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
Core Assets Technical Director Supervisor Netflix Animation Studios
Sydney, Australia
Contributions: Professional: OpenUSD Development Exam
Levi Biasco
Procedural Technical Artist,
Santa Monica Studio
California, USA
Contributions: Professional: OpenUSD Development Exam
Gergő Bogacsovics
Assistant Professor, University of Debrecen
Debrecen, Hungary
Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI and Gen AI LLM Exams
Jim Brinksma
SVP Software and Solutions
LightRiver Software
New York, USA
Contributions: AI Infrastructure & Operations Associate Exam, AI Operations, AI Infrastructure and AI Networking Professional 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
Senior Field Applications Engineer
NVIDIA
California, USA
Contributions: Professional: AI Infrastructure Exam
Michael Fongemie
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
Sr. Data Scientist, NVIDIA Alliance Technical Lead
SoftServe
Lviv, Ukraine
Contributions: Associate: Gen AI LLM, Associate: Gen AI Multimodal
Dr. Laszlo Kovacs
Research Scientist, Assistant Professor
BMW and University of Debrecen
Debrecen, Hungary
Contributions: Gen AI LLM & MM Associate, Accelerated Data Science Professional Exams
Shawn McCarthy
Graduate Instructor
University of Colorado Denver
Colorado, USA
Contributions: Professional: Agentic AI Exam
Veer Mehta
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
Ernest Namdar
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
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
Rodion Shkrobot
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
Associate Professor, University of Surrey
Associate Professor, SENAI CIMATEC
Surrey, England
Contributions: Gen AI LLM and Gen AI MM Associate Exams
David Taubenheim
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
Dr. Ihor Vakulchyk
Machine Learning Operations Engineer
Match
British Columbia, Canada
Contributions: Accelerated Data Science Professional Exam
Vahe Vardanyan
Venture Scientist
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Contributions: Professional Gen AI LLMs Exam
Gemma van der Voorst
IT Specialist
VMware
Groningen, Netherlands
Contributions: AI Infrastructure & Operations Associate, AI Operations, AI Infrastructure, AI Networking Professional Exam
Bohdan Yurov
Cloud Architect
SoftServe, Inc.
Kyiv, Ukraine
Contributions: Professional: AI Operations, Professional: AI Infrastructure, Professional: Gen AI LLM Exams
Mourad Zerai
Associate Professor and Head of AI Program
ESPRIT School of Engineering
Tunis, Tunisia
Contributions: Gen AI LLM Associate Exam
Xiaowei Zhao
Professor of Psychology
Emmanuel College
Massachusetts, USA
Contributions: Gen AI LLM & Gen AI MM Associate Exams