diff --git a/Source/CNTK/BrainScript/ExperimentalNetworkBuilder.cpp b/Source/CNTK/BrainScript/ExperimentalNetworkBuilder.cpp
index 0868af87b..328c17ea6 100644
--- a/Source/CNTK/BrainScript/ExperimentalNetworkBuilder.cpp
+++ b/Source/CNTK/BrainScript/ExperimentalNetworkBuilder.cpp
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ L"ParameterTensor(dims, learningRateMultiplier = 1.0, init = 'uniform'/*|fixedVa
 #ifdef COMING_SOON
     TernaryStandardNode(CRF, labelVectorSequence, positionDependenScoreVectorSequence, transitionScores) // TODO: better names
 #endif
+    UnaryStandardNode(Abs, x)
     QuaternaryStandardNode(ClassBasedCrossEntropyWithSoftmax, labelClassDescriptorVectorSequence, mainInputInfo, mainWeight, classLogProbsBeforeSoftmax)
     // BUGBUG: the commented-out ones are not mentioned in the CNTK book, nor are their parameters documented in the source code
     BinaryStandardNode(ColumnElementTimes, aVectorSequence, anotherVectorSequence)
diff --git a/Source/CNTK/NetworkDescriptionLanguage.cpp b/Source/CNTK/NetworkDescriptionLanguage.cpp
index 46eddea3e..01177c0b3 100644
--- a/Source/CNTK/NetworkDescriptionLanguage.cpp
+++ b/Source/CNTK/NetworkDescriptionLanguage.cpp
@@ -149,7 +149,8 @@ bool CheckFunction(std::string& p_nodeType, bool* allowUndeterminedVariable)
 
     wstring nodeType = msra::strfun::utf16(p_nodeType);
     bool ret = false;
-    if (EqualInsensitive(nodeType, OperationNameOf(AveragePoolingNode))) ret = true;
+         if (EqualInsensitive(nodeType, OperationNameOf(AbsNode))) ret = true;
+    else if (EqualInsensitive(nodeType, OperationNameOf(AveragePoolingNode))) ret = true;
     else if (EqualInsensitive(nodeType, OperationNameOf(BatchNormalizationNode))) ret = true;
 #ifdef COMING_SOON
     else if (EqualInsensitive(nodeType, OperationNameOf(CRFNode), L"CRF")) ret = true;
diff --git a/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.cpp b/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.cpp
index a4a962f50..82c37b342 100644
--- a/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.cpp
+++ b/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.cpp
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ static shared_ptr<ComputationNode<ElemType>> CreateStandardNode(const std::wstri
          if (nodeType == OperationNameOf(CRFNode))                              return New<CRFNode<ElemType>>(forward<_Types>(_Args)...);
     else
 #endif
-         if (nodeType == OperationNameOf(ClassBasedCrossEntropyWithSoftmaxNode))return New<ClassBasedCrossEntropyWithSoftmaxNode<ElemType>>(forward<_Types>(_Args)...);
+         if (nodeType == OperationNameOf(AbsNode))                              return New<AbsNode<ElemType>>(forward<_Types>(_Args)...);
+    else if (nodeType == OperationNameOf(ClassBasedCrossEntropyWithSoftmaxNode))return New<ClassBasedCrossEntropyWithSoftmaxNode<ElemType>>(forward<_Types>(_Args)...);
     else if (nodeType == OperationNameOf(CosDistanceNode))                      return New<CosDistanceNode<ElemType>>(forward<_Types>(_Args)...);
     else if (nodeType == OperationNameOf(CosDistanceWithNegativeSamplesNode))   return New<CosDistanceWithNegativeSamplesNode<ElemType>>(forward<_Types>(_Args)...);
     else if (nodeType == OperationNameOf(CosineNode))                           return New<CosineNode<ElemType>>(forward<_Types>(_Args)...);
diff --git a/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.h b/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.h
index 1062cf5c2..1f6cfc94f 100644
--- a/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.h
+++ b/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/ComputationNetworkBuilder.h
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ public:
 #ifdef COMING_SOON
     ComputationNodePtr CRF(const ComputationNodePtr label, const ComputationNodePtr postDepScore, const ComputationNodePtr transition_score, const std::wstring nodeName = L"");
 #endif
+    ComputationNodePtr Abs(const ComputationNodePtr a, const std::wstring nodeName = L"");
     ComputationNodePtr ClassCrossEntropyWithSoftmax(const ComputationNodePtr label, const ComputationNodePtr prediction, const ComputationNodePtr input_weight, const ComputationNodePtr cls_log_post_prob, const std::wstring nodeName = L"");
     ComputationNodePtr Cos(const ComputationNodePtr a, const std::wstring nodeName = L"");
     ComputationNodePtr CosDistance(const ComputationNodePtr a, const ComputationNodePtr b, const std::wstring nodeName = L"");
diff --git a/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/NonlinearityNodes.h b/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/NonlinearityNodes.h
index f22b43516..983ea5946 100644
--- a/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/NonlinearityNodes.h
+++ b/Source/ComputationNetworkLib/NonlinearityNodes.h
@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ DeclareUnaryElementWiseWithOpCodeNode(RectifiedLinear, LinearRectifier, Elementw
 DeclareUnaryElementWiseWithOpCodeNode(Log,             Log,             ElementwiseProductWithLogDerivativeFromOutput,             true);
 DeclareUnaryElementWiseWithOpCodeNode(Exp,             Exp,             ElementwiseProduct,                                        true);
 DeclareUnaryElementWiseWithOpCodeNode(Cosine,          Cosine,          ElementwiseProductWithCosDerivative,                       false);
+DeclareUnaryElementWiseWithOpCodeNode(Abs,             Abs,             ElementwiseProductWithAbsDerivative,                       false);
 
