about-us.html

---
layout: default

theme: theme-yellow
values:
  - title: Function above all
    content: >
      Most importantly, things have to work.
      We make products that work as we say they work,
      and are robustly tested.
      We only include features that make our products better.
      Similarly, if a business practice
      or a part of our culture
      isn't working,
      then we'll change it.
  - title: Failure is encouraged
    content: >
      Great ideas come from years of trial and error.
      We take risks and try things that won't end up working.
      We learn from these failures, most of the time.
      Sometimes it might take years of accumulated failure to finally succeed.
  - title: Be open with each other
    content: >
      Collaboration is key to our success.
      We share ideas and problems with one another;
      every project is a group project.
  - title: Be open with everyone
    content: >
      We value the dissemination of ideas
      as much as the products we develop
      based on those ideas.
      We will share code and develop it in the open.
      We will publish, teach, and give talks about how we do what we do.
  - title: Patents, not secrets
    content: >
      As an open company,
      we do need to protect our ideas somehow.
      We use the patent system
      as it was originally meant to be used.
      We want to foster innovation by all in our field,
      not stifle it.
  - title: Relax
    content: >
      Nothing, including this culture statement,
      is taken too seriously.
      We criticize constructively,
      are Canadianly polite,
      and recognize each other's value as people and not as workers.
---

<div class="main-content gradient-top">
  <div class="container">
    <div class="row justify-content-center">
      <div class="col-sm-10 col-lg-8 col-xl-7 text-center py-5">
        <h1 class="display-4">About us</h1>
        <p class="lead m-0">From research to application</p>
        <div class="title-bar"></div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row justify-content-center my-5">
      <div class="col-10 col-lg-6 col-xl-7">
        <h3>Our story</h3>
        <p>
          ABR was spun out of Professor Chris Eliasmith's
          <a href="http://compneuro.uwaterloo.ca/">
            Computational Neuroscience Research Group
          </a>
          (CNRG) at the University of Waterloo about two years after
          the Spaun model was published. Just before that, Peter Suma had
          joined the CNRG to see if their approach to building neural and
          cognitive models might have commercial applications.
        </p>
        <p>
          A few years earlier, the CNRG had started using their Neural Engineering
          Framework (NEF) and Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA) to
          build models targeting neuromorphic hardware. The
          combination of advanced algorithms, the ability to run them on
          the latest hardware, and Pete's extensive business background made
          ABR a no-brainer. Today ABR is pushing
          neuromorphic computing as a new platform,
          demonstrating how to achieve
          state-of-the-art power, speed, and accuracy across a range
          of AI applications.
        </p>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row justify-content-center my-5">
      <div class="col-10 col-lg-6 col-xl-7">
        <h3>Our research</h3>
        <p>
          In addition to Spaun, the research team at ABR has made advances in
          deep spiking networks, spiking and non-spiking adaptive control,
          recurrent neural networks, on-line learning,
          spiking and non-spiking hierarchical reinforcement learning and much
          more. For instance, we have developed new a kind of recurrent neural
          network that
          can outperform LSTMs on a variety of tasks, while being fully
          implementable in spikes. We also built the first applications using
          Intel's new neuromorphic hardware, Loihi, and demonstrated
          state-of-the-art power and performance on deep learning and adaptive
          control applications.
        </p>
        <p>
          As well, we have developed an inexpensive and accessible spiking hardware
          platform using FPGAs that can introduce new users to the world of
          neuromorphics. We continue to push the boundaries of cognitive
          computing on neuromorphic platforms and build ever larger and more
          functional systems driving new robotic functionality, better and more
          efficient video and audio processing, and high-speed action-perception
          applications.
        </p>
      </div>
    </div>

    <div class="row justify-content-center my-5">
      <div class="col-10 col-lg-6 col-xl-7">
        <h3>Our founders</h3>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row justify-content-center">
      {% assign about_us = site.collections | where: 'label', 'about-us' | first %}
      {% for ordered in about_us.order %}
      {% for person in site.about-us %}
      {% if person.path contains ordered %}
      <div class="col-10 col-sm-5 col-lg-3 mb-4">
        <div class="person card border-0 rounded-0 shadow-lg">
          <a href="{{ person.url }}"><div class="person-image" style="background-image: url('/img/{{ person.img }}');"></div></a>
          <div class="card-body">
            <p class="m-0">
              <strong>{{ person.fullname }}</strong>
            </p>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      {% endif %}
      {% endfor %}
      {% endfor %}
    </div>

    <div class="row justify-content-center my-5">
      <div class="col-10 col-lg-6 col-xl-7">
        <h3>Our values</h3>
        {% for value in page.values %}
        <h5>{{ forloop.index }}. {{ value.title }}</h5>
        <p>{{ value.content }}</p>
        {% endfor %}
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>