Mike Shepperd

Technical Advisor · Edge Computing · Subsea Infrastructure · Offshore Energy · Sustainable AI

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, infrastructure, hardware, health technology, offshore systems, and enterprise security - to see the shortcuts and landmines that single-domain experts can't. I've built and shipped systems in environments where failure wasn't an option: undersea, off-grid, and at the edge of the network map.

For founders and operators: I help pressure-test ambitious ideas, navigate high-stakes technical decisions, and execute what looks impossible from the outside.

For investors and deal teams: I provide technical due diligence for private equity and venture capital firms evaluating companies in edge computing, offshore and subsea infrastructure, sustainable AI, and adjacent technology sectors. I translate complex technical claims into investment-relevant assessments - what's real, what's aspirational, and what's a red flag.

Areas of Expertise

Edge & Remote Computing Fit-and-forget infrastructure, distributed compute, low-maintenance deployment architectures

Subsea & Offshore Infrastructure Undersea datacenter deployment, marine operational environments, offshore connectivity

Offshore & Renewable Energy Wind-colocated compute, grid-bypass architecture, sustainable AI at energy generation sites

AI Systems & Inference AI workload routing, modular inference deployment, large-scale AI infrastructure

Technical Due Diligence Investment-grade assessment of technical claims, architecture reviews, risk identification for PE and VC firms

Enterprise Security Architecture Network security implementation, next-generation security deployment in complex environments

Health Technology 3D and immersive clinical systems, remote care infrastructure, technology for underserved populations

Research Commercialization Bridging academic and applied research to deployable systems, incubation partnerships

Selected Work

Future-Proof Infrastructure

Underwater datacenters, edge computing, wind-powered AI

Project Natick: Underwater Data Center
Building, deploying, and operating a datacenter off the coast of Scotland - demonstrating ultra-reliable, prepackaged cloud infrastructure in a marine environment.
Inside Track: Ocean Retrieval & Reconnection
Engineering the network backbone that retrieved and reconnected Natick - solving unprecedented reliability and logistics challenges in an active marine environment.
Talk: Fit-and-Forget Edge Datacenter Design
Remote, self-sustaining edge datacenters delivering compute resilience in unreachable locations - optimizing ROI where human intervention isn't practical.
AI Greenferencing: Wind-Powered AI Workloads
Modular AI inference at wind farms - designing sustainable, grid-bypassing compute systems that bring AI workloads to renewable energy at the source.

AI & Intelligent Systems

LLM inference at scale, wind-colocated AI compute, research leadership

Paper: XWind - LLM Inference Routing at Renewable Energy Farms (2026)
A lightweight, real-time inference router for LLM serving at wind-powered modular datacenters - reducing P99 latency by up to 52% using only live signals: inference latency, KV-cache utilization, and queue depth.
Paper: Heron Router for Wind-Farm AI (2025)
Dynamic AI workload routing across wind-farm colocated modular datacenters - improving aggregate goodput by up to 80% over prior approaches.
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.

Technology for Human Outcomes

Telemedicine that outperforms in-person care, healthcare access at scale

BBC Radio: 3D Telemedicine with Holoportation
Using holoportation technology to improve health outcomes for patients in the UK and Ghana - bringing immersive 3D clinical consultation to remote and underserved communities.
Paper: 3D Telemedicine for Surgical Care (2022)
Published research on the development and first validated clinical use of a real-time 360° 3D telemedicine system - demonstrating improved realism, usability, and patient satisfaction over 2D alternatives.

Securing What's Next

Next-generation network security in novel operational environments

Next-Generation Network Security for Subsea Infrastructure
Led the network engineering and enterprise program management required to deploy post-quantum cryptographic tunneling - nested within the existing corporate VPN - connecting Microsoft's corporate network to the Project Natick undersea datacenter. Navigated complex enterprise security and compliance environments to bring cutting-edge network architecture to production.

How We Work Together

I keep a deliberately limited advisory practice - quality over volume. Typical engagements:

Expert Call 1-2 hour focused session - due diligence questions, quick technical validation, or market context from someone who has actually built these systems.

Diligence Sprint 1-2 week focused engagement - deep technical review of a company or technology for an investment decision.

Project Retainer Monthly hours over 3-6 months - ongoing technical guidance for founders or operators navigating complex decisions.

Retained Advisory Longer-term relationship - strategic technical counsel for boards, leadership teams, or fund portfolios.

About

Mike Shepperd is a Principal R&D Engineering Manager at Microsoft Research, where he leads a multi-disciplinary team that turns research ideas into working systems - across AI, hardware, infrastructure, and beyond. Over 25 years, he's built expertise across an unusually wide range: from deploying datacenters at the bottom of the sea to routing AI workloads around wind power variability to improving surgical outcomes in Ghana via 3D telemedicine. Before Microsoft, he founded, grew, and sold an IT consulting firm serving Pacific Northwest businesses - giving him both a researcher's eye for what's technically possible and an operator's instinct for what's actually deployable.

Peers have called him a futurist. He'd say he just pays attention to more inputs than most.

Let's talk.

Available for expert calls, diligence sprints, and retained advisory engagements. Reach out directly - no forms, no gatekeepers.

Investors & due diligence inquiries
advisory@mikeshepperd.com

Founders, operators & general inquiries
consulting@mikeshepperd.com