Two Cincinnatians have established a startup that has patented and received funding toward developing artificial intelligence software similar to a “brain-on-a-chip.”
Brain-CA, co-founded by Jerry Felix, a software engineer who spent 15 years at Hewlett-Packard; and Steve Brunker, a former C-suite executive at both LSI Industries and Hillman Group, successfully acquired patents for a new microprocessor and cellular automata-based AI implementation system, as well as garnered $2.2 million in seed funding.
The technology employs an integrated circuit microprocessor structured like cells, enabling it to process and comprehend information in a manner akin to the human brain.
Brunker, the CEO of Brain-CA, explained that in a cellular automata system, cells set their own value based only on what they know about themselves and their immediate neighbors. In the Brain-CA system, cells within a hexagonal grid send out waves of information in circular ripple patterns that are used to establish relationships between the cells, which are in turn used to make predictions from future observations.
Another Brain-CA invention called the Estimator enables the cells within the Brain-CA grid to keep track of the relative strength of the relationships observed without needing a CPU, a central processing unit, or computer processor, to do mathematical calculations. This maintains the autonomy of each individual cell and keeps the overall design simple.
This system, according to a press release from the company, aims to overcome the demanding energy consumption and complexity of existing AI technology by introducing a simplified architecture, resulting in substantial energy efficiency improvements.
Felix, inventor and Brain-CA co-founder, was awarded the patent for this idea in December 2023, just one month after the incorporation of Brain-CA. The startup worked with registered patent attorney William Morriss of Frost Brown and Todd to acquire it.
Brunker told me they purposely made the patent broad in expectation of push back from the patent office, which would eventually narrow down the focus and refine the specifics of the patent.
“We submitted it, and it came back approved in the first round. That tells you there’s not a lot of people exploring this sort of thing and that we wrote the (application) well,” he said.
In January, a second patent was approved, covering additional technology. It's still pending due to ongoing payment and administrative processes.
Since the beginning of the year, Brain-CA has closed two rounds of funding. In a seed funding round, 32 private investors, excluding Felix and Brunker, collaboratively raised $2.2 million. The investors signed Simple Agreements for Future Equity (SAFEs), which are flexible contracts that provide future equity rights without requiring immediate valuation.
The average investor contributed about $61,000, Brunker said, and the largest single investor wrote a $200,000 check.
The primary use of the funding will be engineering a simulation to prove the functionality of the program and to use for benchmarking, tuning and refinement.
Brunker said Brain-CA plans to use the funding to expand its team by hiring three to eight engineers. The new hires will focus on translating software concepts into tangible hardware. This addition would bring the total number of Brain-CA employees to a range of 10 to 15.
In the pursuit of continued fundraising, Brain-CA has submitted an application to the National Science Foundation for a $250,000 grant. Brunker says the company is also participating in a startup competition through Northwestern University, where it has the opportunity to win $100,000 and present its ideas to venture capitalists in San Francisco.
Future plans for the company include collaborating with people working on machine learning and AI, including in the academic sector.
“We are hoping to get those trusted advisers lined up so when commercial enterprises are looking to learn more about it, the answers are all, ‘Yes, this is good stuff,’” Brunker said.
Brain-CA currently envisions manufacturing its own chips, but also licensing the technology to others so that they can use it as well.
Felix and Brunker met while working at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise plant in Blue Ash during the ‘90s. Felix founded and owned Cincinnati-based software solutions company Electronic Commerce Link for 25 years before selling it to Munission in 2020. Brunker was the chief information officer of LSI Industries for almost 20 years and for Hillman Group for two years prior to his role as CEO of Brain-CA.
