Mike Shepperd
Where research meets reality and impossible meets done.
How I Help
Most advisors go deep in one lane. I've spent 25 years operating across disciplines — AI, security, hardware, health tech, infrastructure — to see the shortcuts and landmines that single-domain experts can't. I help leaders pressure-test ambitious ideas, make high-stakes calls faster, and execute what looks impossible from the outside.
Selected Work
Future-Proof Infrastructure
Underwater datacenters, edge computing, wind-powered AI
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Project Natick: Underwater Data Center
Building, deploying, and operating a datacenter off the coast of Scotland — demonstrating ultra-reliable, prepackaged cloud infrastructure.
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Inside Track: Ocean Retrieval & Reconnection
Engineering the network backbone that retrieved and reconnected Natick — solving unprecedented reliability and logistics challenges.
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Talk: Fit-and-Forget Edge Datacenter Design
Remote, self-sustaining edge datacenters delivering compute resilience in unreachable locations.
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AI Greenferencing: Wind-Powered AI Workloads
Modular AI inference at wind farms — designing sustainable, grid-bypassing compute systems.
AI & Intelligent Systems
Deep learning at scale, AI-driven research tools
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Microsoft Research: Multi-Disciplinary R&D Leadership
Leading engineers, designers, and technology consultants bridging research ideas to real-world implementation across AI, data platforms, and intelligent systems.
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Paper: Heron Router for Wind-Farm AI
Dynamic AI workload routing across wind-farm colocated modular data centers.
Technology for Human Outcomes
Telemedicine that outperforms in-person care, workforce well-being at scale
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BBC Radio: 3D Telemedicine with Holoportation
Using holoportation technology to improve health outcomes for patients in the UK and Ghana.
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Paper: 3D Telemedicine for Surgical Care (2022)
Published research on leveraging 3D telemedicine for improved surgical planning and patient care.
Securing What's Next
Post-quantum cryptography and zero-trust frontiers
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Post-Quantum Crypto Tunnel to Underwater Datacenter
Pioneering post-quantum cryptographic tunneling for next-generation secure infrastructure.
About
Mike Shepperd is a Principal R&D Engineering Manager at Microsoft Research, where he leads a multi-disciplinary team that builds the bridges between research ideas and working systems. Over 25 years, he's built expertise across an unusually wide range — from logistics and security to AI, hardware, and health technology — giving him the cross-domain fluency that makes him the person teams call when a project "can't be done." Peers and industry leaders have called him a futurist; he'd say he just pays attention to more inputs than most.
Let's talk.
I keep a limited advisory practice alongside my work at Microsoft Research: intensive sessions, short engagements, or retained counsel for leaders navigating complex bets.