Advanced Research Laboratory
AI Engineering Through a Cognitive Science Lens
We build voice agents, agentic systems, and cognitive architectures that augment human capability.
Richard M. Thompson
Software & AI Engineer · AR Labs — AI Research Laboratory
RMT-001 · the researcher behind the bench
20 years ago, I studied Cognitive Science at the University of Exeter (BSc. (Hons.) First Class), then interned at Carnegie Mellon University with Prof. J.L. McClelland — one of the founders of connectionism. We published research on underlying cognitive structures of children's reasoning about causality, specifically examining learning and memory using an early, partly hand-coded recurrent neural network.
I spent the years between then and now pursuing different career paths. Business consulting, coaching, education, video game testing, personal training, and carpentry.
I'm now applying what I've learnt in these careers to software and AI engineering, at a most interesting juncture for technology.
I'm most interested in voice AI, agentic architecture, and cognitive approaches to AI system design.
Work With AR Labs
AI Engineering // Voice Agents // Agentic Systems
How an engagement actually runs is written up as the Client Delivery Framework — seven phases, end to end.