PIERO SCARUFFI'S RESUME

Piero Scaruffi

San Francisco Bay Area, California
Click here for my e-mail address

GOAL

To leverage a lifetime of research in the sciences, the arts, the computer industry, as well as on my passion for history, and find innovative interdisciplinary ways to train the future generations of the digital age.

SYNOPSIS

Research in Cognitive Science as visiting scholar of two major research labs in the USA, including the publication of four books, and as the editor of Thymos.com, one of the earliest websites devoted to scientific book reviews
20-year experience in management, design and development of innovative software projects, pioneering applications of Artificial Intelligence, object-oriented design and Internet-based commerce
A parallel life as a historian of music, cinema and art, including the publication of 15 books and the establishment of www.scaruffi.com (six million hits a month)
Award-winning poetry (including the publication of two books)
Lectured in three continents

CHRONOLOGY OF MAIN PROJECTS

2009: Author. Published a collection of poems and meditations, "Synthesis".
2009: Author. Published an 800-page "A History of Rock and Dance Music".
2008: Co-chaired the "Big Bang" conference at U.C. Berkeley on the intersection of Art and Science
2007-present: Organizing the Bay Area's Art/Science Evenings on behalf of Leonardo ISAST (LASERs: http://www.scaruffi.com/leonardo )
2007: Author. Published a 400-page "A History of Jazz Music".
2003-Present: Independent Software Consultant. Consulting for Silicon Valley software companies (mostly software strategies and architecture/design)
2001-Present: New Media Editor. Providing and managing the entire content of Thymos.com, a website devoted to book reviews, articles and news of Cognitive Science (including an annotated bibliography on mind, consciousness and life, one of the largest on the web)
1995-Present: New Media Editor. Providing and managing the entire content of www.scaruffi.com, an interdisciplinary website that includes sections on music, cinema, visual art, politics, history, literature, philosophy, featuring more than 20,000 pages
2006: Author. Publication of "Nature of Consciousness", a summary of my interdisciplinary research in Cognitive Science, including chapters on Cognitive Psychology, Neurobiology, Evolutionary biology, Philosophy of Mind, Machine Intelligence, Relativity, Quantum Physics, Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics.
1997-2005: Lecturer. Lectured at U.C. Berkeley Extensions, the California Institute for Integral Studies and other institutions/organizations on Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind and History of Knowledge.
2003: Author. Published a 600-page "A History of Rock Music".
1995-1996: Visiting Scholar, Stanford University. Research on adaptive, self-organizing systems and theories of consciousness. Produced a comprehensive on-line bibliography of books related to mind, life and consciousness.
1998-2003: Senior Architect, INTELLICORP, Mountain View (California) Consultant and architect for the design and implementation of SAP-based eCommerce/CRM solutions for large multinational businesses with emphasis on configurable products. Designed customized, integrated Java-based architectures and webservices on Unix and Windows platforms involving software from SAP, Siebel, SUN, Microsoft, Linux, etc. All of them were centered around an A.I.-based configurator and interacted with an SAP backend. Developed the company-wide object-oriented methodology (based on UML).
1995-1998: President, OMNIWARE, Redwood City (California) Consultant for several international corporations in the areas of artificial intelligence, object-oriented analysis and e-commerce. Designed e-commerce solutions for very large businesses in both Europe and the US. Designed a proprietary search engine.
1993-1995: Principal Advisor for Corporate Software Strategies, Olivetti , Cupertino (California) In charge of evaluating new software technologies and of outlining corporate strategies, reporting to the executive VP for Corporate Strategies. Investigating start-up companies and new products for either direct investment by Olivetti or inclusion in Olivetti's product offering. Responsible for technological roadmaps on Multimedia, Databases, Development Tools and Artificial Intelligence. Supervised design of Olivetti's proprietary object model.
1993: National poetry award in Italy for "Dialogo degli Amanti" (book of poetry)
1990-1992: Senior Manager, Olivetti Scientific Center (California and Italy) Established the Olivetti Scientific Center, with operations in California and Southern Italy. Research projects included several pilot multimedia applications, object-oriented environments, research on knowledge-based systems and neural networks. Staff of 62 engineers.
1993: National poetry award in Italy for "L'Ultimo" (book of poetry)
1985-1990: Manager, Olivetti Artificial Intelligence Center (California and Italy) Established the Olivetti Artificial Intelligence Center, with operations in Italy and California. Manager of both sites, reporting directly to the vice-president of R&D. Helped shape the center as the company's technological bridge to the international research community (started cooperative research programs between Olivetti and universities worldwide). Research projects included knowledge-based systems, neural networks, natural language processing. Joint projects with Yale, CalTech and Stanford.
1982-1984: Senior Software Engineer, Olivetti, California and Italy (E-mail system for the Unix operating systems, Smalltalk object-oriented system)

EDUCATION

1980: Graduated in Mathematics "summa cum laude" from University of Turin, Italy. G.P.A. 110 of 110. Major in General Theory of Relativity. Thesis on a model for quark chromodynamics.
1984: Visiting scholar, Harvard University (research topic: Artificial Intelligence)
1995: Visiting scholar, Stanford University (research topic: Artificial Intelligence)

PERSONAL

Born in Italy, naturalized USA citizen in 1997, holding dual USA and Italian citizenship.

Fluent Italian and English, working Spanish and German.

PUBLICATIONS and TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Lecturing between 1998 and 2004 at U.C. Berkeley on "Theories of Mind" and "History of Knowledge"

Member of the board of directors of Leonardo from 2003 to 2006, an MIT Press publication

Published more than one hundred articles in newspapers and computer magazines.

Lectures and invited talks since 1980 in several European, South American and U.S. institutions, including Stanford Univ and U.C. Berkeley.

Held many industrial seminars at major corporations.