Michael Sapienza

Michael Sapienza is a principal researcher in the Applied Sciences Group (ASG) at Microsoft where he focusses on post-training of foundation models and their applications.  His research interests span computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and A.I., with a particular emphasis on creating systems that bridge the gap between research and real-world applications.

Before joining Microsoft, Michael held research and leadership roles across industry and academia.  He was vice president of artificial intelligence and machine learning and a founding member at Two AI (now Numeric), where he led the development of core technologies and helped bring multiple A.I. products to market at scale.  Before that, Michael was a computer vision scientist at Samsung STAR Labs where he contributed to the digital human technology behind Neon, showcased at CES 2020.  At Samsung Research America, he worked on real-time, on-device augmented reality systems and was awarded several patents.  Michael also served as a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Oxford’s Torr Vision Group, where his research advanced real-time object detection and segmentation.

Michael earned his Ph.D. in computer vision from Oxford Brookes University in 2014, where his research focussed on human action recognition and localization in video.  He completed an M.Sc. in electrical and electronics engineering at the University of Malta, with work spanning computer vision and robotics.  His academic training was supported by competitive scholarships and international research programs.

Outside of work, Michael enjoys music and staying active.  He plays the piano, participates in sports such as soccer and squash, enjoys hiking, and maintains an interest in philosophy.

To learn more about Michael, visit his personal webpage.