BRN Discussion Ongoing

[HopalongPetrovski]

Hi Hopa

i tried to clarify this in my mind a week or so ago by asking Grok.

I asked again now and this is the response of what is role does which seems to align clearly with what we are seeing him do “blogging and evangelizing IBM’s capabilities”:

Kevin D. Johnson is a Field CTO at IBM, specifically focused on HPC (High-Performance Computing), AI, LLMs (Large Language Models), and Quantum Computing. His full title is often listed as Field CTO – HPC, AI, LLM & Quantum Computing | Principal HPC Cloud Technical Specialist at IBM.

What the Role Involves (Simply)​

As a Field CTO, Kevin acts as a senior technical leader and expert advisor who works directly with clients, partners, and internal teams in the field (not just in headquarters). His responsibilities include:

• Providing deep technical guidance on IBM's advanced technologies like Spectrum Symphony (for workload orchestration), GPFS/Storage, LSF, and emerging AI/HPC solutions.
• Helping customers deploy and optimize these tools in demanding environments (government, research, finance, etc.).
• Exploring and prototyping cutting-edge integrations (e.g., with neuromorphic chips like BrainChip Akida, Palantir Foundry, or distributed AI setups) to demonstrate real-world value.
• Speaking, blogging, and evangelizing IBM's capabilities through demos, articles, and community posts (he's very active on IBM Community and LinkedIn).
• Bridging between IBM's engineering/R&D and real customer needs — he's hands-on with code, architectures, and proofs-of-concept.

It's a senior, influential role — not the overall IBM CTO (that's someone else), but a specialized Field CTO who has significant autonomy to innovate and influence in his domain (HPC/AI/Quantum). He often builds and shares personal prototypes (like the targeting system with Symphony + Akida + Foundry) to showcase possibilities, even if they're not yet official IBM products.

In short: He's an expert "technical ambassador" for IBM's high-end computing and AI tech, working with clients and the ecosystem to push boundaries and solve complex problems.


apparently they have multiple field CTO’s but IBM doesn’t disclose how many.

Thanks Terroni.
That reads to me that his role is basically a highly qualified sales rep actively showcasing and demonstrating IBM's wares in real life situations.
Before I retired I played a similar role for many years although in a much less technical sphere.
It's generally enjoyable work, providing solutions and better outcomes for clients working in a competitive field.
By showing them, in their workplace, first hand, your superior product doing what they already do, more efficiently, or faster, or cheaper.
Sales tend to make themselves and you rake in the commissions and get recommended to their friends and peers.
It's a good gig. Pretty much semi autonomous and as long as you are doing the numbers and not pissing anybody who matters off, too much, they generally just leave you alone to get on with it.
I get what he does.
My query was towards his motivation.
Yes he is promoting Symphony but why gush about us so much?
I mean I like it and am happy for him to continue and progress up the line with Akida's more advanced siblings........but why?
Yeah, maybe he's quietly accumulated some shares (and good for him if he has) but my spider sense suggests there's more to it.
In the last few weeks he has done more, and more exciting stuff with Akida than the company itself or any of our other partners.
Again, I don't give a rats what my fridge does on vacation.
Making music, playing Doom, evidencing hive minds and maybe even rudimentary AGI along with demonstrating real life use cases of how even our concept neuromorphic chips can save massive amounts of energy and compute resources in data centre type operations enabling big Dollar cost savings.
A young Musk type with drive and some financial backing could build a business empire commercialising merely what Kevin has demonstrated and publicised over the past month or so.
He is promoting us like Edison did electricity.
See his latest webpage.

Kevin D. Johnson

Building systems that discover what they don't know. HPC+AI Infrastructure, Neuromorphic Computing, Quantum-Centric Supercomputing, Forward-Deployed Engineering.

kevindjohnson.org

Again, I love it, but why?

