A little about loopbio

Loopbio was founded in 2015 by Max Hofbauer and John Stowers to bring advances in image processing, tracking, deep learning, video recording and laboratory automation technology to the Natural Sciences. Being scientists and engineers ourselves, we appreciate how important technology is to scientific discovery, and we aspire to provide cutting edge solutions to help Scientists answer their research questions. Our dedication and excellence has been recognised by customers throughout the world, and by our acceptance in the prestigious NVIDIA Inception program, and the edmund optics startUP program.

A little about the founders

Max Hofbauer (co-founder), MSc

Max trained as a biologist at the University of Vienna, but was introduced to Virtual Reality during his masters studies "Behavior, Neurobiology, and Cognition" in the lab of Axel Schmid. There, Max combined his interest in the visual perception of animals with a fascination for technology, to develop an Arthropod VR system for freely walking spiders - including real-time position tracking and motion compensation. Max then moved to the labs of Andrew Straw and Kristin Tessmar-Raible where he worked on the development of VR systems for freely swimming fish, and automated behavioral analysis using computer vision. Max believes quantitative behavioral analysis can lead to new scientific insight and is passionate about closing the gap between engineering, data analysis, and traditional biology.

John Stowers (co-founder), PhD

John studied electrical engineering at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His PhD research was the application of biologically inspired vision to unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs as they were known then, now 'drones'). During his PhD, John became fascinated by the efficient vision and control strategies of insects, and switched from engineering into neuroscience after he graduated. John worked as a Postdoc in the lab of Andrew Straw (at the IMP) and at the TU Wien where his research involved applying engineering and system identification techniques to quantify freeflight behavior of Drosophila. There, John also developed a number of cutting edge quantitative behavioral assays including: VR systems for freely flying Drosophila, freely swimming fish, freely walking mice and flies, and a multitude of real-time 2D and 3D tracking software.