ARO, Inc.

Small startup dedicated to building power-efficient, high-accuracy, constant location tracking on consumer mobile devices.

Independently planned and executed basic and applied research in the domain of personal sensor data. Managed company research efforts with expectations to bring national and international credibility and recognition to the startup technology. Incorporated user research into design and evaluation of product features. Explored personal analytics: combining location data (from mobile applications Saga) and physical activity data in novel interactive visualizations.

• Executed integration of many (~30) third-party APIs into the product. Evaluated third party data, authorization protocols, use and licensing agreements, and potential benefit of the data integration. Orchestrated design, engineering and product teams to move the work into production.
• Introduced user-centered, data-driven research into production support design process and frameworks.
• Used user evaluation of visualization prototypes to define key product features, automated testing, and inform product roadmap.
• Organized and led collaborative efforts to perform core research leading to 2 workshop papers, 3 industry conference presentations, 1 provisional patent, and 1 patent filed establishing ARO’s innovative capabilities and research credentials industry-wide.