Mark E Podlaseck 
contact information
Creative directorThomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY USA +1
9149453310
9149453310 links
profile
Mark Podlaseck has served as IBM Research Creative Director since 2013. In this role, he co-designed a 9,000 sq. ft. collaborative environment for an IBM Research THINKLab for researchers and clients, the IBM Watson client center at Astor Place, and the IBM Watson IoT center in Munich, Germany. He hasa profound background of designing user experiences for the exploration of new cognitive technologies, most notably in the IBM Research Cognitive Enterprise Lab.
Mark is also manager of Dataspace, an RFI project comprising an adaptive room that facilitates shared understanding, and developed the IBM Q commercial prototype and associated labs at IBM Research, Yorktown.
From 1999 to 2012, Mark was a senior interaction designer at IBM Research, where he developed an app for use by data center
architects for planning migrations to the cloud. As a member of the core team for Mobile First, Mark focused on the impact of emerging interaction and consumption patterns, the growth of customer experience management, and implications for services in the context of developing IBM's Global Technology Outlook 2013.
architects for planning migrations to the cloud. As a member of the core team for Mobile First, Mark focused on the impact of emerging interaction and consumption patterns, the growth of customer experience management, and implications for services in the context of developing IBM's Global Technology Outlook 2013.
Selected projects include:
- Dark Energy. Received a grant to lead a Far Reaching Research project analyzing distributed problem solving in IBM Services. Identified a primary cause of inefficiency; designed and demonstrated a solution to reduce resolution times by 30%.
- Smarter City: Dubuque. Designed a Web portal, metrics, visualizations, and engagement mechanisms, such as games and awards, for city residents, who achieved a 6.6% reduction in water consumption over a 15-week pilot.
- BlueGene resource scheduler. Designed interactions, visuals, information architecture, and visualizations for the first user-centric experience for end-users of highperformance computing.
- DARPA: Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology. Designed interactions, visuals, and visualizations for an application used by soldiers to browse, search, and summarize their experiences in after-action reports.
- Everywhere Interactive Displays. Designed and tested new scenarios, interactions, and applications for interactive environments. Designed and co-developed applications for EPCOT, METRO stores (Germany), and a Tokyo museum.
- BlueSpace. Led interaction and visual design of IBM/Steelcase’s prototype for an “office of the future,” including the first tile-based interface for touch devices.
- glass engine. Initiated, researched, designed, and led a project on navigating large media spaces. “The simple and elegant browsing interface helps you discover the range and richness of [Philip Glass’s] compositions…. you are just in a magical musical place.” (Bill Moggridge, Designing Interactions. MIT Press, 2007, pp. 499-511.)
- Micro-conversion. Formulated a primary set of metrics commonly used for evaluating e-commerce performance.
- GhostDance. Led design and development of a massively multiplayer online music experience. “The experience [is] a consensual hallucination…. If virtual reality has a Times Square, I’ve found it.” (Steven Holtzman, Digital Mosaics: The Aesthetics of Cyberspace. Simon and Schuster, 1997, pp. 103-116.)
- Information kiosks. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Creative director (with Edward Tufte)/technical director.
Mark holds a BA in English and American Literature from UC San Diego and an MS in Computer Science from Cal Poly.