[Nomination] Usamah Zaheer #194
Description
Select one:
- I am nominating myself for the PyTorch Ambassador Program.
- I am nominating someone else to become a PyTorch Ambassador.
Please confirm that the nominee meets the following requirements:
- The nominee is 18 years of age or older.
- The nominee agrees to abide by the PyTorch Code of Conduct.
- The nominee agrees to comply with the Linux Foundation Antitrust Policy.
- The nominee meets at least one of the qualifications listed in the PyTorch Ambassador Program Requirements.
Nominee Name
Usamah Zaheer
Nominee Email
Nominee's GitHub or GitLab Handle
usamahz
(Optional) Organization / Affiliation
ARM
City, State/Province, Country
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Your Name
No response
Your Email (Optional)
No response
How has the nominee contributed to PyTorch?
- An active contributor to PyTorch repositories (e.g., commits, PRs, discussions).
- A speaker at PyTorch events or workshops.
- A PyTorch user group organizer or meetup host.
- A researcher or educator using PyTorch in academic work or training.
- An active leader in the PyTorch community with at least one year of experience in:
- Organizing events (virtual/in-person).
- Speaking at AI/ML conferences.
- Mentoring others in PyTorch.
- Creating technical content (e.g., blogs, videos, tutorials).
🏆 How Would the Nominee Contribute as an Ambassador?
0. Throughout my career — from building robotic perception systems at Dyson to optimising cloud and edge inference at Arm — I’ve seen firsthand how powerful PyTorch is when applied in the real world. But I’ve also seen how inaccessible AI can feel to students, early-career engineers, and people from underrepresented backgrounds who don’t have the same starting points or support.
1. As a PyTorch Ambassador, my goal is to break those barriers — to make AI more accessible and inclusive, not just for professionals, but for students, beginners, and underrepresented groups. I want to help bridge the gap between curiosity and capability, especially in communities where exposure to AI is limited.
2. To do that, I plan to organise outreach programs with schools and universities — particularly in areas where AI education is lacking. These sessions will be practical, hands-on, and built around showing students that AI isn’t just for researchers — it’s for them too. I’ll use PyTorch as the gateway, helping them build small but meaningful projects they can be proud of.
3. I’m also committed to supporting women in tech and other underrepresented groups through mentorship, community building, and inclusive events. In my current and past roles, I’ve mentored junior engineers (including women starting out in AI), run internal training sessions, and helped early-career team members ship their first PyTorch models into production.
4. Beyond that, I’ll keep contributing as a technical educator. I’ve deployed PyTorch models in production at Dyson (robotic stain detection, segmentation, depth estimation) and at Arm (quantization, compiler integration, benchmarking). I plan to share that experience through open-source examples, blog posts, workshops, and real-world case studies focused on deployment, not just prototyping.
5. This mix of technical experience, mentorship, and a clear passion for outreach means I’m ready to help build a PyTorch community that is not only capable, but diverse and inclusive. One that reflects the real world — and builds for it too.Any additional details you'd like to share?
You can check out some of my work on GitHub.com/usamahz, especially around ML systems, robotics, and deployment workflows. I’ve worked at Dyson Robotics on real-time edge perception systems and now at Arm, where I focus on PyTorch models for Arm CPUs and NPUs along with other frameworks such as OneDNN, plus more.
I’ve mentored over 10 engineers and interns, ran internal training sessions, and built ML tooling used across teams. I believe AI should be usable, teachable, and welcoming — and I’d bring that mindset to everything I do as a PyTorch Ambassador in the United Kingdom!
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/usamahzaheer
Github: GitHub.com/usamahz
Website: usamah.me