Luis Ceze is a Brazilian-born American computer scientist, businessman, and academic. Ceze was the CEO and co-founder of OctoAI, a

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

-focused startup acquired by

Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

. Following its acquisition, he became a vice president of AI systems software at Nvidia. Ceze is a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. He is known for his work on Apache TVM and bioinspired systems for

data storage Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are con ...

Education

Ceze attended the

University of São Paulo The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil. The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...

, where he received his B. Eng. degree in 2000 and his M. Eng. degree in 2001. from the

. After this, he pursued a doctoral degree in

from the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, advised by Josep Torrellas. He received his Ph.D. in 2007 with a thesis titled ''Bulk Operation and Data Coloring for Multiprocessor Programmability''.

Career

OctoAI

In 2019, Ceze founded OctoML, a startup aimed at optimizing

deployments. OctoML launched OctoAI, a generative AI product, in June 2023. The company itself changed its name to OctoAI by January 2024, with Ceze explaining that it was renamed to "eliminate potential confusion between our product and corporate name". He stated that OctoAI had thousands of users in a January 2024 statement. In June 2024, OctoAI launched OctoStack, a product designed to help customers customize AI models. In September 2024, ''The Information'' reported that

has considered an acquisition of OctoAI for $165 million. Nvidia went on to acquire OctoAI on September 25. Following OctoAI's acquisition, Ceze became a vice president of AI systems software at Nvidia, and remained in his position at the University of Washington.

Other ventures

In 2008, Ceze cofounded Corensic after spinning it off from the University of Washington. The startup was acquired by

F5 Networks F5, Inc. is an American technology company specializing in application security, multi-cloud management, online fraud prevention, application delivery networking (ADN), application availability and performance, and network security, access, a ...

in 2012. In 2018, he joined

Madrona Venture Group Madrona Venture Group is an American venture capital firm, founded in 1995 and based in Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a populat ...

as a venture partner.

Awards

NSF Career Award The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through rese ...

(2009) *

Sloan Research Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

(2010) * IEEE TCCA Young Computer Architect Award (2013) * Maurice Wilkes Award (2020) *

ACM Fellow ACM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognises outstanding members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The title of ACM Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals ...

(2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ceze, Luis Living people Scientists from São Paulo University of São Paulo alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni University of Washington Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering faculty 2022 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Sloan Research Fellows Year of birth missing (living people) Maurice Wilkes Award winners Brazilian emigrants to the United States Brazilian engineers