Open to opportunities

Michael Bobak

@michaelbobak

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Knowledge-engineer and research programmer specializing in semantic AI.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I seek roles applying ontology, knowledge representation, and semantic technologies to improve processes and teaching in collaborative, research-oriented teams.

I am a research programmer and knowledge engineer with a foundation in (bio)physical-science simulation and decades of applied work across academia, government, and commercial settings.

I have focused on ontology design, knowledge representation and reasoning, rules, knowledge acquisition, NLP, and applied ML to build knowledge-based aids for process improvement and teaching.

My career includes senior research software engineering at a national supercomputing center, contract ontology development for pharma, and long-term advising and engineering roles for startups and industry partners where I integrated Semantic Web, triple-stores, and knowledge-graph solutions.

I bring a practitioner’s orientation to projects—designing, implementing, and deploying systems, mentoring teams, and aligning research insights to practical product and workflow improvements.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Senior Knowledge Engineer

Current

AlohaHealthNet

Jan 2017 - Present (9 years)

Advised an early-stage startup on knowledge-engineering architecture and integration, applying ontology and NLP techniques derived from UCSF research to product development.

Ontology Engineering NLP System Integration

Senior Research Software Engineer

National Center for Supercomputing Applications

Jan 2019 - Dec 2023 (4 years 11 months)

Developed semantics and metadata search solutions for EarthCube and related grants, integrating NLP and simulation components to improve discoverability and research workflows.

Metadata NLP Simulation Python Data Modeling

Senior Software Engineer

Agrible

Jan 2017 - Dec 2018 (1 year 11 months)

Led rework of core simulation, documentation, and ML verification pipelines to improve model accuracy and maintainability for agricultural decision-support products.

Machine Learning Python Software Documentation System Design

Architect, Adaptive Learning

Apollo Education Group

Oct 2010 - Jul 2011 (9 months)

Architected an adaptive learning platform by conceptually annotating study material and designing remediation workflows, using Hadoop and knowledge-management tooling.

Knowledge Management Hadoop Instructional Design

Programmer/Analyst III

UCSF

Sep 2007 - Oct 2010 (3 years 1 month)

Conducted medical-informatics research for clinical trials using Lisp/KM and Java NLP, developed ontologies and co-authored papers with Stanford collaborators.

Medical Informatics NLP Knowledge Management Java

Senior Research Programmer

UIUC Knowledge Based Systems Lab

Jun 1998 - Feb 2001 (2 years 8 months)

Led a large knowledge-based simulation project, coordinating a team of 18 engineers to deliver ITS and real-time control systems used in classroom and field testing.

Knowledge Base Systems Team Leadership Intelligent Tutoring Systems Simulation Prototyping

Knowledge Engineer

Brightware

Oct 1996 - Jun 1998 (1 year 8 months)

Developed and deployed early knowledge-based applications including intelligent email reply and business domain expert systems, bridging development and consulting teams.

Art*Enterprise Consulting Knowledge Engineering Deployment Business Applications

Software Engineer

Argonne National Laboratory

Feb 1993 - Feb 1996 (3 years)

Built fielded expert systems and prototyped distributed simulation control using CLIPS, PVM and agent-wrapping techniques, contributing to published DIAS/DEEM projects.

C++Fortran

Ontology Data Developer

Xendat

Contracted to a pharma ontology group to integrate and model domain ontologies, build triple-store pipelines, and support semantic web tooling for data integration.

Python Protégé SPARQL Data Integration