THE WAY OF THE MASTER INVENTOR
Each year, IBM asks a small group of employees to join the ranks of Master Inventor. To date This elite group of people invents and mentor others to invent. Tracy Staedter chats with Andy Stanford-Clark, one such person.
"My best ideas come to me in the shower."
Andy Stanford-Clark
Andy Stanford-Clark
10:25 AMimtracynotstacy: good morning. i mean, good afternoon. thanks for taking the time to chat
andysc0: afternoon/morning :-)
imtracynotstacy: Let's start by talking about your title. You're a master inventor at IBM. How many people have that title at IBM?
10:28 AM andysc0: Each lab (development and research) has its own community of Master Inventors - here at the Hursley development lab here in the UK, we have 29 Master Inventors - people can be nominated once a year, and it's a 3 year term, so you have to be re-nominated after that.. which makes sure we keep on being inventive!
Across all of IBM, I don't have the total figure.imtracynotstacy: What does it meant to be a master inventor? What is your role?
andysc0: There are two main parts to being a Master Inventor...
1) lots of inventions - you have to have at least 12 to be a Master Inventor... I've just filed my 42nd patent at the patent officebut the main part of being a Master Inventor is2) to help other people find the innovation in their work - people often don't realise that the really hard problem they just solved - the clever algorithm they just came up with, etc, has quite possibly never been done before.
That's really exciting, and you have to learn to recognise that feeling when something like that happens, because you've probably just created something special and new there, which we can examine to see if we need to get patent protection, or if we can harvest the intellectual capital "nugget" to use in other places
10:32 AM so a lot of people come into my office with a half-formed idea -- a germ of an idea -- and they describe it to me on my white board, and we tease out the actual invention that's lurking in there.
10:33 AM That's the great part about being a Master Inventor -- helping people find their inventions
imtracynotstacy: can you give me an example of an invention that you helped teased out?
10:35 AM andysc0: usually they're pretty obscure things -- like a new way to manage message objects in a queue inside the engine of one of our messaging products, so one example was a new way to hold on to data that may be needed in the future, but to keep a limited "history" of it, so you could just go back and look for a short window of time
Most of the inventions are quite obscure; it's rare that we get one like "the wheel" or something fundamental like that :-)imtracynotstacy: :)
When did you realize you were an "inventor?"
Fundamentally
10:37 AM andysc0: I think it was when I was a child... I was always building things out of wood and cardboard and then I got into electronics and built gadgets, simple things, like a buzzer to tell my Mum when it was raining outside, so she could go and get the washing in!
10:38 AM When I came to IBM (18 years ago), my first mentor was a very keen inventor at IBM -- one of our first Master Inventors -- and he showed me by example what the invention process was all about at IBM. It's quite a complicated process, as we do lots of checks through peer review, to make sure what we're patenting is of high quality.imtracynotstacy: What inventions are you most proud of? Or are your personal favorites?
10:41 AM andysc0: One I'm most proud of is a technique for Internet load balancing, which I invented while I was working on the web site for a major sporting event in 1996... it allowed us to take web traffic and spread it across web servers in data centers in different locations in the world.
That invention enabled us to handle the (for then!) huge traffic we were experiencing during the event
10:42 AM I could see my invention making a real difference!
imtracynotstacy: Are most of your inventions computer or internet related?
10:44 AM andysc0: yes, almost all of them, mostly to do with the internals of our messaging middleware products - often to improve performance of some little corner of the system, which brings great benefits to our Clients when they use it
imtracynotstacy: Are there inventions that other people have made (at IBM or elsewhere in the world or in time) that you are truly amazed by?
10:45 AM andysc0: Oh yes - lots of them! The Scanning Tunneling Microscope was a great invention by two IBMers -- it won them a Nobel Prize in Physics :-)imtracynotstacy: If someone was hoping to become a master inventor, what personality characteristics are important and why?
10:49 AM andysc0: The main thing is that they are approachable
we don't want Master Inventors who just sit in a corner and crank out inventions... we need people like that to invent all the cool new technology, of course, but those people don't typically become Master Inventors
10:50 AM It's important not be judgmental of ideas which turn out not to be novel, that can be a real disappointment to our inventors. So an open mind and plenty of encouragement are essential!imtracynotstacy: Is there a time of day or a place where you feel the most inspired? Or that you come up with your best ideas?
10:54 AM andysc0: Here at Hursley Park we have a great environment which is very conducive to innovation
there are lovely walks in the countryside round about, which are a great way to change gear and let the ideas flow!
there are lovely walks in the countryside round about, which are a great way to change gear and let the ideas flow!
10:55 AM I find that chatting with colleagues from other departments or other parts of the business is great for cross-fertilization of ideas, so having a coffee with friends can often lead to new ideas. We once hatched two new inventions before 9 a.m. one day!
10:56 AM My best ideas, however, come to me in the shower... I'm not sure if it's the partial sensory deprivation, or just because my mind is clear of the business of the day, but quite often the most inspired solutions to problems pop into my head there!
imtracynotstacy: Me too!
And when I go for a big walk!
andysc0: I think everyone has a favorite place to think, and it's important for people to find that place.
There you go :-)
imtracynotstacy: I know time is short so just a couple more questions.
What is the most unusual thing on your desk?
10:57 AM andysc0: ok - thanks
<looking around>
a wireless light switchimtracynotstacy: you mean like a remote control for light?
andysc0: it looks like a wall light switch.. well, it *is*,but it has no wires coming out of it. It has a little radio transmitter inside, so when I click it when I'm in my house, the light comes on in the room I'm in !
How cool is that :-)
10:59 AM And the other cool thing on my desk, is the keyboard I'm typing on.. it has no key caps at all; it's completely black (apart from the caps lock light!)
that's a sign of a true geek!
who needs key caps - we know where the letters are!
OK - I have to go very very very soon
imtracynotstacy: OKay. Last question. Do you listen to music at work or in your lab and if so, what do you listen to?
11:00 AM andysc0: no.. I prefer quiet. I used to, when I worked in an open plan lab, and then I listened to lots of Irish Folk type music - Enya, that kind of thing - I find it relaxing and doesn't intrude on my thoughts!
imtracynotstacy: very nice
andysc0: thanks :-)
imtracynotstacy: okay I'll let you go
thanks for your time
andysc0: ok - thanks - great talking to you
