Steve Waydo, PhD

Stephen Waydo is the Director of Health Sensing at Apple.

Waydo leads a team responsible for health algorithm development within Hardware Technologies at Apple, extending from the first generation Apple Watch to today. His team owns the algorithms underpinning the PPG and ECG sensors on Apple Watches, the cycle tracking and women’s health features on iPhone and Watch, and a variety of research and technology development projects for future products. His team also delivered the algorithms supporting Apple’s first two regulated medical devices, the Irregular Rhythm Notification feature for passive background arrhythmia detection and the ECG app for classifying atrial fibrillation and sinus rhythm from the Apple Watch’s ECG sensor.

His team spans the range from the basic research underpinning these features through shipping and supporting finished products, and work with software, HI, ID, and hardware teams to define and develop both the technologies and the end-user features they support. His core competencies are twofold: guiding deep research projects from conception through convergence to finished, shippable products, and serving as the “translation layer” between broader company strategy and the technology development required to make them a reality.

Prior to working at Apple, Waydo was the Director of Analysis at C8 Medisensors where he managed the team responsible for all algorithm development related to their spectroscopic measurement and was the lead integrator of this work into the rest of the system.

Waydo completed his PhD in Control and Dynamical Systems at the California Institute of Technology and received his bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington.