James Skorupski
Full-Stack Software Engineer — Frontend Architecture, UX Engineering & Generative BI
Orange County, California
- Emailjames@skorupski.org
- Webskorupski.org
- LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/jamesskorupski
- GitHubgithub.com/jskorupski
Full-Stack Software Engineer at Google with 14+ years of industry experience at Google and eBay—preceded by graduate research in AI, HCI, and computer graphics at UC Santa Cruz and Cal Poly—specializing in frontend architecture, UX engineering, generative business intelligence (GenBI), and planet-scale data visualization systems.
Industry Experience
2012 – PresentSoftware Engineer — Business Intelligence, Data Visualization & GenBI
Full-stack software engineer leading frontend architecture and interaction design for Google’s planet-scale analytics platform, building high-performance applications and telemetry systems that integrate Gemini to empower analysts, engineers, and Google DeepMind teams with deep data visualization and exploratory analysis.
- Gemini & Agentic Analytics Integration: Drive the deep integration of Gemini into Google’s analytics suite, embedding model-driven insights and customized agentic workflows directly into dashboard authoring, query generation, and exploration tools to empower analysts, engineers, and leadership.
- Planet-Scale Data Visualization & Analytics: Architect and build high-performance, user-authorable visualization and deep drill-down systems that ingest, monitor, and render planet-scale operational, interaction, and user-satisfaction telemetry across Google’s global infrastructure.
- DeepMind Analytics & Agent Telemetry: Partner across engineering, product, and Google DeepMind teams to deliver exploratory data analysis, curated executive presentations, and telemetry instrumentation evaluating the performance, quality, and adoption of agentic LLM systems.
eBay Inc.
Design Engineer (MTS) — Human Interface Group (HIG)
Core engineering member of eBay’s interdisciplinary Human Interface Group responsible for global design standards and full-stack software prototyping—building production-grade web prototypes, interaction mechanics, and UX experimentation platforms across eBay web and native properties.
- Design Atlas & Global UX Standards: Co-authored and formalized broad multi-screen design and UX standards across eBay globally; built Design Atlas, a UX standards database, taxonomy search, and visualization system with automated tools for cataloging and correlating UI components across the company.
- Computer-Vision Sketch-to-Code Prototyping: Engineered an OpenCV-based marker and sketch recognition web system capable of transforming physical whiteboard/paper sketches into live, data-driven HTML UI/UX prototypes.
- Next-Gen Marketplace Prototype Platform: Built an Angular and Node.js prototype platform hosting production-grade, real-data interactive prototypes for eBay’s next-generation homepage, search results, item details, and historical marketplace product availability visualizations.
eBay Inc.
Design Engineer (MTS) — EPIC Design Lab
Full-stack software prototyping and UX experimentation across connected retail installations, large-format multi-touch interactive displays (55" to 70"+), and real-time marketplace data visualizations bridging online and physical commerce.
- Shoppable Storefronts & Connected Glass: Designed and engineered 24/7 shoppable storefront windows in Manhattan for Kate Spade Saturday (with 1-hour courier delivery, covered in 90+ media outlets), Toys "R" Us 70" interactive gift-guide walls, and consulted on Westfield Labs Connected Glass installations (Sony, TOMS, Rebecca Minkoff).
- Real-Time Marketplace Data Visualization Kiosk: Created a 65" interactive visualization kiosk streaming live global eBay marketplace transactions, regional activity, and summary metrics over WebSockets.
- Full-Stack Hardware & Sensor Integration: Integrated custom scripted Chrome kiosk shells, WebGL/SVG interfaces, Node.js/MongoDB/Redis backends, capacitive through-glass touch foils, IR touch frames, DMX lighting, and Kinect passive analytics.
