Eric J Park

Education

YCombinator

Stanford University
MS Computer Science

University of California, Berkeley
BS Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Winter 2020

June 2007


May 2003

Employment San Francisco Compute
CTO
San Francisco, CA
June 2024 – Present
 

Machine learning infrastructure

  Voltage Park
CEO
San Mateo, CA
July 2023 – February 2024
 

Oversee the deployment of 24,000 Nvidia H100 GPU's across the US into multiple data centers. Negotiate contracts, build out a team, and oversee a $1B budget.

  Further Future Foundation
Contractor
Berkeley, CA
April 2023 – July 2023
 

Build machine learning infrastructure, spin out Voltage Park as a separate company.

  Cadence
Co-Founder
San Francisco, CA
November 2019 – October 2022
 

Improving the remote work experience. A YCombinator (W20) company.

  Self-Employed
Robotics Engineer/Consultant/Advisor
Mountain View, CA
June 2018 – November 2019
 

Work on specification and development of embedded computing platforms for clients including NASA's VIPER lunar rover mission. Work with ARM and PowerPC architectures on Linux, FreeRTOS and VxWorks.

  Google
Software Engineer
Mountain View, CA
May 2014 – July 2018
 

Integrate Word Lens real-time language translation technology into Google Translate Android and iOS mobile apps. Implement real-time voice translation pipeline optimized for low-bandwidth environments. Google Translate has 500M+ monthly active users and serves 1B+ translations per month. Some press links and promo videos.

Work on avionics stack for Project Loon, a network of balloons flying through the stratosphere designed to deliver internet access to rural and remote areas of the world.

Development of infrastructure and platforms used to improve map data update speed and accuracy for Google Maps, ensuring fresh and relevant search results for over 1B+ monthly active users.

  Quest Visual
Director of Business Development / Software Engineer
San Francisco, CA
June 2012 – May 2014
 

Development of augmented reality mobile translation app Word Lens. Work on research efforts including Chinese translation, image processing, system architecture, and performance optimizations. Manage external partnerships, finance, legal, marketing, and business operations. Acquired by Google in 2014.

  NASA Ames Research Center / QSS Group / Carnegie Mellon University
Intelligent Robotics Group
Moffett Field, CA
June 2003 – May 2014
 

Robotics engineer for K9 test-bed Mars rover and K10 series human-robot interaction research mobile robots. Work on stereo vision, pose estimation, motion control, power management, and real-time embedded Linux development. Extensive field testing experience including remote regions of Arizona, Washington, and Canadian Arctic.

Software engineer for GigaPan project, a collaboration between NASA, Carnegie Mellon University, and Google. Work towards integration of PCA-SIFT based interest point detector and descriptor system for panorama stitching. Code publicly available as part of open-source Vision Workbench computer vision library. Also co-develop standalone panoramic imaging device that provides a simple web interface for panorama acquisition, stitching, and viewing.

Mobile developer for Disaster Response Toolkit in collaboration with Google. Develop Android app for use by first responders in emergency situations. First responders upload geotagged photos to web-based image repository. Images are then used by emergency response coordinators to provide situational awareness and assist in allocation of resources.

Systems engineer for MIT/NASA SPHERES project. Assist software development and flight qualification of Samsung Nexus S smartphone for delivery to International Space Station. Work on hardware and customization of Android codebase for space flight needs. Project launched on July 8, 2011 aboard Space Shuttle STS-135 and was covered by various media outlets including Engadget and TechCrunch.

  Carnegie Mellon University CREATE Lab
BodyTrack Project
Pittsburgh, PA
September 2011 – May 2012
 

Develop web-based tools to quantitatively analyze personal health and environmental data including diet, sleep, physical activity, air quality, and ambient light in time-series visualization environment. Contribute towards merge of BodyTrack code into open-source Fluxtream project.

  Tokbox
Lead Systems Engineer
Menlo Park, CA
June 2007 – October 2007
 

Principal systems engineer and employee #2 at web startup providing web-embeddable videoconferencing technology. Projects include video mail, instant message notification system and internal services. Lead deployment and scaling of production web infrastructure to accomodate thousands of simultaneous users. Traction allowed company to close $4M series-A venture funding from Sequoia Capital. Acquired by Telefonica in 2012.

  Jet Propulsion Laboratory / QSS Group
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Pasadena, CA
March 2004 – April 2004
 

Detail at JPL in support of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. Develop Perl-based software tools to assist scientists in manipulating and extracting useful data from images and traverse telemetry. Assist in creation of telemetry processing pipeline for Solar System Visualization Group (SSV) to take rover motion data and export to 3D animations.

  Findchips
Developer and Systems Administrator
Palo Alto, CA
September 2002 – June 2003
 

Administration and performance optimization of primary web servers. Write Perl and shell scripts to automate billing and processing of search results. Write customized grep function to maximize search performance. Acquired by SupplyFrame in 2010.

Startups and Projects Listenonrepeat
Co-Founder / Board Member
New York, NY
December 2008 – September 2020
 

Design and development of music video discovery and playback site listenonrepeat.com. Direct full-stack development including client-side and back-end infrastructure with an eye towards scalability. Site has over 2.6 million active users and averages 30 million page views per month. Acquired by private party.

  Valencia Labs
Co-Founder
San Francisco, CA
January 2010 – March 2020
 

Publisher of CaltrainDroid Android app for easy access to Caltrain timetables and status updates.

  Optimistic Labs
Co-Founder
San Francisco, CA
June 2012 – March 2013
 

Work towards a system to integrate social good into people's day-to-day lives. Build a mobile app and back-end platform for locating, learning more about, and donating to nearby charities.

  Velometer
Co-Creator
San Francisco, CA
December 2012 – May 2013
 

Develop cost-effective bicycle counter sign to encourage bicycle awareness and advocacy. Measure bicycle counts using a pressure sensitive tube connected to Arduino microcontroller. Display counts using a high-idensity LED matrix display. Oversaw end-to-end design, development, and deployment on Bike to Work Day 2013 in San Francisco.

  DropPlay
Co-Founder
Palo Alto, CA
February 2009 – February 2010
 

Develop social music player friendradio.fm atop Facebook platform. Site allows users to browse, discover, and listen to friends' music via YouTube videos. Facebook 2009 fbFund REV winner -- raise seed funding and participate in fbFund REV incubator program.

  IMOk Project
Co-Creator / Team Lead
Mountain View, CA
November 2009 – December 2010
 

Lead team effort in development of open-source SMS-based "I am okay" notification system for use in emergency situations. Write Android, Blackberry, and iPhone apps. World Bank field agents deployed app to Haiti and Chile during earthquake aid. 1st prize winner at Random Hacks of Kindness code jam.

  Youbama.com
Co-Creator
Palo Alto, CA
December 2007 – January 2008
 

Develop website focused on grassroots campaigning for presidential candidate Barack Obama through video. Users submit videos explaining why they are voting for Obama and vote for the videos they like. Popular videos float to the top of the page. Site was rapidly developed in less than two weeks and was covered by numerous media outlets including TechCrunch, Washington Post, American Public Radio, and CNN.

  Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK) / Carnegie Mellon University
Contributor
Pittsburgh, PA
December 2005 – August 2006
 

Consulting and collaborative work towards development of robot controller powered by ARM CPU and FPGA for educational applications. Cross-platform development of custom Linux kernel module and FPGA-interfaced DAC for audio. End product was commercially available as the Qwerk from Charmed Labs until Innovation First exclusively licensed it for their VEX PRO robot controller.

Internships University of California, Berkeley
Graphical User Interface Research Group
Berkeley, CA
September 2002 – May 2003
 

Research ubiquitous computing environments with Prof. Jennifer Mankoff. Install Linux on embedded devices for use in nutritional awareness project. Develop software infrastructure to enable collection and analysis of grocery receipts via handheld scanners. Research new ways of dealing with e-mail for individuals with repetitive stress injuries.

  University of California, Berkeley
Micromechanical Flying Insect Project
Berkeley, CA
August 2000 – August 2002
 

Fabricate and characterize piezoelectric actuators for miniature robot fly with Prof. Ronald Fearing and Prof. Metin Sitti. Research ways to maximize power output of actuators. Hands on work with spectrum analyzers, force sensors, high-power lasers, and precision manipulation tools.

  NASA Ames Research Center
Intelligent Robotics Group
Moffett Field, CA
Summers 2000 – 2002
 

Extend functionality of power management system for use on K9 test-bed Mars rover. Integrate battery monitoring system, develop drivers for CLARAty rover framework, and model power systems. Administer and configure Linux systems for use in embedded environments, including NFS/AFS, 802.11b infrastructure, and custom Linux kernels. Write I2C handler in Motorola 68HC11 assembly to talk to on-board temperature sensors.

Publications T. Fong, M. Micire, T. Morse, E.Park, C. Provencher, V. To, DW Wheeler, D. Mittman, R. Torres, Smart SPHERES: a Telerobotic Free-Flyer for Intravehicular Activities in Space, ISS Research and Development Conference, Denver, CO, July 16-18, 2013.

S. Lee, D. Lees, T. Cohen, M. Allan, M. Deans, T. Morse, E. Park, T. Smith, Reusable science tools for analog exploration missions: xGDS Web Tools, VERVE, and Gigapan Voyage, Acta Astronautica 2012.

Susan Y. Lee, Ted Morse, and Eric Park, Gigapan Voyage for Robotic Reconnaissance, Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science, Pittsburgh, PA, Nov 11-13, 2010.

Fong, T., Bualat, M., Deans, M., et al., Robotic Follow-up for Human Exploration, AIAA Space, Anaheim, CA, Aug 30-Sept 2, 2010.

M. Deans, T. Fong, et al., Robotic Scouting for Human Exploration, AIAA Space, Pasadena, CA, Sept 14-17, 2009.

T. Fong, M. Bualat, M. Deans, et al., Field Testing of Utility Robots for Lunar Surface Operations, AIAA Space, San Diego, CA, Sept 9-11, 2008.

M. Bualat, L. Edwards, T. Fong, et al., Autonomous Robotic Inspection for Lunar Surface Operations, The 6th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, Chamonix, France, July 9-12, 2007.

