Scott Moody received a BS and MS from the University of Washington (UW) in the early days of its computer science (CS) program. His main interests include elegant language and compiler design across distributed systems. Having joined the ACM as a student in 1979, his @acm.org email address has stayed constant—even before email really existed! Scott spent 31 years at Boeing in research and development, earning the Associate Technical Fellow honor for his involvement in exciting projects such as RAPID, his own Denali language, the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet), Future Combat Systems (FCS), the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), P8, B1, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) STARS, and software reuse. He has published internally and internationally, was involved in both the OMG Real-Time CORBA and Ada language distributed programming standards, and hosted an ISORC conference in Seattle.

Scott’s interest in computer languages for distributed computing led to a patent award for controlling smart energy distribution. He has explored how slow ad-hoc networks might support a FCS; how disperse sensors, objects, and new user interfaces (UIs) could support advanced command and control systems like SBInet or AWACS; and how to scale his iDogWatch to remotely collaborate, view, and feed animals from a wristwatch. Through his research company, KonaCurrents, he builds apps and writes and teaches a course on software architecture in the Internet of Things (IoT) era (affectionately called “The Adventures of KnowledgeShark”).

Even before Scott’s 15 years of contributions to ACM Computing Reviews (since 2006), he anxiously awaited the next “transactions” in its nice, blue 7x10 inch format (in paper)—for example, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS)—and looked forward to applying ideas from the likes of Sun or Xerox PARC to his own technical challenges (as graphics were primitive, distributed computing still evolving, concurrency languages more expressive than computer power, and so on).

Scott finds the history of CS exciting, and was happy to hear that the “dragon book” authors were finally awarded the ACM A. M. Turing Award in 2020. Reviewing new works, especially the occasional book, helps him to stay technically current.

In addition to energetic CS discussions and app development, Scott enjoys spending time with his wife (also of the UW CS department and a Boeing Fellow), family, and hound dogs, as well as travel, photography, and outdoor recreation.