ECE ILLINOIS alumnus receives IBM Fellow distinction

ECE ILLINOIS alumnus Kyle Brown (CompE '98) was recently named as an IBM Fellow, IBM's "pre-eminent technical distinction, granted in recognition of outstanding and sustained technical achievements and leadership in engineering, programming, services, science, design and technology" per the IBM website. 

According to an interview with Brown, the current CTO of IBM's Cloud Architecture, being named as an IBM Fellow is humbling. "The magnitude of being in the company of so many industry giants, including Turing Award and Nobel Prize winners, is still sinking in. The thought that what I've contributed can be compared in any way to their work makes me want to redouble my efforts to creat something lasting," says Brown.

Brown is most proud of how his team was able to combine elements from varying parts of software engineering, software development practice, organizational transformation, and IBM Design Thinking into a "comprehensive approach that crosses all parts of the software lifecycle." In particular, Brown is especially proud "of how the work on the IBM Cloud Garage Method informed and guided" their work and how they integrated what they learned back into the Method. 

When asked about his life motto, Brown responded, "Be kind to everyone. It costs you nothing and multiplies happiness. The golden rule is the simplest, yet most profound statement ever uttered."

Read more from his interview and about IBM Fellows.