NVIDIA Certification Champions

Join the community of experts who have contributed to the development of our certification program.

Become a Champion

Interested in being part of the NVIDIA Certification Champions team?
We’re currently looking for experts in the areas of advanced networking, AI infrastructure, accelerated data science, gen AI, and OpenUSD to help with certification exam creation and beta testing.

Program Overview

Our Champions program brings together professionals from diverse backgrounds, including industry experts, educators, and technology enthusiasts. These individuals are chosen based on their deep knowledge of NVIDIA technologies, their experience in the field, and their commitment to fostering learning and career growth.

NVIDIA Certification Champions represent a community of dedicated professionals who contribute to the development and success of NVIDIA’s certification program. They play a vital role in upholding the high standards associated with NVIDIA’s certifications. By harnessing  the collective expertise of these champions, NVIDIA ensures that its certification program remains relevant, challenging, and respected within the industry. Their commitment and knowledge help maintain NVIDIA certifications as a valuable benchmark for professionals in the AI and accelerated computing fields.

Champions can contribute to the certification program in several ways:

  • Exam Design: Champions assist in creating and reviewing certification exams, ensuring they accurately assess candidates’ skills and knowledge.
  • Exam Beta Testing: Champions volunteer to take beta versions of our exams to ensure they are technically accurate and relevant to real-life workplace situations. The results from these beta exams provide useful information to evaluate the quality of the exam and its questions.
  • Community Engagement: Champions function as ambassadors for the program, sharing their expertise and experiences with aspiring professionals.
  • Feedback Loop: Champions offer insights from their real-world experiences, helping NVIDIA continually refine and improve the certification process.

Participation in the Certification Champions program offers these benefits:

  • Early Access: As beta testers, Champions receive first access to our certification exams and can be some of the first individuals to be certified in new areas. 
  • Networking Opportunities: The program facilitates connections with other experts in the field, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.
  • Recognition: Champions gain recognition for their expertise and contributions to the NVIDIA ecosystem.

Becoming a Certification Champion requires expertise in NVIDIA technologies. In selecting Champions, we look for the following: 

  • Experience in projects that involve NVIDIA technologies and platforms
  • Experience teaching AI and related technologies
  • Completing NVIDIA certification

View Champions

Adeola Adesoba


Areas of Expertise:
AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science

Interesting Project:
Developed Video Analytics AI Agent utilizing a framework for multimodal agentic RAG on first-person video to enhance accessibility for visually impaired users, integrating NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit.

 


Agentic AI Solutions Architect
NVIDIA
New York, USA


Contributions: Professional Agentic AI Exam

Christian López Barrón


Areas of Expertise:
Simulation, Modeling, Design, OpenUSD

Interesting Project:
Coming into Animal Logic and working with R&D teams to integrate OpenUSD with mature in-house technologies.

  


Core Assets Technical Director Supervisor Netflix Animation Studios
Sydney, Australia


Contributions: Professional: OpenUSD Development Exam

Terrell Bennett


Areas of Expertise:
NVIDIA DGX, Base Command Manager

  


Technical Training Content Developer
NVIDIA 
Texas, USA


Contributions: AI Operations Professional
and AI Infrastructure Professional Exams

Levi Biasco


Areas of Expertise:
CG Pipelines, CG Tools, Game Development

Interesting Project:
Developing stepped animation, mesh sharpening, and vegetation pipelines for "Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish"

 


Procedural Technical Artist,
Santa Monica Studio
California, USA


Contributions: Professional: OpenUSD Development Exam

Gergő Bogacsovics


Areas of Expertise:
AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science

Interesting Project:
Senior data engineer and senior lecturer specializing in the areas of deep learning, computer vision, and reinforcement learning.

 


Assistant Professor, University of Debrecen
Debrecen, Hungary


Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI and Gen AI LLM Exams

Burcin Bozkaya


Areas of Expertise:
LLMs, Gen AI, RAG, Behavioral Analytics

Interesting Project:
Helping partners build gen AI, LLM, RAG, agentic, and optimization solutions

  


Senior Developer Relations Manager
NVIDIA
Florida, USA


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & MM Associate Exams

Jim Brinksma


Areas of Expertise:
SaaS, AI, ML, Networking

Interesting Project:
Multi-cloud GPUaaS orchestration

 


SVP Software and Solutions
LightRiver Software
New York, USA


Contributions: AI Infrastructure & Operations Associate Exam,  AI Operations, AI Infrastructure and AI Networking Professional Exams 

Brad Christian


Areas of Expertise:
Data Center Architecture, AI, Cloud Enterprise Solutions, Process Design, and FinOps

  


