Mak, Ron

Ron Mak photo

Department of Computer Science
Department of Computer Engineering

Email

Preferred: ron.mak@sjsu.edu

Education

I have degrees in the Mathematical Sciences and in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Licenses and Certificates

I am an inventor on . The first two are for innovative web techniques at an early Internet startup. The most recent four are for advanced data analytics at IBM Research.

Bio

I was a Senior Computer Scientist at the , where I designed and managed the building of the Spacecraft System Integration Laboratory (SSIL) for the simulation of orbiting in cluster formations and performing scatter-gather maneuvers. We installed locally in order to dynamically provision users with advanced graphics servers and up to 400 virtual machines in arbitrary user-specified network configurations. I also wrote software for the new that will someday take astronauts to Mars. On an earlier mission, as Senior Scientist at the (RIACS) at NASA Ames, I designed and led the development of the middleware for a key for NASA's (MER) mission.

I am the consulting Chief Data Scientist at , a data analytics startup. As a Research Staff Member at the in San Jose, I helped implement the that integrated multiple heterogeneous simulation, statistical, and data models in order to research the nation's obesity problem. I was the Enterprise Software Strategist at the for a major laser-based fusion energy project, the (NIF), where I helped design and develop a workflow system to consolidate and manage the scientific data generated by the laser firings. I've worked at high-tech companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Apple as a software developer, project lead, and engineering manager.

I have invited and hosted pioneers in computer science and in the computer industry, including several  winners, to give weekly talks at 91ÁÔÆæ.

I have taught software classes at and at , and I had a faculty appointment at the . I have degrees in the Mathematical Sciences and in Computer Science from Stanford, where two of my physics professors each had a Nobel Prize. But despite having done work that required taking the Theory of Relativity into account, I'm still amazed that the sun comes up each morning and that bicycles don't tip over.

I've written on compiler writing, software engineering, and numerical computation that have been translated into several languages. I coauthored the chapter "Compilers and Interpreters" in , and I wrote the chapter "A Highly Reliable Enterprise System for NASA's Mars Rover Mission" in which won the Jolt Award. I find designing and developing software such as compilers and enterprise systems to be fun and challenging. So I'm the kind of geek nobody wants to talk to at parties. My one redeeming feature is that I am owned by .

Links

See my for courses I'm currently teaching or have recently taught.