 #pragma pop_macro("DeclareUnaryElementWiseWithOpCodeNode")
 
diff --git a/Source/Math/CommonMatrix.h b/Source/Math/CommonMatrix.h
index 16c2b4f4b..a81358930 100644
--- a/Source/Math/CommonMatrix.h
+++ b/Source/Math/CommonMatrix.h
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ enum ElementWiseOperator
     opElementwiseProductWithLinearRectifierDerivativeFromOutput,
     opElementwiseProductWithLogDerivativeFromOutput,
     opElementwiseProductWithCosDerivative,
+    opElementwiseProductWithAbsDerivative,
     opSqrOfDifference,
     // binary ops for indexing
     // opIndex,
@@ -160,8 +161,9 @@ enum ElementWiseOperator
     Macro(ElementwiseProductWithTanhDerivativeFromOutput);            \
     Macro(ElementwiseProductWithLinearRectifierDerivativeFromOutput); \
     Macro(ElementwiseProductWithLogDerivativeFromOutput);             \
-    Macro(ElementwiseProductWithCosDerivative); \
-    Macro(SqrOfDifference); \
+    Macro(ElementwiseProductWithCosDerivative);                       \
+    Macro(ElementwiseProductWithAbsDerivative);                       \
+    Macro(SqrOfDifference);                                           \
     //Macro(Index);
 
 #define ForAllTernaryOps(Macro) \
diff --git a/Source/Math/TensorOps.h b/Source/Math/TensorOps.h
index f928c604c..a400a9dfd 100644
--- a/Source/Math/TensorOps.h
+++ b/Source/Math/TensorOps.h
@@ -96,6 +96,14 @@ DECL ElemType LinearRectifierDerivative(ElemType z)
     return z > 0 ? (ElemType) 1 : 0;
 }
 
+template <class ElemType>
+DECL ElemType Sgn(ElemType z)
+{
+    if (z > 0.0) return 1.0;
+    if (z < 0.0) return -1.0;
+    return z;
+}
+
 template <class ElemType>
 DECL ElemType Sqr(ElemType z)
 {
@@ -227,6 +235,7 @@ DefBinaryOp(ElementwiseProductWithTanhDerivativeFromOutput, a*(1 - b * b));
 DefBinaryOp(ElementwiseProductWithLinearRectifierDerivativeFromOutput, b > 0 ? a : 0);
 DefBinaryOp(ElementwiseProductWithLogDerivativeFromOutput, a* exp_(-b));
 DefBinaryOp(ElementwiseProductWithCosDerivative, a * -sin_(b)); // note: b = input for cos()
+DefBinaryOp(ElementWideProductWithAbsDerivative, a * Sgn(b)); // note: b = input for abs()
 DefBinaryOp(SqrOfDifference, Sqr(a - b));
 //DefBinaryOp(Index, IndexElement(a, b, i));  // note: this one uses the third argument