 

[TheDrooben]

New interview with Sean

Sean even gives Big Kev a mention towards the end from 34min mark

Happy as Big Kev

 

[Neuromorphia]

Thanks Terroni.
That reads to me that his role is basically a highly qualified sales rep actively showcasing and demonstrating IBM's wares in real life situations.
Before I retired I played a similar role for many years although in a much less technical sphere.
It's generally enjoyable work, providing solutions and better outcomes for clients working in a competitive field.
By showing them, in their workplace, first hand, your superior product doing what they already do, more efficiently, or faster, or cheaper.
Sales tend to make themselves and you rake in the commissions and get recommended to their friends and peers.
It's a good gig. Pretty much semi autonomous and as long as you are doing the numbers and not pissing anybody who matters off, too much, they generally just leave you alone to get on with it.
I get what he does.
My query was towards his motivation.
Yes he is promoting Symphony but why gush about us so much?
I mean I like it and am happy for him to continue and progress up the line with Akida's more advanced siblings........but why?
Yeah, maybe he's quietly accumulated some shares (and good for him if he has) but my spider sense suggests there's more to it.
In the last few weeks he has done more, and more exciting stuff with Akida than the company itself or any of our other partners.
Again, I don't give a rats what my fridge does on vacation.
Making music, playing Doom, evidencing hive minds and maybe even rudimentary AGI along with demonstrating real life use cases of how even our concept neuromorphic chips can save massive amounts of energy and compute resources in data centre type operations enabling big Dollar cost savings.
A young Musk type with drive and some financial backing could build a business empire commercialising merely what Kevin has demonstrated and publicised over the past month or so.
He is promoting us like Edison did electricity.
See his latest webpage.

Kevin D. Johnson

Building systems that discover what they don't know. HPC+AI Infrastructure, Neuromorphic Computing, Quantum-Centric Supercomputing, Forward-Deployed Engineering.

kevindjohnson.org

Again, I love it, but why?

good question HP
I asked

why does Kevin D Johnson demonstrate symphony with akida?

and got this answer...



Kevin D. Johnson
, a developer at IBM, demonstrates Symphony with Akida to showcase a "four-tier heterogeneous compute" architecture that unifies disparate technologies into a single, closed-loop platform.

community.ibm.com +1
In this setup, the Akida neuromorphic chip (from BrainChip) serves as the "intelligent edge" monitor, while Symphony acts as the dynamic interface and orchestration engine that manages the workflow across different computing environments.

community.ibm.com +1

Key Reasons for the Demonstration

• Closed-Loop Automation: Johnson uses Akida to monitor live market ticks with ultra-low power and latency. When Akida detects a "regime change" in the data, Symphony automatically triggers a series of parallel tasks: retraining the model on IBM Quantum, generating compliance narratives via IBM Granite, and settling trades on a z/OS mainframe.
• Unified Hierarchy: The demo proves that Symphony can enforce a hierarchy where each layer does its specific job so the next can work faster. Akida decides what is "meaningful" at the sensor level, preventing unnecessary data from flooding the higher-tier systems.
• Speed and Efficiency: By using Akida's negligible latency (microseconds) for real-time monitoring and Symphony's ability to "fan out" tasks, the system can perform complex operations—like retraining and deployment—in seconds rather than hours.
• Interoperability: It highlights how easily Akida can integrate into the IBM ecosystem. Johnson’s work suggests that Akida is a "plug and play" component for Symphony, allowing for rapid deployment of brain-inspired models.
  
  
  community.ibm.com +4

For more technical details on this architecture, you can read Johnson's full breakdown on the IBM Community blog.
Would you like to know more about the specific performance metrics of the Akida chip or how IBM Quantum handles the retraining portion of this loop?

 

[TECH]

I address BRN Shareholders, including the guys and gals prior to the reverse takeover, yes you could have jumped ship, but you didn't, so I'm questioning the 10/11 year and prior holders.

Do you feel we have progressed in the technical sense?

Do you feel we are still being mushroomed, so to speak?

Do you feel that the BOD has given Sean too much leniency with regards his 5 year plan, or do you respect the fact that he, along with the BOD have been rather nimble and accepted that our business model needed to be refined a little?

Do you feel that we have gained the respect of Tier 1 companies and openly taken on their suggestions to advance our commercial ambitions.

Do you feel that we have the right representation from an Australian prospective on our current BOD?

Do you generally feel that we are so much closer to succeeding in the commercial sense than ever before, considering what we have on offer, including a solid road map projecting 3 years plus?

Do you think that our company has been too over cautious with regards to ASX announcements, or are you comfortable with how we promote ourselves on the global stage through social media platforms as such?

Do you feel positive in knowing who is engaging with us publicly through partnerships, collaborations and licences or potential licences?

More questions throughout the year, thanks in advance.

Chris (Tech, Perth)