Co-founder of QNX back, ready to change the world
After a 13-year hiatus, QNX co-founder returns to Ottawa tech company to spur expansion, work in augmented reality, Vito Pilieci writes.
He’s back in the saddle again.
After a 13-year hiatus to focus on family, Gordon Bell has returned to the company he helped create in 1980, where he’ll spearhead a new generation of technology products and services he believes are about to turn the world on its head.
“I’m excited. I’m so pumped to be here,” said the 62-year-old, who has been quietly working at BlackBerry QNX’s Kanata labs for months. “I’m having the time of my life. I see a company that’s turned around.”
Bell left his role as an executive with QNX — which makes software that allows different computers and systems within a machine to talk to each other — in December 2004. Back then, his children were teens and he wanted to spend more time with his family. When his kids left for university, he took up a variety of different hobbies, including programming 3D printers, but the itch to get back into the lab and work with computers and other engineers never really subsided, he said.
Further compounding his strong connection to the firm were the annual phone calls from company executives promising Bell the door would always be open, should he want to return. That desire struck earlier this year.
Bell co-founded QNX with Dan Dodge in 1980 after the pair met while studying at the University of Waterloo. Both of them were computer whizzes with a keen interest in engineering.
Bell’s father was an electronics technician for a manufacturer of microchips, and as a result, he always had computer parts lying around to play with. By the time he hit high school, Bell was handmaking computer peripherals such as tape readers and audio systems. He built his first computer before he went to college.
Bell clearly loves to reminisce about the early days of QNX. A tour of an on-site museum, featuring a number of products from the company’s past, is all it takes to spark his memory. He pointed to a small glass display case with a computer inside and a placard that states it was the first computer QNX produced.
“That’s Dan’s. It’s actually the second one we made,” said Bell. “The first is sitting in my mother’s living room. She won’t let me have it.”
It’s a sense of self-reliance and experimentation that drew him into the world of computer and software engineering, he said. With BlackBerry now focusing on software, and QNX being the hottest part of its business, he said the Ottawa-based subsidiary is being pushed to expand its offerings to new areas. That’s an opportunity he just didn’t want to miss.
“They’re working with autonomous vehicles. I couldn’t let them have all the fun,” he said, before growing serious for a moment. “The car is today’s technology. It’s the darling of the industry, all of the engineers want to work on the autonomous car. But I think the future is augmented reality.”
Using the expertise it’s taken from BlackBerry — including security software and processes and cellular network connectivity technology — Bell believes QNX is a prime position to push the limits of augmented reality in ways the world has never seen.
BlackBerry QNX is already used in cars and medical devices, as well as many other gadgets like video slot machines, military equipment and even space shuttles. Bell believes it is in a prime position to link an array of internet-based electronics together and help those machines process, or understand, the world around them.
“All of the same software we’re working on that the car needs to sense its surroundings, the math that’s involved and the sensors and engineering challenges in observing and verifying and being aware of surroundings, also apply to everything in augmented reality for humans as well,” he said. “I believe we’re not just going to have a connected world, but machines will be aware of the people and the environments they interact in.”
Bell sees a future where machines will automatically offer closed-caption text translations for people who may be hard of hearing or are travelling in another country where different languages are spoken.
He also sees businesses changing how they digitally interact with customers — if a person is shopping on their phone, for example, a business’ interface could step in to help them find items in the store.
His new role as technical director gives him free rein to explore avenues of expansion for the firm, while continuing to support development in areas that are key to the business, such as autonomous vehicles.
Analysts have stated publicly that after being a supporting act for decades, QNX is likely to drive all of the growth for BlackBerry in the years ahead.
Company chief executive John Wall said when BlackBerry was at its peak, there was little thought given to the market it served.
“To be fair, there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to what we were doing because we were a small piece of a very large company at that time. BlackBerry was still huge in 2010 selling a lot of phones,” he said. “We maintained our business and grew our business.”
Today, BlackBerry QNX software can be found in more than 60 million cars around the world.
Bell’s return to the firm he helped build 37 years ago has sent shock waves through the building, Wall said, adding there’s no shortage of engineers lining up to work with the 62-year-old.
“Having him back is a real energizer for everyone. Just to see a founder come back,” said Wall.