Prescott Mackie

Email: pmackie0710@gmail.com

Phone: (314) 629-7414

Location: Denver, CO

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/prescott-mackie

GitHub: github.com/pmackie

Summary

Passionate senior researcher, analyst, web application and robotics engineer with 8+ years of experience in software development, data governance, and experimental design. Highly self-motivated. Organized, adaptable developer with an eye on innovation. Specialized in cognitive AI systems and autonomous robotics, developing sophisticated decision-making models integrated with physical humanoid rovers. Published researcher with expertise bridging theoretical neuroscience research with practical AI applications in both virtual and physical environments.

Core Competencies

• Software Engineering, DevOps, & AI Development: Python (9+ yrs), SQL (8+ yrs), Go, Git (5+ yrs), TypeScript/JavaScript (5+ yrs), C# (4 yrs), Azure, Kubernetes (3+ yrs)
• Robotics & Hardware Integration: Circuit design, servo motor and sensor configuration, humanoid rover development
• Computer Vision & Machine Learning: OpenCV, YOLO model implementation and training, object detection and tracking, Hailo AI Accelerator integration
• Research & Data Science: fMRI experimental design and analysis, neural network development, scientific publications, peer review

Professional Experience

YAGEO/KEMET - Denver, CO (February 2018–Present)

DevOps Engineer (March 2021–Present)

• Develop and maintain back end and front end of data management web application for company data team that oversees 30M+ product parts
• Develop and optimize database queries that return fast results to company website that supplies product info to sales team and customer base (cutting wait times from 20s to 2s)
• Collaborate with data management team to create new features for improved data processing strategies (cut full pipeline processing times for large datasets from 12h to 10min)
• Maintain CI/CD pipeline for internal data management tool
• Develop application that implements AI LLM service to collect part search data and return targeted product information for improved part data coverage

Automation Engineer (January 2019–March 2021)

• Developed comprehensive automation suite including competitive data scraping, engineering-to-web product updates, and database pattern recognition systems
• Created Power BI dashboards synthesizing complex data across multiple business units

Database Specialist (February 2018–January 2019)

• Managed part specification database for 30M+ electronic components
• Architected data extraction and processing pipeline powering customer-facing search engine

eCortex - Boulder, CO (May 2015–July 2016)

Modeler and Data Researcher

• Developed object recognition and reward learning models capable of identifying thousands of objects and making complex probabilistic decisions
• Conducted extensive literature review in human learning, cortical processing, and complex learning tasks

University of Colorado Dept. of Psychology - Boulder, CO (September 2012–May 2015)

Scientific Data Researcher

• Designed and conducted fMRI experiments investigating medial prefrontal cortex role in decision-making and physical effort
• Applied GLM, SVM, and machine learning methods to neuroimaging data analysis
• Contributed to neural network model development for scientific publications

Key R&D Projects

Fluid Decision-Making/Emotion Model in Humanoid Robot (2024–2026)

• Successfully integrated AI cognitive system with physical humanoid rover robot
• Designed and implemented custom circuit boards for sensor integration and motor control
• Built computer vision pipeline using OpenCV and trained YOLO models for real-time object detection and tracking
• Developed UI application for positioning and testing servo motors and pressure sensors for robotic arm grasping and holding of small objects
• Demonstrated human-like emotional processing in robot for a social engagement test from a popular psychological study

Cognitive Neural Network Model in Virtual Agent (2016–2024)

• Developed sophisticated cognitive decision-making model in Python controlling virtual agents in Unity environment
• Incorporated theories from cognitive neuroscience literature to design neural network system that autonomously processes a virtual world and forms high order motor plans geared toward satisfying internal needs
• Designed and demonstrated cognitive model that allows virtual agent to form complex motor plans that involve using a tool from its environment to get around an obstacle

Education

• Master of Arts, Cognitive Psychology - University of Colorado, Boulder (2015)
• Master of Science, Biomedical Engineering - University of Iowa, Iowa City (2011)
• Bachelor of Science, Biomedical Engineering - University of Iowa, Iowa City (2009)

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant/Lab Instructor - University of Colorado, Boulder

• Introduction to Cognitive Psychology (Fall 2012, Spring 2014)
• Psychology of Personality (Spring 2013)
• Computational Cognitive Networks (Fall 2013)

Select Publications

• Mackie, P. & Herd, S. (2015) How Hard Do You Want to Work? How the ACC Influences Motivation - Master's Thesis, Dept of Psychology, University of Colorado
• Mollick, J.A., Hazy, T.E., Krueger, K.A., Nair, A., Mackie, P., Herd, S.A., & O'Reilly, R.C. (2020) A Systems-Neuroscience Model of Phasic Dopamine. Psychological Review, 127(6), 972-1021
• O'Reilly, R.C., Hazy, T.E., Mollick, J., Mackie, P. & Herd, S. (2014) Goal-Driven Cognition in the Brain: A Computational Framework; arXiv:1404.7591v1 [q-bio.NC]