Biography: Jeff Hawkins

Jeff Hawkins is an engineer, entrepreneur, scientist, inventor, and author. He was a founder of two mobile computing companies, Palm and Handspring, and was the architect of many computing products such as the PalmPilot and Treo smartphone. In 2002 he founded the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, a scientific institute focused on understanding how the neocortex processes information. The institute is now located at U.C. Berkeley. In 2004 we wrote the book On Intelligence, which describes progress on understanding the neocortex. In 2005 he co-founded Numenta. Numenta has created a technology based on neocortical theory. Numenta’s first product, Grok, uses this technology for modeling data. In 2013 Numenta placed its technology in an open source project called NuPIC. It is his hope that Numenta and NuPIC will play a catalytic role in the emerging field of machine intelligence.

Jeff Hawkins earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1979. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.