Victor Luo, Product Manager in Tokyo, Japan
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Victor Luo

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Product Manager

Tokyo, Japan

Toptal member since November 1, 2021

Expertise
Robotics Product Management
Bio

Victor spent ten years at NASA's JPL, building a software team focused on visualizations for controlling spacecraft. He prototyped the first application on the Microsoft HoloLens platform for Mars rover operations, receiving the NASA Software of the Year Award in 2018. Victor initiated strategic partnerships in other technical domains on behalf of JPL and as an advisor for X—the moonshot factory. Today, he is incubating early-stage prototypes for cross-company initiatives at Amazon.

Project Highlights

Collaborative Spacecraft CAD Design
Led the prototype phase of the first collaborative AR design review experience and built the team to bring it into production.
Augmenting Astronaut Performance in Space
Led the production of the Sidekick project, our successful endeavor to put the Microsoft HoloLens onboard the ISS within six months.
Walking on Mars with HoloLens
Working in stealth with a team at Microsoft, we developed OnSight—an enterprise application on the Windows Holographic platform.

Expertise

  • Augmented Reality (AR)
  • Front-end Development
  • Product Management
  • Product Strategy
  • Robotics
  • Software Innovation
  • Strategic Partnerships
  • Unity3D

Work Experience

Principal Product Manager - Technical

2019 - PRESENT
Amazon.com
  • Collaborated with businesses across Amazon to identify net-new initiatives, build POCs to validate our hypothesis, and establish an infusion path to scale. The current portfolio of projects includes robotics, education, and circular economics.
  • Analyzed the marketplace and the user research to craft the product strategy and program a roadmap for next-generation smart home technologies.
  • Coordinated with the design, business, and development teams to implement web and mobile-based customer-centric experiences.
  • Led the planning of three ideation workshops across multiple disciplines, including engineering, design, business, resulting in two new product concepts from each session.

General Manager

2008 - 2019
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  • Managed a team of 35+ developers and designers on 10+ projects by securing $10 million a year.
  • Established and executed partnerships with the industry and agencies—NASA, JAXA, and ESA.
  • Certified and launched commercial hardware to the ISS in less than six months.
  • Incubated the first app on the Microsoft HoloLens platform, used for Mars rover operations.
  • Designed the natural user interface (NUI) with full-body gestures for robotic manipulation.
  • Led the development team of 3D web, mobile, and full-client outreach applications.

Project History

Collaborative Spacecraft CAD Design

https://youtu.be/OEvCDfPFQCU

Led the prototype phase of the first collaborative AR design review experience and built the team to bring it into production.

Leveraging Microsoft HoloLens and other AR technologies, the Ops Lab has developed a capability for our spacecraft engineers to design in complete 3D. A proprietary model decimation and a rendering pipeline allow full-fidelity CAD to be rendered collaboratively in shared sessions. Currently being used in multiple NASA flight missions and future proposed concepts.

Augmenting Astronaut Performance in Space

https://youtu.be/AWLncecL2Wc

Led the production of the Sidekick project, our successful endeavor to put the Microsoft HoloLens onboard the ISS within six months.

We designed the application to empower the crew with assistance when and where they need it. The goal of the Sidekick project is to increase ISS utilization and scientific return by accelerating crew activities.

Walking on Mars with HoloLens

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4451

Working in stealth with a team at Microsoft, we developed OnSight—an enterprise application on the Windows Holographic platform.

OnSight allows scientists and engineers at NASA JPL to walk on Mars with the highest terrain fidelity ever made and plan together in an immersive and collaborative environment. This software received NASA's software of the year award in 2018.

NASA | Microsoft Interactive Outreach Collaboration

https://youtu.be/-wnECM1ae4w

Played a lead role in engaging with Microsoft Xbox and initiating a long-term collaboration centered on using interactive media to excite the public about space and STEM education.

Our releases included an Xbox Kinect game—Mars Rover Landing—and an Xbox Live destination, transporting the excitement and challenges of landing a rover on Mars to people in their living rooms.

Mars Rover Outreach 3D Web Experiences

https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/surface-experience/

Led a team of ten engineers and designers to build a suite of interactive 3D experiences for the Curiosity Mars Rover landing in 2012.

Working with the Mars Outreach team at JPL, we created a suite of interactive 3D experiences for the public, starting with the Spirit MER rover and extending to the Curiosity MSL rover and beyond.

As the project lead, I focused on the user interface and the user experience, delivering live Mars imagery and telemetry into an interactive web experience.

Natural User Interface Research

Researched novel methods of 3D object manipulation using skeleton tracking and body gestures.

The research focused on different methods of 3D object manipulation:
• Multi-platform teleoperations of robots with modularized input modalities.
• One-to-one mapping of user skeleton to robotic limbs to simulate avatar-like control.
• Intent-based operation of robotics, based on hand gestures and voice commands.

Education

2009 - 2012

Master's Degree in Computer Science

University of Southern California (USC) - Los Angeles, CA

2003 - 2008

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly SLO) - San Luis Obispo, CA

Skills

Tools

Google Docs, Slack, Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Visual Studio

Paradigms

Augmented Reality (AR), Human Interface Design, Human-centered Design (HCD)

Platforms

Xbox 360

Other

Microsoft Office, Product Management, Product Strategy, Product Roadmaps, Software Innovation, Partner Management, Virtual Reality (VR), Program Management, Strategic Partnerships, General Management, Prototyping, Front-end Design, Unity3D, Front-end Development, Robotics, Software Engineering, Process Design, Hackathons, Ideation Workshops, User Research, 3D, Data Visualization, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Scrum Master, Agile Sprints, Microsoft Kinect, Game Design, UX Testing, Event Planning, C#, People Management, Game Development, Algorithms, Operating Systems, Networking, FPGA, QA Testing, Network Engineering, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), QA Test Plan Management, WebGL, Software Development

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