Dr. Abdullah “Ax” Ali arrived in the United States as a 19-year-old war refugee and worked his way from community college to a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction at the iSchool. Ali took the knowledge he gained from his Ph.D. and his extensive experience working at small startups and tech companies including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon to co-found 3rd Brain with his wife and fellow UW alum, Paige Collins. 

The mission of 3rd Brain is to disrupt the traditional household in typical domestic tasks.  As a couple’s organizer, the platform uses a Generative AI technology, affectionately named Bo the Brain, to empower couples to work together. Bo helps manage tasks and events and allows couples to share notes about their lives in one intelligent space. In outsourcing life’s thoughts to a Bo, couples may be able to reduce daily stresses.

At the iSchool, Ali said, his ideas were transformed into reality through determination, perseverance and the opportunity to collaborate with like-minded people. While working in the technology industry, he thought back often of the time he spent studying at the iSchool and the inspiration to go after big ideas, and he said that’s what motivated him to launch a startup with others who shared his vision of a more equitable harmonious home life.