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Dr Damien Watkins

Research Team Leader

https://people.csiro.au/W/D/Damien-Watkins

Biography

Dr Damien Watkins is the Research Team Lead for the Computational Software Engineering and Visualisation Team at Data61/CSIRO. His team is responsible for the development of 1) Workspace, a scientific workflow and application development platform used on projects both inside and outside CSIRO, 2) a number of Workspace-based applications and 3) the Software Product Platform (SPP). Workspace provides a framework that allows researchers to focus on their science, to develop robust and sustainable software and to accelerate software development timeframes with a faster path to market for their commercialisation. The SPP is a suite of higher level, re-usable Workspace based components for performing key functions (e.g. meshing, visualisation, data clean-up, licensing, etc.) whose availability can provide a second level of cost savings and commercialisation acceleration. Workspace has been available for external usage since 2014.

Prior to joining CSIRO Damien worked for Microsoft/Microsoft Research:

1) 2010-2012 Senior Program Manager – Bing, Sydney, Australia. Oversaw the development of Bing Australia from Beta to consumer launch

2) 2006-2009 Senior Program Manager – Visual C++, Seattle, USA. Visual C++ Front-end Compiler and Libraries PM for Visual C++ 2010.

3) 2003-2006 Research Program Manager, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Co-organized technical events and worships including: The Grand Challenge in Non-Classical Computation, Towards 2020 Science Venice Workshop, Embedded System Workshop

Before joining Microsoft Damien was the Founder and Managing Director of Project 42 P/L, an Internet architecture consultancy. He has expertise with architectures such as COM/DCOM, CORBA and the .NET Framework. Project 42 provides training, mentoring and strategic analysis for companies building Internet-based systems on these platforms. Damien was a Research Associate with the Distributed Systems Technology Centre.

Prior to commencing Project 42 Damien lectured at the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering and the Department of Software Development at Monash University (from 1993 to 2001). Damien lectured both postgraduate and undergraduate subjects, covering the areas of UNIX System Call programming, Windows Programming with C++, Component Programming in both COM and the .NET Framework and Distributed Object Technologies with COM/DCOM, CORBA and the .NET Framework. Damien completed 3 month staff exchange programs at Uppsala University (Sweden) and KMITNB (Thailand).

Current Roles

  • Computational Software Engineering Team Lead
    Workspace: www.csiro.au/workspace

Academic Qualifications

  • 2000

    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Software Engineering
    Monash University

  • 1994

    Bachelor's degree, Computer Software Engineering
    Monash University

Professional Experiences

  • 2010-2012

    Program Manager – Bing Australia
    Microsoft

  • 2006-2009

    Program Manager – Visual C++
    Microsoft

  • 2003-2006

    Program Manager – Microsoft Research
    Microsoft Research