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The opportunity to use his education to design solutions that have a real-world impact is one that Michael, a Distinguished Developer, doesn't take for granted.
Michael received his PhD in computer science. Since 2005, he has been applying his area of study – computer-supported collaboration – to his work at SMART.
"I studied how groups of people work together to accomplish their goals and use technology along the way," he says. "I'm interested in the real-world social problems people face when trying to adapt technology and make it work in practice. And now at SMART, I think of innovative ways to improve that situation for them."
For Michael, the ability to pursue this interest while working on solutions that affect the way students learn and teachers teach is one of the most exciting aspects of his job.
"I get a big kick out of some of the technical challenges we have in creating highly usable software for children," he says. "The needs of students vary dramatically from one to the next. And within a classroom you have a teacher who has to manage all these different personalities and different social dramas, and yet still help everyone progress and learn."
Having your voice be heard
To help teachers achieve this goal, Michael draws on his academic background and expertise. His efforts are buoyed by working in an environment where his input is valued and considered.
"SMART has a culture that starts right at the top of listening to people, hearing what their opinions are and encouraging people to speak up," Michael says. "The validation I get for my contributions and the fact that I can see how what I say influences what we do in the long term – you don't get that at just any old place, especially within an enterprise the size of SMART. Usually once you grow, those opportunities to be heard go away."
Developing solutions that draw on your expertise, having your voice be heard – it's an inspiring environment to be a part of. And for Michael, knowing the real-world impact his work is having is the icing on the cake.
"Recently we got a package from a first-grade class in British Columbia. It was a bunch of paper SMART Board interactive whiteboards that the kids had been practicing their handwriting on," he says. "They wrote messages to thank us for some of the improvements we did with SMART Notebook 10.7 collaborative learning software, which was a software project I led. To get that kind of personal thank-you from them is really satisfying."
