Research · Strategy · Engineering

Closing the loop for you.

4ULoop pairs your business with proven experts — an HCI research scientist, a digital strategy lead, and a principal software engineer — who have mastered the work by hand and with the AI that accelerates it. You stay in the loop while it gets done.

Start a conversation Who you would be working with →

One closed loop, three disciplines.

Most firms handle one stage of this and leave the rest to someone else. Research stops at a deck. Engineering starts from a brief nobody validated. We carry the problem from first study to shipped system.

Our thesis

Most technology fails on contact with people, not with physics.

The thing rarely breaks because it could not be built. It breaks because nobody checked whether the interaction held up before it was committed to — and by the time that shows up in the data, the architecture is set and the budget is spent.

The usual structure all but guarantees it. Research is a separate function that produces a report. Strategy is a separate function that produces a roadmap. Engineering receives both as requirements and discovers what neither of them tested. At every handoff the original finding loses force.

We are three people, so there are no handoffs. The person who ran the study is in the room when the architecture is chosen.

You work directly with the three principals.

Each is senior in a different discipline. The organizations below are where that work was done — employers and institutions, not a client list.

Research

Kofi Whitney, PhD

Columbia, SC

Human-computer interaction research, experiment design, and the data systems that make research decisions repeatable.

Full-time on the practice — leading research and delivery engagements, and building 4ULoop's own products.
[4ULoop, 2025—present]
Led end-to-end technical research and go-to-market strategy across four consumer hardware launches, including the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) and the Google TV Streamer.
[Google, 2019—2025]
Founded Intel's first dedicated UX Research Lab for virtual reality, and held the company's first Software Evangelist role for VR.
[Intel, 2012—2016]
Ran controlled spatial-learning experiments in a six-sided CAVE immersive environment, comparing field study to simulation.
[Iowa State University, 2007—2012]

PhD, Human-Computer Interaction — Iowa State University
BS, Computer Science — Benedict College
Google Advanced Data Analytics (2025)
Google AI Essentials (2025)
Co-author, multiple US patents in wearable interaction, VR, and smart-home systems (assigned to employers)
Peer-reviewed publications in HCI and UX methodology

Strategy

Tim Devlin

Berlin

Digital strategy and innovation programs — real-time 3D, applied AI, and the operating models that carry them across organizations.

Led the global program embedding Unity's real-time 3D engine into MB.OS, Mercedes-Benz's next-generation vehicle operating system — interactive HMI, 3D navigation, and AI assistants. First vehicles shipped 2024.
[Unity, 2021—2024]
Ran cross-company delivery after Capgemini acquired Unity's 250-person industrial services team, holding programs intact through the integration.
[Capgemini, 2024—2025]
Advises on generative and agentic AI strategy, and served on the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs delegation to Silicon Valley.
[yoona.ai · BMWK, 2022—present]

Enterprise digital transformation across EMEA and the US
Real-time 3D and immersive product creation
Multi-entity program governance and post-acquisition integration
Previously Kalypso, Columbia Sportswear

Engineering

Brandon Baker

Baltimore, MD

Platform architecture and applied AI — the systems that have to hold up once the research is done and the strategy is agreed.

Builds bespoke microservices for production-scaled applications across client engineering programs.
[Stable Kernel, 2025—present]
Led small engineering teams shipping under real constraints — self-hosted LLM and ETL pipelines on FedRAMP-compliant infrastructure, an event pipeline redesigned for 10× throughput at half the operating cost, and an IoT reference platform for industrial and maritime sensors.
[Provenance Chain Network · Centene · Pushnami · FATHOM5, 2021—2024]
A decade at Intel across extreme computing and security research — core developer on GEOPM, the open-source power-management runtime deployed on supercomputers worldwide, and engineering SME on SGX secure-enclave architecture.
[Intel, 2011—2020]

MS, Computer Science — North Carolina A&T State University
Three US patents in secure enclaves, domain management, and adaptive authentication
Published in HPC and security research
Production systems in regulated and high-throughput environments

4ULoop is an independent practice. Company names above identify where each principal did the work described and are used for identification only — they are not clients of 4ULoop, and nothing here implies their endorsement or affiliation. Patents referenced are assigned to the employers at which they were authored.

What you can hire us for.

Five engagements, each designed to end in a decision you can defend rather than a document you file. If your problem does not fit one of them, tell us and we will say whether we can help.

Product Risk Sprint

2—4 weeks

Find where a concept fails before engineering budget is committed. An interaction risk map, a research plan, and a decision memo your leadership can act on.

VP Product · Head of Innovation · Director of UX Research

Prototype to Pilot

8—14 weeks

For real-time 3D interfaces, AI assistants, and sensor-driven interaction. A working prototype, an architecture recommendation, and a validation plan that survives the handoff.

VP Engineering · Head of Product · Director of R&D

Research Systems

4—8 weeks

The research operating system, not the interviews. Automated pipelines, predictive dashboards, and instrumentation that makes findings repeatable instead of artisanal.

Head of Research · Research Ops · Data Lead

Websites, built and run

Ongoing

Production websites that earn their keep — fast, accessible, and search-visible. Built with AI-assisted workflows, with a named human accountable for every judgment call, and operated after launch rather than handed over.

Founders · Owners · Marketing leads

See the studio work

Expert Review

1—3 weeks

An independent read on a spatial computing, automotive interface, or AI-agent product. Written assessment, risk register, and a call to argue it through.

Corporate innovation · Venture partner · CTO

How an engagement runs.

Three senior people raises a fair question about availability. This is how the work is structured to answer it.

Commitment: 4ULoop is Kofi's full-time practice, not a side venture. Engagements are staffed against that commitment, and we tell you at proposal which principals are on your work and for what share of the window.
Scope: Every engagement above is a fixed window with deliverables agreed before it starts. You know the end date and the artifact on day one — and if anything on our side puts that date at risk, you hear it from us before the halfway mark, not at the deadline.
Accountability: One principal owns each engagement and is named at kickoff. They are the person in the working sessions — not a lead who hands you to someone else. If that ever has to change, we tell you and you approve the replacement.
Capacity: We run a deliberately small book of concurrent work — we turn work away rather than thin it out. If we cannot give an engagement the attention it needs in the window you need it, you'll hear that before you commit, not after.
Contracting: One agreement and one invoice with Looped in Humans, LLC, whichever principals the work needs. You are not contracting with three freelancers and reconciling them yourself.
Coverage: The practice spans US Eastern and Central European time, which gives a working overlap with teams across North America and Europe.

Work with us

Let's close the loop.

Tell us what you are building and where you think it is most likely to fail. We reply within one business day, and if we are not the right fit we will say so.

Prefer email? hello@4uloop.com