Chris Wren

Current

• Senior Software Engineer at Google

Past

• Principal Research Scientist at MERL
• Faculty at Harvard Extension School
• Senior Perceptual Engineer at Perceptive Network Technologies, Inc.

• Research Assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Engineer and Dynamicist at Boston Dynamics Inc.

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Education

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Western Reserve Academy

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Recommended

4 people have recommended Chris

Connections

134 connections

Industry

Research

Chris Wren’s Summary

People are messy. Computers are not. Getting the two to play together is quite the challenge: that's what gets me up in the morning. Seeking to create computational constructs that flow around the people they serve, animating the world around us and enriching our interactions with others, in the hope of making the world a better place.

Chris Wren’s Specialties:

perception, sensor networks, social networks, computer vision, pattern recognition, human-computer interaction, visualization, dynamics, stochastics, learning.

Chris Wren’s Experience

• Senior Software Engineer

  Google

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; GOOG; Internet industry)

  November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)

  Joining Friend Connect team in Boston.

• Principal Research Scientist

  MERL

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Research industry)

  January 2001 — September 2008 (7 years 9 months)

  MERL's mission is to be one of the world's premiere research laboratories, significantly advancing the frontiers of technology and making lasting impacts on the world, and within our areas of expertise, to be the prime source of new technology for Mitsubishi Electric.

• Faculty

  Harvard Extension School

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  2002 — 2006 (4 years )

  I taught two classes: a general education course intended to introduce non-majors to advanced topics within computer science using hands-on techniques, and also a more traditional signal processing course.

• Senior Perceptual Engineer

  Perceptive Network Technologies, Inc.

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  March 2000 — January 2001 (11 months)

  Founding member of a perceptual sciences company dedicated to bringing context-aware communication technologies to the desktop, to help users manage converging information technologies.

• Research Assistant

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  (Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Research industry)

  August 1994 — March 2000 (5 years 8 months)

  Designed, built, and evaluated artificial perceptual systems for human-computer interface and situation awareness. Managed junior graduate students, staff, and undergraduate researchers. Presented papers, invited talks, and live demonstrations at conferences. Developed perceptual tool kits (Pfinder, STIVE, and Dyna) used internationally by many academic and research institutions. Extensive interaction with the media and senior officers of corporate sponsors.

• Engineer and Dynamicist

  Boston Dynamics Inc.

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  June 1993 — August 1994 (1 year 3 months)

  Early employee at a simulations and dynamics consulting spinoff from MIT that focused on physics-based simulations for animation, force-feedback, engineering and science.

Chris Wren’s Education

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Ph.D. , Computer Science

  Thesis Title: "Understanding Expressive Action."
  Minor: "Stochastics, Dynamics, and Recursive Filtering."

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  M.S. , Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

  Thesis Title: "Pfinder: Real-Time Tracking of the Human Body"

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  B.S. , Computer Science and Engineering

  Thesis Title: "Dynamic Simulation of Large Systems: Trees Blowing in the Wind."
  Minor: Cognitive Psychology.

  Activities and Societies:

  Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu

• Western Reserve Academy

  H.S. ,

Additional Information

Chris Wren’s Interests:

hiking, geocaching, tinkering, playing, and my family.

Chris Wren’s Groups:

IEEE, Sigma Xi, ACM

•    The Official IEEE Group
•    The Official Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Group
•    Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
•    ACM SIGGRAPH
•    Western Reserve Academy Alumni
•    MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni
•    Machine Learning Connection
•    MIT Media Lab Alumni
•    Mitsubishi Electric Alumni
•    Google Alumni (& Employees)

Chris Wren’s Honors:

Senior Membership in the ACM
Senior Membership in the IEEE
Full Membership in Sigma Xi

Chris Wren’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch