BrainChip Holdings Ltd, the world’s first commercial producer of ultra-low power, fully digital, event-based, neuromorphic AI, today announced that it has hired Steven Brightfield as its new chief marketing officer and has re-envisioned its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) by bringing on company founder Peter van der Made, Dr. Jason K. Eshraghian and Dr. André van Schaik.
Brightfield has a depth of tech industry knowledge and experience within the AI semiconductor industry. He previously led marketing at several AI focused technology companies, such as SiMa.ai, X-Silicon and Wave Computing combined with deep experience within the semiconductor sector, including executive leadership positions at LSI Logic, Qualcomm, Zoran and others. One of Brightfield’s first priorities at BrainChip will be to oversee the development of a marketing strategy for the new TENNs product, an advanced, ultra efficient neural network architecture and integrate it into the Akida technology platform.
The Scientific Advisory Board provides independent advice and expert consultation for the executive staff of Brainchip to guide the scientific and technical aspects of the company’s short- and long-term goals. The SAB also reviews and evaluates the research and development programs of BrainChip with respect to quality and scope. The re-envisioned SAB provides new perspectives from key industry leaders in AI with increasing focus under the leadership of Dr. Tony Lewis.
van der Made has been at the forefront of computer innovation for 45 years. One of the founders of BrainChip, he designed the first generations of digital neuromorphic devices on which the Akida™ chip was based. van der Made previously served as chief technology officer for BrainChip until his retirement last year. He remains a member of the company’s board of directors.
Eshraghian is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz. He serves as the Secretary of the Neural Systems and Applications Technical Committee. His research interests are in large-scale neuromorphic computing. Dr. Eshraghian is the developer of snnTorch, a widely used Python library with more than 150,000 downloads used to train and model spiking neural networks, and his lab developed several high-profile language models, including SpikeGPT, and the MatMul-Free LLM.
Van Schaik is a pioneer of the field of neuromorphic engineering. He is a professor of electrical engineering at the Western Sydney University and director of the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems, also in Australia. His research focuses on neuromorphic engineering and computational neuroscience. Dr. Van Schaik has authored more than 300 publications, invented more than 35 patents and is a founder of four start-up companies: VAST Audio, Personal Audio, Heard Systems and Optera.
“I am pleased to add new team members with the skills, experience and credentials to advance BrainChip’s adoption in the market,” said Sean Hehir, BrainChip’s CEO. “Leveraging Steve’s expertise as a technology marketer and expanding our Scientific Advisory Board with some of the keenest minds in the industry, better positions us to achieve our goals. I am eager to work closely with each of them.”