Chief Enterprise Architect for DC and AI
Computacenter
Texas, USA


Contributions: Professional: AI Operations and Professional: AI Infrastructure Exams

Allison Ding


Areas of Expertise:
AI, AI Development, Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science, NLP, LLM, Machine Learning

Interesting Project:
Developer Advocate for GPU-accelerated AI APIs, libraries, and tools at NVIDIA, specializing in Large Language Models (LLMs) and cutting-edge data science

 


Senior Developer Advocate - Data Science
NVIDIA
California, USA


Contributions: Professional: Accelerated Data Science Exam

Michael Fattu


Areas of Expertise:
Data Science, Computer Vision, LLMs

Interesting Project:
I helped in deployment of the top 2 systems on the Top 500 Supercomputers in parallel before the Nvidia/Mellaonx merger.

  


Senior Field Applications Engineer
NVIDIA 
California, USA


Contributions: Professional: AI Infrastructure Exam

Michael Fongemie


Areas of Expertise:
AI Infrastructure & Operations, DGX, Solution Selling

Interesting Project:
Developing AI platform solutions, assessments, and workshops for internal and external customers

  


Senior Solution Architect
Insight
Florida, USA


Contributions: AI Infrastructure and Operations Associate Exam, AI Infrastructure Professional Exam

Andras Hajdu


Areas of Expertise:
AI Development, Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science

Interesting Project:
AI healthcare projects including diagnostic support, automated screening, image analysis, clinical text extraction, and training tools for cytology, dermatology, ophthalmology, and implant assessment.

 


Dean, Full Professor, NVIDIA Ambassador University of Debrecen
Debrecen, Hungary


Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI and Professional: Gen AI LLMs Exams

Igor Isupov


Areas of Expertise:
GenAI, AI, ML, OVE, DGX/HGX

Interesting Project:
Giving developers access to the latest and greatest of NVIDIA Hardware and Software and early access to SDKs

  


Sr. Data Scientist, NVIDIA Alliance Technical Lead
SoftServe
Lviv, Ukraine


Contributions: Associate: Gen AI LLM, Associate: Gen AI Multimodal

Dr. Manal Jalloul


Areas of Expertise:
Gen AI, Accelerated Computing, Data Science

Interesting Project:
Develop DL solutions in automotive, pharma, smart cities, and more

  


Founder and CEO
AI Lab
Beirut, Lebanon


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & MM Associate Exams, Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam

Dr. Laszlo Kovacs


Areas of Expertise:
DL and AI in medical and automotive industries

Interesting Project:
AI/ML-based product development, and real-time product-related data analysis solutions to support production and quality steering

  


Research Scientist, Assistant Professor
BMW and University of Debrecen
Debrecen, Hungary


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & MM Associate, Accelerated Data Science Professional Exams

Vadim Kudlay


Areas of Expertise:
Deep Learning, Gen AI

Interesting Project:
Mimic Keras API using NumPy to implement MNIST classifier

  


Senior Content Developer, DLI
NVIDIA
Louisiana, USA


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & Gen AI MM Associate Exams

Kevin Lee


Areas of Expertise:
Data Science, Computer Vision, LLMs

Interesting Project:
AI agents

  


Senior Content Developer, DLI
NVIDIA
California, USA


Contributions: Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam

Kaikai Liu


Areas of Expertise:
AI Development, Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science

 


Associate Professor San Jose State University California, USA


Contributions: Professional: Gen AI LLMs Exam

Brian McBrayer


Areas of Expertise:
DGX Cloud, Gen AI, Infrastructure, Engineering

Interesting Project:
Contribute code back to the OSS agentic communities

  


Solutions Architect in Generative AI
NVIDIA
North Carolina, USA


Contributions: Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam

Shawn McCarthy


Areas of Expertise:
AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models)

Interesting Project:
Official recognition for specialized expertise in AI + Ethics + Insurance Instructor for Web API Technologies with focus on cloud deployment, DevSecOps, and test automation.

 


Graduate Instructor
University of Colorado Denver
Colorado, USA


Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI Exam

Veer Mehta


Areas of Expertise:
AI Infrastructure, AI Operations

Interesting Project:
Designed and built a large scale virtualized infrastructure for AI involving vGPU around VMware and Nutanix ecosystems.

  


Senior Solutions Architect in Generative AI NVIDIA
California, USA


Contributions: AI Infrastructure and Operations Associate Exam, AI Infrastructure Professional Exam, AI Operations Exam

Mariofanna Milanova


Areas of Expertise:
AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science

Interesting Project:
Developed predictive models that combine computer vision with health data analytics, aiming to prevent falls before they occur rather than simply detecting them afterward.

