Stephen Szermer Design Engineer & AI Capability Researcher
RISD-trained designer and full-stack engineer building at the intersection of human cognition and AI systems. Co-founder of Private Language, a knowledge sovereignty platform. AI domain expert for Brown University's Embodied Brain Technology Practicum. Author of the Six Laws of AI-Era Software Engineering — a framework derived from 4,400+ articles and 234 cross-domain syntheses. Director of GDG Providence (500+ members).
AI Capability
Research
Building systems that make humans more capable, not more dependent.
Author of the Six Laws of AI-Era Software Engineering — a framework derived from 4,400+ articles and 234 cross-domain syntheses. Documented the Evaluation Crisis Spiral: as AI generation speed increases, human evaluation capacity degrades. Validated across 9 domains including education and peer review.
Neuroscience Education
Interactive neural dynamics visualization for Brown University.
Created hands-on learning tools for NEUR 1440: Mechanisms and Meaning of Neural Dynamics. Students explore real-time neural activations, learning dynamics, and biological-artificial parallels inspired by neurons learning to play Pong.
Enterprise UX Leadership
10 years leading design across complex domains.
Director of UX at GE Digital (industrial IoT). AVP at FM Global (enterprise risk). Sr. UX Manager at CVS Health (100+ person design org). RISD MID in Industrial Design. Deep expertise in interaction design, progressive disclosure, and trust-critical interfaces.
AI Education & Community
Teaching humans how to think with AI, not defer to it.
AI domain expert for Brown University's Embodied Brain Technology Practicum. Director of GDG Providence (500+ members, 15+ events). Presenting live case study at Google I/O, May 2026. Building the curriculum for AI capability development.
Portfolio
Building systems that amplify human capability — from AI-assisted knowledge tools to interaction designs that preserve human judgment under speed.
Threshold — Human Readiness Verification
Carnegie-funded prototype for human readiness verification in high-stakes decision contexts. Ritual state machine with calming gate (4-7-8 breathing + biometric readiness), progressive knowledge disclosure, and realm-based access control. Built to prove that the right AI intervention point is a verified human on the receiving end.
Private Language — Knowledge Sovereignty
Knowledge sovereignty platform designed to make AI interactions compound rather than evaporate. Multi-modal capture, AI-powered insight extraction, semantic search, and a knowledge graph that surfaces connections users have forgotten. Live case study with 24 Brown/MIT/BGU students starting March 31.
Stage Zero Health
Co-founded and led technical transformation of cancer prevention from clinical calculators to human-centered narratives. Built AI-native platform orchestrating 25+ models with 30% journey completion (10x industry average).
Port Jefferson Ferry Digital Transformation
Led complete UX overhaul for 1.2M annual passengers serving Long Island Sound. Applied service design methodology and progressive disclosure to reduce support tickets 30% while modernizing 140-year-old maritime operation.
The 4Ds of Personalization at Scale
Scaled personalized health experiences across millions of users while maintaining HIPAA compliance. Designed adaptive interfaces based on user health journeys and behavioral design principles.
Smart Shop Aviation Platform
Redesigned Task List Workbench for global MRO facilities, reducing learning curve from 6 to 2 months. Unified SAP, manuals, and Gensuite data into single intelligent platform serving 4 international facilities.
Community & Thought Leadership
GDG Providence
Chapter Director
Building a community at the intersection of Art, Design & Technology in Providence's innovation ecosystem.
Enterprise Experience & Consulting Background
