VP, WORLDWIDE AI INITIATIVES, NVIDIA CORP., SAN CLEMENTE
Local exec for Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of video graphics with a $450B market cap as of midyear. Part of collection of influential area business executives trying to increase the base of tech talent in Orange County.
THEN: Recently helped organize the installation of a supercomputer capable of doing 8 quadrillion calculations a second at Chapman University in Orange. Nvidia is donating the computer to help students from lower-income areas gain access to the latest computing technology, and to expand the region’s pipeline of artificial intelligence tech workers. “This is the first community operated supercomputer” in the country, Strier told the Business Journal. The computer may be among the fastest in Orange County, he said. “We’re excited to be a part of it.”
NOW: Besides Chapman and Nvidia, other contributors to the $1M project include Irvine-based IT and managed services provider Trace3, Israeli-based Run:ai and the CEO Leadership Alliance Orange County (CLAOC). The supercomputer will be under the jurisdiction of Chapman’s Fowler School of Engineering, whose dean is Andrew Lyon.
FUTURE: The program plans to work with high schools and universities around Orange County, including University of California, Irvine and California State University, Fullerton. Access will be limited to those granted it. “We want Orange County to become an AI super hub,” said Jasmine Pachnanda, senior vice president of artificial intelligence at CLAOC, whose collection of over 50 top area execs are aiming to build OC into what it calls a “premier, inclusive, innovation talent hub.”
IN THEIR WORDS: Strier envisions students from junior high schools to high schools to junior colleges to state universities gaining access to the supercomputer’s power. “If you’re in seventh grade or a sophomore in junior college, having exposure to this technology, seeing examples of how this technology will be applied—these things will be game-changing,” he said.