 


Professor of Computer Science
University of Arkansas Little Rock
Arkansas, USA


Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI and Professional: Gen AI LLMs Exams

Mohammad (Sina) Mostafanejad


Areas of Expertise:
Accelerated Computing, AI Development, Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science, Simulation, Modeling, Design, Molecular Science, Computational Chemistry

Interesting Project:
Investigating LLM architecture, preprocessing, and randomness impacts on molecular property prediction. So far, we have managed to capture, quantify, and unravel new concepts in pertinent literature and explain discrepancies that were documented during the past five years.

  


Software Scientist,  Virginia Tech
Virginia, USA


Contributions: Professional: Gen AI LLMs Exam

Christian Munley


Areas of Expertise:
AI Developer, Generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models

  


Solutions Architect
NVIDIA
California, USA


Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI Exam

Ernest Namdar


Areas of Expertise:
Machine Learning, Medical Imaging

Interesting Project:
Pediatric brain cancer molecular subtype identification

  


Senior Data Analyst
The Hospital for Sick Children
Ontario, Canada


Contributions: Gen AI LLM and Gen AI MM Associate Exams, Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam

Paul A. Nussbaum, Ph.D.


Areas of Expertise:
AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning

Interesting Project:
Developed the "Chef's Buddy"—a culinary agentic AI solution that demonstrates the technology by showing our culinary students (and the student body in general) how to use agentic AI.

 


Faculty
ECPI University
Virgina, USA


Contributions: Professional Agentic AI Exam

Eric Phan


Areas of Expertise:
AI, ML, Data Science, and Robotics

Interesting Project:
Accelerating workflows with a single line of code

  


System Software Engineer
NVIDIA
California, USA


Contributions: Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam

Ranjit Rajan


Areas of Expertise:
Data Processing, DL, Search, and Gen AI

Interesting Project:
Design and build accelerated data processing and gen AI solutions

  


Senior Solutions Architect 
NVIDIA
Washington, USA


Contributions: Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam

Mohammad Raza


Areas of Expertise:
Gen AI, Computer Vision, ML

Interesting Project:
Design and implement cutting-edge gen AI solutions for enterprise clients

  


Senior Solutions Architect
NVIDIA
Illinois, USA


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & Gen AI MM Associate Exams 

Jack Schultz


Areas of Expertise:
AI Operations (administration, configuration, data center ops, troubleshooting), AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Data Science, Agentic AI

Interesting Project:
Designing agentic applications, building dynamic evaluations and automating optimizations for self‑improving agent architectures in medical‑terminology OSS and digital public goods.

 


AI Solutions Architect,
Stepwise.AI
Boston, USA


Contributions: Professional: Gen AI LLMs and Professional: Agentic AI Exams

Paolo Emilio Selva


Areas of Expertise:
Software Engineering for Visual Effects and Virtual Production

  


Principal Software Engineer
880 Productions
Wellington, New Zealand


Contributions: Professional: OpenUSD Development Exam

Shahar Siegman


Areas of Expertise:
NVIDIA AI Software Stack

Interesting Project:
Educate NVIDIA’s largest customers on how to utilize our AI software stack

  


Content Creator and Instructor, NVIDIA Academy
NVIDIA
Tel Aviv, Israel


Contributions: Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam 

Rodion Shkrobot


Areas of Expertise:
DevOps, Software Engineering and Architecture

Interesting Project:
Creating new CSPs, designing government AI-enabled security systems

  


Cloud Architect
SoftServe Inc.
Kiev, Ukraine


Contributions: AI Infrastructure & Operations Associate, AI Operations, AI Infrastructure Professional Exams

Ryan Simpson


Areas of Expertise:
Accelerated Computing (NVIDIA CUDA, C++, Python), AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science

Interesting Project:
Acted as the principal architect for a ~1000 GPU distributed AI infrastructure project within the public sector. This project allowed unprecedented image analytics for the customer while saving significant infrastructure costs by adopting accelerated computing.

 


Chief Technologist, Public Sector Partner
NVIDIA
Washington DC, USA


Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI and Professional: Gen AI LLMs Exams

Erick Sperandio


Areas of Expertise:
AI, Deep Learning, Gen AI, Sustainability, Multimodal Data, Foundation Models, Quantum AI

Interesting Project:
Seeking to develop more sustainable AI solutions

  


Associate Professor, University of Surrey
Associate Professor, SENAI CIMATEC
Surrey, England


Contributions: Gen AI LLM and Gen AI MM Associate Exams

Max Steele


Areas of Expertise:
DGX, Base Command Manager, HGX, NVIDIA AI Enterprise

  