Education
University of California, Santa Cruz
2006 – 2012Ph.D. Candidate (ABD), Computer Science (Expressive Intelligence Studio)
Focus: Intelligent Authoring Interfaces for Generative Narrative, HCI, AI Planning & Graphics
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
2001 – 2006Master of Science (M.S.), Computer Science
Thesis: Interactive Thin Shells — A Model Interface for the Analysis of Physically-Based Animation
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
2001 – 2006Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Computer Science
Technical Skills
Frontend & Visualization
TypeScript, JavaScript (ESNext), Angular / AngularDart, HTML5 / Modern CSS, WebGPU / WebGL / Canvas / SVG, Web Components
AI, Data & Backend Systems
Agentic LLM / Gemini Integration, Planet-Scale BI & Query Tooling, Node.js, Dart / Java / C++, Protobufs / Borg / Guice / Soy, WebSockets / Real-Time Streams
UX, Graphics & Hardware
Design Systems & Taxonomy, Multi-Touch & Kiosk Architecture, Shader Programming (WGSL / GLSL), OpenCV & Kinect Sensor Pipelines, Rapid Hardware-Software Prototyping
Patents & Research
6 Patents & Applications (eBay Inc.)
Store of the Future · Shopping Trip Planner · Personal Shopping Experience · Marketplace Personalization · Curated Social Interaction · Proximity Beacons
Earlier Research & Internships (2000–2012)
UC Santa Cruz EIS (Graduate Researcher), Apple (SWE Intern), Sandia National Labs, Naval Postgraduate School & Cal Poly · 9 peer-reviewed papers (IEEE CG&A, AIIDE, ICIDS).
Archive · 2000 – 2012Earlier Research & Engineering Foundation
6 Roles (UCSC, Apple, Sandia, NPS, Cal Poly)
Earlier Research & Engineering Foundation
University of California, Santa Cruz
Graduate Student Researcher — Expressive Intelligence Studio (EIS)
Conducted Ph.D. research at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, and Computer Graphics, designing intelligent visual authoring tools for generative narrative and believable virtual characters.
- Visual Authoring for Plan-Based Interactive Narrative: Created Wide Ruled and StoryCanvas—graphical and comic-storyboard authoring environments with real-time story-space heatmaps and automated planner suggestions connecting non-technical writers to UNIVERSE and social-physics AI planners.
- Supporting Character Realism (SCR) & Computer Graphics: Designed reactive ABL behavior-tree avatars evaluated in hybrid human/AI virtual worlds, alongside research in finite-speed-of-light Transient Rendering and example-based 3D facial morphing.
Sandia National Laboratories
Ph.D. Student Intern — Cognitive Science & Technology Program
Developed a real-time training and simulation engine for non-kinetic training scenarios, integrating the ABL reactive agent planning architecture into an existing 3D game and simulation framework.
Naval Postgraduate School
Software Engineering Intern
Co-developed a modular real-time 3D training and simulation engine with a microkernel architecture, building the OpenSceneGraph rendering, collision detection, physics, and FMOD spatial audio modules.
Apple Inc.
Graphics Driver Development Intern
Analyzed macOS graphics driver source code for algorithmic and compiler optimizations; optimized a core rasterization algorithm for a 10% performance gain and collaborated directly with GPU hardware vendor engineers.
Technologies International, Inc.
ERP Software Engineer & Mobile Software Developer
Developed and shipped Pocket PC, Palm OS, and Windows desktop enterprise tracking applications for industrial manufacturing clients.