Joakim Arfvidsson, Eric Park, Philip Levis, Lowering Radio Duty Cycle Through Temperature Compensated Timing, The 4th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, Boulder, CO, Nov 1-3, 2006. Poster abstract.

Maria Bualat, Linda Kobayashi, Susan Y. Lee, and Eric Park, Flexible Rover Architecture for Science Instrument Integration and Testing, AIAA Space, San Jose, CA, Sept 19-21, 2006.

T. Fong, M. Bualat, L. Edwards, et al., Human-Robot Site Survey and Sampling for Space Exploration, AIAA Space, San Jose, CA, Sept 19-21, 2006.

Eric Park, Linda Kobayashi, and Susan Y. Lee, Extensible Hardware Architecture for Mobile Robots, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, Apr 18-22, 2005.

M. Deans, R. Sargent, C. Kunz, E. Park, L. Pedersen, Combined feature based and shape based visual tracker for robot navigation, IEEE Aerospace Conference 2005, Big Sky, MT, Mar 5-12, 2005.

J. Yan, S.Avadhanula, J. Birch, M.H. Dickinson, M. Menon, E. Park, T.D. Sands, S.Sane, M. Sitti, T. Su, R.J. Wood, and R.S. Fearing, The Micromechanical Flying Insect, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Washington, D.C., May 11-15, 2002 (winner best video award).

Robots NASA Ames Research Center
Intelligent Robotics Group – K9 / K10 / K-REX
Moffett Field, CA
Summers 2000 – 2002, June 2003 – May 2014
 

Work on instrumentation integration and custom avionics systems for K9 testbed Mars rover. Elements include motion control, power management, wireless communications, computing infrastructure, and instrumentation. Deal with instruments including IMU, NIR spectrometer, DGPS, stereo cameras, and laser scanners. Design and development of avionics package for K10 human-robot interaction research mobile robot with emphasis on low-cost, rapid development, and component re-use. Debug and optimize real-time Linux kernel and CANbus-based motor controllers for vehicle-sized K-REX rover.

  National Semiconductor Natcar Competition
Mechatronics Design Lab – Boebot
Berkeley, CA
Spring 2002
 

Build autonomous RC race car with team-mates to compete in the National Semiconductor Natcar competition. Robot must autonomously complete a course by following a buried wire as fast as possible. Work on hardware assembly and machining, power regulation, PID motor control, H-bridge circuit design, cross-compiler tools, and sensor tuning.

  University of California, Berkeley
Biomimetics Laboratory – Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI)
Berkeley, CA
August 2000 – August 2002
 

Work on development of a fly-sized flying robot based on biomimetic principles. Construct, characterize, and optimize piezoelectric actuators for use in wing actuation.

  Robot Rivals
RIVR Media – Cal Clutter Collector / Golf Ball Launcher
Knoxville, TN
February 2003
 

Compete in university level robotics competition airing on the Do-It-Yourself Network (cable TV). 3-member university teams have 8 hours to construct a robot that must complete a pre-determined objective. Create toy collection and golf ball launching robots using 80/20 beams, RC radio equipment, and random hardware components.

  FIRST National Robotics Competition
Mills Robotics Team
Orlando, FL
November 1997 – April 1999
 

Co-found and manage 60+ member high school robotics team. Construct two refrigerator-sized robots to compete in national robotics competition. Extensive work with machine shop equipment, high-current motors, linear and pneumatic actuators, optical and contact sensors, and CAD tools. The team is still going strong 25+ years later.

  Tech Challenge Robotics Competition
Jeztek Robotics Team
San Jose, CA
October 1995 – October 1997
 

Compete in regional robotics competition for middle and high school students at the Tech Museum of Innovation. Build several robots with 3 other team mates to complete pre-determined objectives. Work with DC motors, digital compasses, microcontrollers, and hardware machining.

Relevant Coursework
(Stanford)

 

 


(Berkeley)

 

CS121 – Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
CS145 – Introduction to Databases
CS154 – Automata and Complexity Theory
CS161 – Algorithms
CS205 – Mathematical Methods
CS223B – Computer Vision
CS240 – Advanced Operating Systems

EE105 – Microelectronics (transistors and opamps)
EE120 – Signals and Systems
EE122 – Communication Networks
EE128 – Feedback Control Systems
EE192 – Mechatronics Design Laboratory

CS242 – Programming Languages
CS244A – Computer Networks
CS245 – Database System Principles
CS255 – Cryptography
CS344A – Wireless Sensor Networks
EE282 – Computer Systems Architecture
EE380 – Computer Systems Colloquium

CS150 – Design Techniques for Digital Systems
CS152 – Computer Architecture and Engineering
CS162 – Operating Systems
CS164 – Compilers
CS184 – Computer Graphics

Honors and Misc

UC Berkeley IEEE Student Branch President
Silicon Valley Scholars Full-Tuition Scholarship
Machine shop certification, UC Berkeley ME Department
Amateur Radio License (General)

Fall 2002 - Spring 2003
Fall 1999 - Spring 2003
Fall 1999 - Spring 2000