Senior Technical Instructor in AI and Data Center
NVIDIA
Texas, USA


Contributions: Professional: AI Operations and Professional: AI Infrastructure Exams

Roman Syrotynskyi


Areas of Expertise:
Computer Networking

Interesting Project:
Operational support of corporate networking

  


Network Infrastructure Project Manager SoftServe Inc.
Kyiv, Ukraine


Contributions: AI Networking Professional Exam

David Taubenheim


Areas of Expertise:
Accelerated Data Science, Exploratory Data Analysis, LLM-Enabled System Development

Interesting Project:
Use LLMs to semantically search records to find new business opportunities

  


Senior Solutions Engineer
NVIDIA
Texas, USA


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & Gen AI MM Associate Exams 

Jesse Tetreault


Areas of Expertise:
Accelerated Computing, AI Infrastructure, AI Development, Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science, Medical Image Analysis

Interesting Project:
Developed MRI lesion detection algorithms that have been deployed in clinical trials and in research hospitals across the world.

  


Sr. Solutions Architect, Healthcare,
NVIDIA
Virginia, USA


Contributions: Professional: Gen AI LLMs Exam

Behzad Torkian


Areas of Expertise:
Accelerated Computing (NVIDIA CUDA, C++, Python), AI Infrastructure (data center, servers, networking, storage), AI Operations (administration, configuration, data center ops, troubleshooting), AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Data Science, Simulation, Modeling, Design

Interesting Project:
Developing multi-agent LLM systems that automate complex expert-driven workflows at enterprise scale.

 


Principal Research Scientist
University of South Carolina
South Carolina, USA


Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI and Professional: Gen AI LLMs Exams

Yurii Turenok


Areas of Expertise:
LAN and Wireless Networks

Interesting Project:
Building a high-performance data center network; designing a WLAN network servicing 10,000 clients

  


Network Administrator
SoftServe
Kyiv, Ukraine


Contributions: AI Networking Professional Exam

Dr. Ihor Vakulchyk


Areas of Expertise:
Machine Learning Operations

Interesting Project:
Design and implementation of the operations platform within an NVIDIA stack-based AI Factory

 


Machine Learning Operations Engineer
Match 

British Columbia, Canada


Contributions: Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam

Vahe Vardanyan


Areas of Expertise:
AI Developer (generative AI, LLMs, RAGs, diffusion models), Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, Simulation, Modeling, Design

Interesting Project:
Worked on a synthetic data generation pipeline for computer vision training based on UE5, Unity, and Houdini.

 


Venture Scientist
Montreal, Quebec, Canada


Contributions: Professional Gen AI LLMs Exam

Gemma van der Voorst


Areas of Expertise:
Computer Networking, Virtualization

Interesting Project:
Design and build virtualized infrastructures for mission-critical workloads with HPC and vGPUs

  


IT Specialist
VMware
Groningen, Netherlands


Contributions: AI Infrastructure & Operations Associate, AI Operations, AI Infrastructure, AI Networking Professional Exam

Domen Verber


Areas of Expertise:
HPC, AI, Embedded Systems, Computer Languages

Interesting Project:
Intelligent real-time monitoring of patient’s vital signs with ML-based evaluation

  


Assistant Professor
University of Maribor 
Slovenia


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & Gen AI MM Associate Exams

Bohdan Yurov


Areas of Expertise:
AI Infrastructure, AI Operations, AI Development, Computer Vision, Video Analytics, Deep Learning, NVIDIA DGX

Interesting Project:
Country-wide video analytic system for automatic threat prevention.

  


Cloud Architect  
SoftServe, Inc.
Kyiv, Ukraine


Contributions: Professional: AI Operations, Professional: AI Infrastructure, Professional: Gen AI LLM Exams

Mourad Zerai


Areas of Expertise:
Deep Learning, Generative AI, Reinforcement Learning

Interesting Project:
Developed multimodal RAG-based chatbots using only open-source resources and local LLMs

  


Associate Professor and Head of AI Program
ESPRIT School of Engineering
Tunis, Tunisia


Contributions: Gen AI LLM Associate Exam

Xiaowei Zhao


Areas of Expertise:
Neural Network-Based Language Models, Deep Learning, and Conversational AI

Interesting Project:
Design and build virtualized infrastructures for mission-critical workloads with HPC and vGPUs

  


Professor of Psychology
Emmanuel College
Massachusetts, USA


Contributions: Gen AI LLM & Gen AI MM Associate Exams

Next Steps

Questions?

Contact us if you have questions about training or certification, whether it’s for yourself or your team.

Stay Informed

Sign up for training news, announcements, and more from NVIDIA. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Become a Certification Champion

Interested in becoming a certification champion?