Our Mission
Our engineering process considers usability, security, and performance at every stage, from requirements and architecture through implementation and validation, to satisfy client requirements, minimize computational demands, and extend the useful life of existing hardware.
Research before implementation
We begin each project with a review of relevant peer-reviewed literature, established engineering methods, and authoritative technical guidance. This research informs the requirements, architecture, and implementation specification, with particular attention to security, maintainability, and suitability for the intended operating environment.
Design informed by user research
We research the product’s intended users, workflows, and established interface conventions before defining its interaction design. Navigation, terminology, controls, and information hierarchy are organized to support clear task progression, consistent behavior, and efficient access to functionality. Usability evaluation informs subsequent refinements.
Performance engineered to requirements
We select proven architectures, design patterns, algorithms, and data structures to align the implementation with each client’s functional requirements, workload characteristics, and operational constraints. We establish and validate performance criteria for latency, throughput, processor utilization, memory consumption, and network overhead. Resource management and concurrency strategies address applicable real-time requirements and limit contention with other applications operating in the same environment.
Technical opinions supported by thorough analysis
Our consulting and expert services apply the same research and engineering methods to the technical questions presented by each engagement. We examine relevant source code, system documentation, and digital evidence; conduct testing where appropriate; and assess findings against applicable specifications, standards, and published research. Reports identify the basis for each opinion and explain how the technical findings bear on the transaction, dispute, or operational decision.
Who we support
Business & Enterprise
From projects for sole proprietors to working in enterprise environments, Meados builds software for organizations of every size.
Government & Contractors
Meados delivers to government agencies and to the subcontractors serving them, including engagements as small as technical assessments to complete system delivery, from requirements through deployment and sustainment.
Law Firms & Litigation
Meados provides technical consulting and expert witness services for law firms handling transactions and litigation involving software, AI, and computer systems, drawing on hands-on software engineering, patent practice, and trial experience.
Software engineering informed by research and professional experience.
Meados, LLC is a software engineering and technical consulting firm serving businesses, government agencies, contractors, and law firms from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Our work includes custom software development, system evaluation, and technical consulting and expert witness services for transactions and litigation.
About Meados
The firm combines practical experience in software development and enterprise computing with graduate computer science education, patent practice, and litigation experience. This background informs both the systems we develop and our analysis of technology developed by others.
Professional background
Software development and enterprise computing
Derek began his technical career supporting enterprise computing environments at Avery Weigh-Tronix. His work included troubleshooting and maintaining workstations, servers, and network-connected equipment; supporting remote users; and developing scripts to automate software installation, system updates, and recurring administrative tasks.
He subsequently developed custom software for commercial clients through an independent development practice. Projects included web and desktop applications, content management systems, database integrations, electronic commerce, and payment-processing functionality incorporating safeguards designed to support PCI DSS compliance.
At Augustana College, he developed integrated hardware and software systems for recreation-facility operations, including customer check-in, access authorization, equipment tracking, and student-progress records. The work encompassed application development, centralized server infrastructure, data synchronization and backup, and usability research involving more than 100 users. Observations of actual workflows informed interface design, error handling, and data-entry requirements.
During his graduate studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Derek served as a teaching assistant for graduate software engineering. He instructed students in software design and development, evaluated projects, and developed tools to automate assessment and improve grading consistency.
Legal practice, investigations, and technical evidence
Derek’s legal career began with a judicial clerkship supporting 13 Iowa district court judges, followed by private practice involving litigation and transactions in intellectual property, municipal law, and commercial disputes. These roles required evaluating records, researching complex issues, and preparing analysis for judicial and client decision-making.
As a Marine Corps judge advocate, he served as lead counsel in more than 150 courts-martial, including contested trials. His work included evaluating electronic records, cellular extractions, and subpoenaed data; preparing motions; examining witnesses; and presenting complex evidence in court.
He later served as an operational law attorney and as Deputy and Acting Staff Judge Advocate for Marine Corps Base Quantico. His responsibilities included advising the installation commander and other senior leadership on investigations, ethics, administrative proceedings, privacy, information disclosure, and civil litigation matters. He also trained magistrates for pre-trial confinement hearings, supervised legal personnel, and coordinated with investigators and other government counsel.
Patent practice and federal regulatory work
At Sughrue Mion, Derek handled prosecution of more than 400 patent applications involving computer hardware, software, artificial intelligence, distributed systems, data processing, and user-interface technologies. This work required detailed examination of technical disclosures, comparison with prior art, and preparation of arguments addressing patent eligibility, novelty, obviousness, and disclosure requirements.
At the USPTO’s Office of Enrollment and Discipline, he investigated allegations of practitioner misconduct, evaluated documentary and testimonial evidence, and reviewed applicants’ scientific and technical qualifications and character-and-fitness issues. He also contributed to policies, guidance, standardization, and process improvement.
Together, these roles developed experience examining how technology operates, assessing the evidence supporting technical assertions, and communicating findings to legal, technical, and executive audiences.
Technical expertise and research
Derek’s practical experience is supported by graduate study across the principal areas of computer science relevant to Meados’s engineering and consulting work:
His development experience includes applications, APIs, database-backed services, enterprise integrations, and automation across Windows and Linux environments. His doctoral research investigates AI-based methods for learning and reproducing operating-system semantics, enabling software developed for one environment to execute in another.
Services and products
Software engineering
Meados undertakes custom development and product engineering for desktop, web, and server environments. Engagements may include requirements analysis, architecture, implementation, databases, API integration, workflow automation, testing, deployment, documentation, and ongoing maintenance.
Research informs technology selection and implementation decisions. Usability, security, maintainability, and performance are considered throughout development, with solutions evaluated against the client’s requirements and operating constraints.
Technical consulting
Meados evaluates proposed and existing systems to support architecture decisions, modernization planning, technical due diligence, and operational improvement. Areas of review include performance, resource utilization, data handling, integration, security considerations, cloud and virtualization infrastructure, and usability.
Assessments identify specific findings, their operational significance, and practical recommendations supported by the available evidence.
Litigation and transactional support
Meados provides technical consulting and expert witness services for matters involving software, AI, computer systems, and related intellectual property. Work may include source-code and system review, analysis of digital evidence, evaluation of technical disclosures and documentation, and testing of disputed functionality or performance.
Derek’s engineering background informs the technical analysis, while his patent, trial, and investigative experience informs how that analysis is documented and communicated. Engagements may include technical due diligence, assistance to counsel, expert reports, and deposition or trial testimony.