[Nomination] Steven Pousty #275
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
Steven Pousty
Nominee Email
No response
Nominee's GitHub or GitLab Handle
thesteve0
(Optional) Organization / Affiliation
Red Hat
City, State/Province, Country
Santa Cruz, California, USA
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?
As a member of Red Hat's Open Source Program Office team for AI initiatives, I am specifically focused on PyTorch and vLLM. I'm uniquely positioned to advance PyTorch adoption across enterprise and open source communities. My role as a Red Hat representative to the Open AI Alliance provides direct insight into industry trends and strategic partnerships that would benefit the broader PyTorch ecosystem.
**Proven Community Building Experience**
I've spent over 20 years building and nurturing open source communities, starting with PostgreSQL in 2002 and FOSS4G since 2006. This experience translates directly to PyTorch community work. I've successfully organized multi-day conferences (deCarta developer conference), regional meetups (jsgeo events), and technical workshops (PostGIS days), consistently bringing together internal and external speakers while securing sponsor support. These events regularly drew 100-200 participants across different skill levels.
**Immediate Contribution Plans**
*Events & Education*: I'll host regular PyTorch workshops targeting both newcomers and intermediate users, leveraging my 150+ talks experience. I've proposed a talk for PyTorch Conference on running PyTorch on containerized operating systems, which bridges the gap between data scientists and DevOps/Kubernetes practitioners.
*Content Creation*: I'll focus on creating beginner-friendly PyTorch content, leveraging my strength in breaking down technically difficult concepts into accessible foundations. My tutorials will help newcomers understand PyTorch terminology and concepts, building the strong getting started experience that's essential for community growth.
*Demonstration Applications*: I'm developing a multi-modal, agent-based application using PyTorch to help people with reduced vision understand uploaded picture content and find similar images for exploration - showcasing PyTorch's accessibility potential.
*Cross-Community Outreach*: I'll introduce PyTorch to established communities where AI adoption is growing but not yet mainstream - including PostgreSQL, FOSS4G, and Kubernetes users. This represents significant untapped potential for PyTorch adoption.
*Enterprise Bridge*: Through my Red Hat role, I'll facilitate connections between PyTorch Foundation priorities and enterprise needs, helping identify areas where corporate contributions can accelerate community goals.
**Long-term Vision**
My goal is expanding PyTorch's reach beyond traditional ML/AI circles into broader software engineering communities. By demonstrating practical applications and providing clear learning paths, I can help teams beginning their AI journey reduce their friction in adopting PyTorch, learn best practices, and encourage them to come join the community.
This isn't theoretical - it's an extension of community work I've been doing successfully for two decades, now applied to PyTorch with the backing of a major enterprise platform.Any additional details you'd like to share?
My YouTube channel has examples of my talks and content
https://www.youtube.com/@thesteve0
I am have also done many podcast interviews, such as
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4MdQaBaJy4
https://www.apimatic.io/art-of-developer-experience/podcast-steve-pousty