Andrew James Stanford-Clark is a British information technology research engineer, specialising in

telemetry Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...

and publish/subscribe messaging. In July 2017 he was appointed IBM CTO for UK and Ireland Previously, he led a research team at IBM. He is a Member of the IBM Academy of Technology, an

IBM Master Inventor IBM Master Inventor is an honorific title bestowed by the IBM Corporation to a qualifying employee. The qualification and appointment to Master Inventor is governed by the value to IBM of an inventor's contribution to the patent portfolio, and thr ...

and

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at Newcastle University. He also serves on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...

college and regularly delivers public talks.

Education

Stanford-Clark was educated at Stockport Grammar School, Cheshire, and the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

, Norwich. He holds a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

(BSc) degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

and mathematics from the

(UEA) and completed his PhD in parallel computing at UEA in 1991.

Career

Stanford-Clark joined IBM in 1991 in the Communications Software group. Stanford-Clark performed a number of roles within IBM, focusing primarily on parallel processing and pervasive

messaging A message is a discrete unit of communication intended by the source for consumption by some recipient or group of recipients. A message may be delivered by various means, including courier, telegraphy, carrier pigeon and electronic bus. ...

. When he started his job, his manager offered him the career advice that “there’s only one person who REALLY cares about your career, and that's you”. In 2010 he became Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Smart Energy Technologies, as part of IBM's smarter planet strategy, based on his background in pervasive messaging. Stanford-Clark has been granted 11 patents and, has 45 pending, as well as 30 additional invention disclosures published in IBM Technology Journal and IP.com. Stanford-Clark has also taken an active role in mentoring others and played a part in accelerating innovation, highlighted by his involvement in an IBM student scheme called Extreme Blue. Stanford-Clark leads the pervasive and advanced messaging technologies research group. The group works to further IBM's Smarter Planet initiative and is based at

Hursley House Hursley House is an 18th-century Queen Anne style mansion in Hursley, near Winchester in the English county of Hampshire. The building is Grade II* listed. History The Hursley estate was bought by William Heathcote, MP from the daughters of ...

near Winchester, Hampshire.

Telemetry

In 1999, Stanford-Clark collaborated with Arlen Nipper to author the first version of the

MQ Telemetry Transport MQTT (originally an initialism of MQ Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight, publish-subscribe, machine to machine network protocol for Message queue/ Message queuing service. It is designed for connections with remote locations that have devic ...

(MQTT) protocol. MQTT is a specialised protocol enabling

or lightweight sensor and mobile systems to provide information to computer programs via a publish/subscribe mechanism. Stanford-Clark gained media attention for this in the late 2000s by connecting his home automation system via MQTT to

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Awards and honours

In 2002 Stanford-Clark became a member of IBM Academy of Technology and was recognised as an IBM Master Inventor. He became an IBM Distinguished Engineer in 2007. In 2006, Stanford-Clark became a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the British Computer Society (FBCS) and Chartered IT Professional (CITP). He was appointed an

and has given

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

talks.Innovation Begins at Home
at TEDx In 2015 he appeared in

University Challenge ''University Challenge'' is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. ''University Challenge'' aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC ...

on BBC2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanford-Clark, Andy Living people People educated at Stockport Grammar School Alumni of the University of East Anglia IBM employees British computer scientists Fellows of the British Computer Society British software engineers Researchers in distributed computing Year of birth missing (living people)