Michael Sparks is a software engineer who does applied research. His career has been shaped by a simple recurring principle: the best way to understand an idea is to build it, share it, and help others do the same. Whether he’s building a concurrent architecture, a learning tool, a broadcast pipeline, or a piece of hardware on a kitchen table, his work starts with curiosity and ends with real systems that people use. Systems, tools, and research contributions spanning over 27 years of concurrency models, sustainable computing, educational technology, and large-scale media delivery.