Finding Key Inventors using i-index
Apr 29, 2019


Key Inventors – For Specific Technologies
Cars that are self-driven and robots that can feel and predict the world around them are no more a subject matter of science fiction. These and other such advancements are taking shape with Artificial Intelligence techniques such as Neural Computing. Neural Computing uses Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) – that simulate the human learning processes – to solve complex problems and create self-learning systems. Most of the recent advances in AI technologies rely on neural computing as ANNs do not require task-specific programming and improve over time by learning from data and using corrective feedback loops. In 2017, Google launched an initiative to use its new technology, AutoML, to develop artificial intelligence. Google claims this new technology can build more powerful and efficient networks. AI is also disrupting speech and voice recognition technologies. AI-powered speech recognition is now being used across industry sectors and applications such as communications, healthcare, automated vehicles and entertainment. Recently, Amazon’s Alexa Speech group scientists have reduced the errors in speech recognition using AI technologies. We take a look at 15 of the key inventors in these technology areas – Neural Networks and Speech Recognition – and compare their Inventor Index scores.Neural Networks
Our Inventor Index gave the following results (Table 1). James H. Brauker, a biomedical scientist tops the list with an i-index of 133.99. In the list, at number 11, is Dharmendra S. Modha, who is an IBM Fellow and IBM Chief Scientist for Brain-inspired Computing. Dr. Modha has authored over 60 papers and has more than 100 patent disclosures to his credit. [caption id="attachment_3352" align="aligncenter" width="670"]
Speech Recognition
Table 2 lists the inventors in Speech recognition technologies with some of the highest i-index scores. Wei-Ge Chen at the second position possesses an i-index of 42.38. He is a software architect in the Advanced Development Team at Microsoft Research and holds over 40 issued and 50 pending patents, and has published around 20 articles. [caption id="attachment_3353" align="aligncenter" width="670"]
Key Inventors – In Specific Companies
We also look at two companies known for their innovation in different technology sectors – Stryker and Tesla - and the key inventors in those companies with the highest i-indices. Stryker, one of the world’s leading medical technology companies, has been on the Fortune’s World's Most Admired Companies list for over fifteen years in a row. The company owns a product portfolio of close to 60,000 products and a patent portfolio of over 8,000 patents. Table 3 lists the key inventors in the company based on their inventor index. [caption id="attachment_3354" align="aligncenter" width="670"]
