Aspiritech in a Nutshell

Aspiritech is a non-profit organization headquartered in metropolitan Chicago. Our mission is to provide meaningful employment opportunities to individuals with Asperger's syndrome and high functioning autism (HFA). We do this by leveraging their unique talents – attention to detail, superlative technical aptitude, ability to thrive in a highly repetitive task-driven work environment – and aligning those talents to the needs of the business community. Specifically, we provide competitively-priced testing services to client software development organizations. Our major services include functional, compatibility and regression testing, as well as test case development.

The Longer Story

	2007 – Beginnings The parents of an adult son with Asperger's syndrome, Brenda and Moshe Weitzberg had just seen their son fired from his part-time job bagging groceries – in spite of his 4-year university degree. Sadly, this story is not uncommon. While there is no official data, most experts agree that the unemployment rate among individuals with Asperger's and high-functioning autism is as high as 85%, despite their typically above-average education, intelligence, and technical aptitude. Brenda and Moshe felt that something had to be done to make it possible for adults with Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism to have gainful employment, commensurate with their skills and education.
	Early 2008 – Aspiritech is born Brenda recruits a group of MBA students from the Kellogg School of Management to help conduct a business study. Research reveals that the skills required for successful software testing – attention to detail, focus, precision, ability to perform repetitive operations – align beautifullly with the intrinsic talents of people with Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism. Further research reveals that the concept of high-quality software testing powered by people with Asperger's syndrome has already been successfully proven by the Danish IT consultancy Specialisterne.
	December 2008 – Aspiritech formally incorporates as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Aspiritech also forms a board of directors made up of social service providers, therapists, a vocational expert and a software engineer. Keita Suzuki, a then Kellogg MBA student and founder of KAIEN (a similar company in Tokyo, Japan) volunteers his business expertise to help with the start-up.
	August 2009 – Aspiritech launches a pilot project Aspiritech launches its initial pilot project in collaboration with mFluent, a local software developer of Smart Phone applications. Starting out of their home basement, Moshe, with the help of Aspiritech Board advisor, Hong Zhang, PhD, use thousands of test cases to train their sons Oran and Alan, followed by five other trainees with Asperger's syndrome.
	January 2010 – First office Aspiritech opens its first office in Highland Park, IL.
	March 2010 – First billable project Aspiritech signs a contract with a Chicago-based software development company that specializes in cloud computing. Training expands to include testing Cloud Computing technologies such as Salesforce.com.
	April 15, 2010 – Aspiritech testers get their first paycheck!
	May 2010 – Three more trainees are accepted into Aspiritech
	The future... Our vision is to expand to other geographic and business areas in addition to inspiring others to replicate our model. To those ends, we continue to seek sources of funding and additional billable work. If you're interested in exploring how Aspiritech can meet your company's needs for reliable, cost-effective software testing services, please contact Moshe Weitzberg, PhD at moshe@aspiritech.org or at 847-542-6863. If you're interested in otherwise supporting our cause, please visite our Support Us page to see how you can help.

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