Gustavo Sandoval

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Gustavo Sandoval

Professor Sandoval has worked for over 20 years as a Software Engineer and Engineering Manager developing products used by billions of people such as Microsoft Office, Hotmail,  MSN Mobile and GroupMe. 

His field of experience is diverse:  He has worked Microsoft Corporation as well as helped small entrepreneurial businesses. He is now a Software Consultant and an Industry Professor in Computer Science at NYU.

Research Interests
Machine Learning,  Distributed Systems, Operating Systems, Mobile applications,  and Project Management.  

California State University Sacramento 1996
Master of Science, Computer Science


Microsoft Office
Software Design Engineer
I conceived the Organization Chart feature in Office 97 and created a prototype proof of concept to sell it to management. The prototype was approved and I implemented it in Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel. I also designed and implemented features in PowerPoint to save files to different formats including HTML. I was awarded a patent for this work. These features are still used in the current Office suite for Windows and Mac by over 750 Million users worldwide.
From: April 1996 to September 2000

Microsoft Hotmail
Engineering Manager
Server side developer on the notifications system for MSN Calendar written in C++. This system delivered calendar reminders to thousands of users every few minutes. I rewrote the system in C# version 1 and was promoted to Development Lead and given a new project. The project was written in C++ and the backend was in SQL Server. The Hotmail Delivery System (HDS) when in use was delivering newsletters to 2 million users weekly. I grew the team to 5 employees and delivered the project on time and with high quality. This service is still running on Windows Live Hotmail. Technologies used: C#, C++, SQL, MSMQ, Distributed Systems
From: September 2000 to August 2002

Microsoft Mobile
Senior Engineering Manager
MSN Mobile services enabled delivery of SMS alerts from MSN Messenger, Hotmail, Calendar, Stocks and other MSN properties to a customers feature phone. Partnered with 48 carriers around the world, including Vodafone, China Mobile, Telefonica, AT&T, Verizon, etc. Built, managed and mentored a distributed team of 12 people across the U.S. and China. Designed and implemented production support processes which significantly decreased downtime and increased speed of global deployments to exceed carrier expectations. The SMS Alert service is still serving over 44 million users worldwide. Technologies used: C++, C#, SQL Server, Distributed Systems, SMPP
From: January 2002 to January 2010

Microsoft Windows
Senior Technical Program Manager
Led a cross-disciplinary and cross-organizational team to deliver the first version of the most requested APIs: Sockets and Bluetooth. Ran the initiative to ensure API parity between Windows and Windows Phone enabling developers to write apps that would actually run across both operating systems. This worked for less than 20% of the APIs in Windows Phone 8. My technical specifications set the standard across the Windows Phone SDK team. Was proud to be the technical evangelist for the Windows Phone Networking APIs culminating in an MSDN video. Technologies used: C++, C#, Bluetooth, Sockets
From: August 2010 to April 2012

GroupMe
Senior Engineering Leader
Lead all aspects of engineering for Windows/Windows Phone team for mobile group messaging app GroupMe. Worked with the business team to prioritize user stories and deliver them using agile best practices, which accelerated the release cadence to <1 month from 3 months. Increased the quality of the Windows Phone and iOS apps by instrumenting them to find top crashing issues and building in analytics to enable data driven decisions and user insights. These efforts increased the Windows Phone App Store Rating from 2.5 to 4 stars and increased the iOS app customer sign ups by 10%. Doubled the team size by hiring top engineering talent. Technologies used: C#, Objective C, Python, PostgreSQL, Silverlight, XAML, Github, Heroku.

From: April 2012 to November 2015

Bergen Labs
Founder/CTO
Bergen Labs is a consulting firm helping companies of all sizes design, develop and deploy mobile and data applications. Because of our experience in the Education, Startup and Tech sector we understand what our clients want to achieve from the product and business perspective as well as from the tech side. So we help them prioritize and manage accordingly.
From: November 2015 to present


Method and system for automatically fitting a graphical display o, (U.S Software Patent: US6456305)

 

Method and system for generating and displaying a slide show with, (U.S Software Patent: US6396500)