APPLIED BRAIN RESEARCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Advisor, Silicon Catalyst
Brendan is motivated by the incredible capacity that microelectronics technologies have to enhance people's lives, and aims to leverage those technologies to deliver impactful solutions for individuals, and the world. Brendan completed his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2014, where the focus of his dissertation was the development of microchips for neural recording, using optical sensing techniques. Subsequently, Brendan worked as a postdoc at the University of Toronto, developing a scalable platform technology for rapid, point-of-need biosensing. Brendan co-founded a spin-off company, Micromensio, based on that work. Brendan joined ABR to develop highly efficient AI microchips that will change what's possible at the edge.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- CTO
- Director
- Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Neuroscience
- Director of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience
Chris is the co-inventor of the Neural Engineering Framework (NEF), the Neural Engineering Objects (Nengo) software environment, and the Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA), all of which are dedicated to understanding how the brain works. His team has developed the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network (Spaun) which is the most realistic functional brain simulation yet developed. He won the prestigious 2015 NSERC Polanyi Award for his research.
Chris is the Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Neuroscience. At the University of Waterloo Chris is jointly appointed in the Philosophy and Systems Design Engineering departments, as well as being cross-appointed to the Computer Science department. Chris has supervised students in each of these departments as well as in Biology and Psychology.
Chris is the director of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience (CTN) at the University of Waterloo. The Centre brings together researchers across many faculties as diverse as math, engineering, arts and science who are interested in computational and theoretical models of neural systems.
Job Titles:
- Head of Software & Co - Founder
Daniel's research is motivated by a general interest in building more flexible, adaptive computational systems. This has led to work in a range of different areas, including computational neuroscience, (hierarchical) reinforcement learning, and deep learning. Daniel works to build hybrid systems that combine these (and other) approaches, in order to best leverage the strengths of each method.
Travis' research focuses on studying the brain's motor control system. Using modern control theoretic methods, such as operational space control, nonlinear adaptive control, and dynamic movement primitives, he has worked to develop biologically plausible spiking neural networks that model the brain, capable of generating the same diversity of behavioural phenomena and robust adaptation / learning seen in primates.
With over three decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, Conley has been a key driver of innovation and disruption in technology and products while generating significant business growth.
Conley has held many important executive roles, including CEO of Everspin Technologies, the market leader in discrete MRAM solutions. Prior to that Conley served as a Senior Vice President at SanDisk Corporation where he was Chief Technology Officer and GM of the Client SSD business.
Conley has served as Advisor to several companies in the semiconductor, memory, storage and compute markets and is an executive coach to startup executives. Conley is also an Executive Mentor with the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor, Silicon Catalyst
Mark has been at the center of the Silicon Valley business and technology world for years working for companies like Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), NeXT, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Cypress Semiconductor and Dell. Mark was directly responsible for shipping five systems for the communications and computation markets that contributed over $1 billion in revenue each.
Job Titles:
- Advisor, Venture Lab
- Technology Business Specialist
Paul is an entrepreneurial technology business specialist with deep expertise in building successful tech companies and business units, taking them from napkin sketch to revenue and investment exit. As a founder, hired-gun CEO and angel investor, he has experienced it all - in addition to his PHD in technology, he also claims an MBA from the School of Hard Knocks. Paul has founded several startups going from the concept stage, through angel and VC financing, growth stage to a successful exit. He has also been hired to run a couple of tech ventures as their CEO. He has an ongoing interest in modern venture building methodologies such as Lean-Startup, Business Model / Value Proposition Canvas, and Market Opportunity Navigator which he follows in his activities and in his advisory practice. He has a passion for inspiring young entrepreneurs sharing his expertise to help them succeed.
Job Titles:
- Advisor, Silicon Catalyst
Richard has an entrepreneurial passion for transforming innovative technology teams into successful businesses, bringing to startups his extensive, hands-on business management experience in the semiconductor industry.
Richard started his career as a chip designer in the computer industry and is a holder of two US patents. He holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, an M.S. EE from Cornell University and a B.S. Computer Engineering degree from Boston University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor, Silicon Catalyst
Tarun Verma has over 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, with varied leadership and technology management roles in operations and engineering. Tarun joined Silicon Catalyst in 2015 as the first non-founder employee. Prior to that, he spent 22 years with Altera (now Intel PSG) where he led the packaging efforts for the organization. Tarun has Bachelors in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India and and MS in Materials Science from the University of California at Berkeley.