Kyle Kotowick, Ph.D.
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Toptal member since January 10, 2019
Dr. Kotowick is a leader in product design and solution architecture, having completed his Ph.D. in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and having served as a consultant for global firms, startups, and universities. He specializes in working with enterprise clients to define requirements and explore possible solutions, as well as in leading the development of project architecture, cloud services, and back-end software.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Aerospace & Defense
- Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS)
- Human-centered Design (HCD)
- Product Design
- Product Management
- Team Management
- Technical Product Management
- User Research
Work Experience
Prototype Engineer | Project Manager
King Tester Corporation
- Guided the design and development of a product used in manufacturing and testing, with a focus on durability and usability in adverse environments.
- Took the product from initial conception to user beta testing in less than six months.
- Reviewed product specifications and features with users to ensure design compatibility with real-world use cases.
- Managed a team of four engineers, including UI, hardware, and industrial specialists.
- Developed a proprietary computer vision system using OpenCV and Python.
- Integrated software with embedded system hardware, including multiple types of single-board computers.
- Developed software tools for controlling embedded hardware devices.
Technology Specialist
Team Rubicon
- Assisted in the specifications of hardware utilized for international disaster medical response operations.
- Deployed to Mozambique as a team leader of a world health organization emergency medical team to support disaster recovery operations after Cyclone Idai.
- Deployed to the Northern Marianas Islands to support disaster recovery operations after Super Typhoon Yutu.
- Supported disaster recovery operations after Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas.
- Managed all of the technological systems during deployments, including satellite networking, radio systems, and GPS tracking.
- Supported the development of organization-wide technological systems including membership portals, financial tracking, and emergency communications system preparation.
Director of Information Technology
MIT Emergency Medical Services
- Conducted extensive user consultations to inform the design of software and hardware for the service.
- Designed and managed multiple internal products, including internal- and external-facing website tools, IoT devices for ambulance dispatch and tracking, and public safety radio systems.
- Developed, deployed, and managed a complex website in PHP with user credentials and qualifications enforcement, shift scheduling, automated email list membership, an interactive file library, and an ICS-integrated calendar system.
- Designed and implemented a system for securely transferring and storing protected healthcare records utilizing AES symmetric encryption and HIPAA-compliant processes and systems.
- Designed, built, and tested a special operations vehicle with command-and-control and patient transfer capabilities.
- Constructed a system for capturing and logging all public safety radio traffic using C++ and SDR.
- Developed and published an iOS app for in-ambulance use for dispatching and navigation.
- Built electronics prototypes for radio, siren, and emergency lights control.
Senior Developer
Mosaic
- Worked with customers to evaluate data analysis requirements.
- Reviewed software architecture to identify failures and data cleansing issues.
- Provided emergency support services as necessary.
Solution Architect
Global Mining Corporation (via Toptal)
- Served as a solution architect for one of the world's largest mining corporations with extensive operations in central Asia.
- Evaluated technical requirements of a distributed sensor system for large mines.
- Determined optimal architecture for gathering, processing, archiving, and visualizing terabytes per day of sensor data.
- Compared costs/benefits of various potential software components, including Elastic Stack, Splunk, Greylog, Docker, and Kubernetes.
- Generated a deployment proposal for the identified architecture, including initial cost analysis.
Architecture Consultant
Cole eVentures
- Evaluated client business structure to determine optimal product architecture for high performance with lowest cost.
- Managed AWS infrastructure to meet product requirements, including relational databases, clustering, and high availability.
- Designed product/infrastructure to be backwards-compatible for existing customers.
- Implemented Cloud9 infrastructure for database interfacing.
Lead Engineer
Global Top-tier Strategy Consulting Firm (via Toptal)
- Worked with users to design the interface and features of an internal search tool.
- Developed a RESTful API using Serverless Framework, Python, and AWS Aurora.
- Designed and implemented the back-end cloud (AWS) architecture for global deployment.
- Configured and maintained an Elasticsearch cluster, integrated with RESTful API via AWS Lambda and API Gateway.
- Planned and implemented all security considerations, including AWS Virtual Private Cloud, Virtual Private Network, and VPS Endpoints.
- Implemented a CI/CD pipeline, including GitLab, AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy, all integrated with Slack for automatic build/deployment notifications to the development team.
- Developed scripts for automated input data processing, cleaning, and import into a structured relational database.
- Worked with a team of developers including front-end and graphic design specialists.
- Architected a global deployment strategy with multi-region failure redundancy and latency-based routing.
Lead Cryptography Engineer
Taraxa (via Toptal)
- Designed a product for secure and anonymous verification of email address ownership.
- Implemented a secure channel injection protocol for SMTP connections.
- Utilized multiparty computation for cooperative multi-party TLS record creation through frameworks including FRESCO and EMP-Tool.
- Worked with zero-knowledge proofs for SHA-256 hash and X.509 certificate validation.
- Developed a threaded networking framework for a blind certificate authority protocol.
- Implemented new academic cryptographic research for production-scale deployment.
Prototype Engineer
Okta (via Toptal)
- Implemented a demonstration prototype of the WebAuthn protocol with support for FIDO2 USB, NFC, and Apple TouchID.
- Built a fully responsive, modern login interface with real-time network traffic display.
- Deployed the prototype using Flask.
Integration Consultant
INTSITE Ltd.
- Designed and prototyped a distributed IoT sensor network using IMUs, GPS, and remote cameras.
- Developed a redundant wireless communications system for the sensor network, utilizing ZigBee/XBee radio and MIMO point-to-point WiFi.
- Built Python libraries for redundant and encrypted command/information transmission over the distributed network.
- Integrated LTE cellular communications software and hardware with outdoor system deployments.
- Developed Python libraries for image processing and file conversion.
- Created MySQL database structure for distributed sensor datasets.
- Provided guidance on optimal network configuration, including software and hardware.
Research Assistant | Ph.D. Candidate
MIT Interactive Robotics Group
- Designed and managed five large-scale studies with hundreds of participants to evaluate the effects of various product designs.
- Developed and tested novel C++ and Python control algorithms for multirotor UAV flights using the Robot Operating System (ROS).
- Constructed a custom tactile feedback device and developed the necessary C++ control software.
- Created virtual reality environments for user studies, including scripting in multiple proprietary languages.
- Managed all Git services for the research group.
- Collaborated with DARPA (US Department of Defense) on a military research project for multimodal feedback.
Research Assistant | Ph.D. Candidate
MIT Human Systems Laboratory
- Developed C++ and MATLAB algorithms for processing electrocardiogram (ECG) and electromyography (EMG) data for astronauts and other users in microgravity.
- Supported the development of MATLAB software for solar flux predictions on orbital bodies.
- Produced CAD models of environmental control and life support systems for spacecraft.
- Engineered emergency shelters for astronauts on the lunar surface.
Research Assistant
UBC Robotics and Control Laboratory
- Designed and implemented a novel ultrasound imaging algorithm in C++.
- Wrote acoustic data processing algorithms in C++ and MATLAB.
- Developed image-processing algorithms using MATLAB and OpenCV.
- Created statistical analysis scripts for large acoustic and image datasets.
Project History
Product Design | Industrial Testing Device
Guided the design of electrical, industrial, and software components for a new industrial testing product.
As a product manager, project manager, and software developer, I took this new product from conceptualization to beta testing in under six months. The product gross margins are projected to be over 85%.
I managed a team of four, including electrical, software, and industrial engineers.
Public Safety Web System
Designed and managed an integrated web system for a public safety agency including dispatch, scheduling, and quality control.
Along with conducting extensive user consultation and testing to create specifications for a new integrated web system, I designed web interface, user experience, and back-end architecture. I also worked with counterparts in other agencies to develop medical record sharing systems.
The system has been in production use for four years.
Ph.D. Thesis | Military Navigation Systems
Completed a five-year research project on the design of navigation systems for military infantry and first responders.
I conducted five user studies to evaluate various design factors of navigation systems, including hundreds of participants overall. I also analyzed data and published three peer-reviewed articles with the results.
Education
Ph.D. Degree in Human Systems Integration
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA, USA
Master's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of British Columbia - Vancouver, BC, Canada
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science (Honors)
University of British Columbia - Kelowna, BC, Canada
Certifications
Paramedic
BC Emergency Medical Assistants Licensing Board
E-950: All-Hazards Incident Commander
Federal Emergency Management Agency
G775: Emergency Operations Center Management
Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency
E-958: All-Hazards Operations Section Chief
Federal Emergency Management Agency
ICS-400: Advanced Incident Command System
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Amateur Radio — General Class Operator
Federal Communications Commision
Skills
Tools
MATLAB, Apache, Git, GitHub, Trello, R, GitLab, MATLAB Statistics & Machine Learning Toolbox, Let's Encrypt, Asana, Jira, Postfix, SOLIDWORKS
Paradigms
Agile, Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Human-centered Design (HCD), DevOps, API Architecture, Requirements Analysis, Agile Product Management, Agile Workflow
Platforms
Windows Server, Windows 7, Debian Linux, Red Hat Linux, ARM Linux, Arduino, Raspbian
Industry Expertise
Healthcare, Aerospace & Defense, Radio
Other
Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, Internet of Things (IoT), Engineering, PHP, Python, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, JSON, Serverless, REST APIs, jQuery, Dropbox, Visual Studio, Back-end Development, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EC2, MySQL, Encryption, Integration, Research, User Research, UX Research, Computer Science, Creativity, UX Design, Public Sector, Public Speaking, Cloud, CTO, APIs, AWS DevOps, Product Management, Business Analysis, Feature Planning, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Product Strategy, Product Design, Product Roadmaps, Business Models, Product Marketing, Product Vision, Product Ownership, Technical Product Management, Product Discovery, Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), ARM, C++, Software as a Service (SaaS), Java, C#, CSS, C, Bitbucket, Digi XBee, Elasticsearch, Cybersecurity, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), Management, Team Management, Networks, Embedded Hardware, Distributed Systems, Extreme Programming, Swift, Django, Redux, Bootstrap, React, MongoDB, Virtual Reality (VR)
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