Publications & IPSelected Publications & Patents (6)
View Full Citations & Abstracts
Selected Publications & Patents (6)
Peer-Reviewed Publications & Reports (10)
- 2012Evaluating Realism for Virtual Supporting Characters — James Skorupski, Josh McCoy, Catherine Zanbaka, Kathy Ryall, Michael Mateas. Technical Report UCSC-SOE-12-04, Computer Science Department, UC Santa Cruz.[PDF ↗]
- 2010Novice-Friendly Authoring of Plan-Based Interactive Storyboards — James Skorupski, Michael Mateas. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE).[PDF ↗]
- 2009Storyboard Authoring of Plan-Based Interactive Dramas — James Skorupski. Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) Doctoral Consortium.[PDF ↗]
- 2009Understanding Video at 30 Billion Frames Per Second with Transient Rendering — Adam M. Smith, James Skorupski, James Davis. Bay Area Vision Meetup (BAVM 2009) Poster.[PDF ↗]
- 2009Interactive Story Generation for Writers: Lessons Learned from the Wide Ruled Authoring Tool — James Skorupski, Michael Mateas. Digital Arts and Culture (DAC).[PDF ↗]
- 2008Transient Rendering — Adam M. Smith, James Skorupski, James Davis. Technical Report UCSC-SOE-08-26, Computer Science Department, UC Santa Cruz.[PDF ↗]
- 2007Facial Type, Expression, and Viseme Generation — James Skorupski, J. Yee, Josh McCoy, James Davis. ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 Posters (San Diego, CA), Article 34.[PDF ↗]
- 2007Interactive Thin Shells: A Model Interface for the Analysis of Physically-Based Animation — James Skorupski, Zoë Wood, Alex Pang. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Applications in Industry and Engineering (CAINE 2007), pp. 128–134.[PDF ↗]
- 2007Wide Ruled: A Friendly Interface to Author-Goal Based Story Generation — James Skorupski, Lakshmi Jayapalan, Sheena Marquez, Michael Mateas. International Conference on Virtual Storytelling (ICVS), pp. 26–37.[PDF ↗]
- 2006A High Population, Fault Tolerant Parallel Raytracer — James Skorupski, Ben Weber, Mei-Ling L. Liu. Proceedings of the ISCA 15th International Conference on Software Engineering and Data Engineering (SEDE 2006), pp. 122–127.[PDF ↗]
Theses & Academic Documents
- 2013Wide Ruled 2.0 In-Class Presentation & System Overview — James Skorupski. UC Santa Cruz Lecture Slides (February 2013).[PDF ↗]
- 2011Intelligent Visual Interfaces for Authoring Generative Narratives (Ph.D. Advancement Document) — James Skorupski. UC Santa Cruz Computer Science Department.[PDF ↗]
- 2009Step-by-Step Tutorial: Creating an Interactive Story in Wide Ruled 2.0 — Alex Mitchell (National University of Singapore). NUS Interactive Storytelling Curriculum Guide.[PDF ↗]
- 2007Interactive Thin Shells (Master's Thesis) — James Skorupski. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.[PDF ↗]
Granted Patents & Applications
- 01 · Curated Discovery & Retail UX· US 11,429,260 B2Personalized Curation and Customized Social Interaction
Method and system for enhancing a network-based publication platform with curator lists, capturing metadata from listing submitters and presenting interactive social discovery and curation flows.
[Google Patents ↗] - 02 · Connected Retail & Interactive Storefronts· CA 2,913,994 CStore of the Future
Interactive multi-screen and through-glass digital retail architecture connecting physical storefronts with real-time multi-touch product exploration and mobile checkout handoff.
[Google Patents ↗] - 03 · Omnichannel Commerce & Spatial Navigation· US 10,963,951 B2Shopping Trip Planner
Intelligent shopping infrastructure maintaining real-time multi-merchant inventory and mapping user item affinity to spatial routing and localized store availability.
[Google Patents ↗] - 04 · Marketplace UX & Personalization· US 9,830,632 B2System and Methods for Personalization and Enhancement of a Marketplace
Adaptive interface personalization, recommendation algorithms, and contextual discovery workflows for high-throughput online marketplaces.
[Google Patents ↗] - 05 · Contextual Category Shopping & Personalization· US 9,390,448 B2System and Methods to Present a Personal Shopping Experience
Methods and systems for presenting a personal shopping experience across merchant inventory by mapping category inputs to localized store availability and dynamic showcases.
[Google Patents ↗] - 06 · Proximity Sensing & Ambient UX· WO 2015/183388 A1Systems and Methods for Hospitality Services Using Beacons
Proximity beacon architecture coordinating contextual device recognition, automated concierge services, and ambient spatial interactions in physical environments.
[Google Patents ↗]