Listen to All TNS podcast here: https://thenewstack.io/podcasts

In this episode of The New Stack Makers podcast, we spoke with IBM’s Lin Sun, whose official title is a senior technical staff member and “master inventor” for a comprehensive overview on what service meshes are for those not completely familiar with the topic, may have some familiarity and want to know more or want to also know more about emerging use cases.

Sun’s expertise in service meshes largely draws upon her role as an Istio project maintainer and is also on the Istio Steering Committee and Technical Oversight Committee.

Sun’s IBM title as “master inventor” may sound unusual or even arguably pretentious for some, or even “really cool,” as Sun describes it. But at IBM, the status as “master inventor” represents specific merits those who hold the title must first attain.

“‘Master inventor’ is a title for someone who demonstrates the mastery of the IBM inventor process and is able to mentor other people to be successful in the invention process, and to be able to be productive yourself,” Sun said. Among the other requirements, a “master inventor” must also first file about a dozen patents and to have at least one issued patent, Sun said. You must also have worked with a ‘review board to reveal any incoming patent disclosures on behalf of IBM