory, Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences
Research in programming environments, languages, and agent-based systems. Dissertation title: Programming with Agents: New metaphors for thinking about computation. Nominated for ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award. (1996)
MIT Media Laboratory, S.M. in Visual Studies
Research in programming environments, behavior simulation, and artificial life. Thesis title: Agar: An Animal Construction Kit. (1988)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B. in Mathematics
With concentrations in theory of computation and visual arts. (1986)
  Professional Organizations and Activities
Program Committee, ACM SIGCHI Conferences, 1995-2000.
Co-founder, Narrative Intelligence Group
Member ACM, AAAI, AAAS
  Technical Details
Experienced in design and implementation at all levels from operating system internals to user interfaces. Languages include: Java, Lisp, C#, C, Tcl, assembler. Internet standards: TCP, HTML, HTTP, XML, mail standards. Databases: SQL, Oracle, ODBC. Operating systems: Windows, Mac, Unix.