Ali Heydari

Distinguished Engineer at NVIDIA

Ali Heydari is a distinguished engineer and Data Center Technologist at NVIDIA, where he focuses on developing advanced cooling technologies for high-density data centers. His role involves overseeing the design and implementation of liquid cooling systems, which are essential for managing the increasing heat generated by modern computational hardware, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.1 2 6

Educational Background

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering: University of Illinois, Urbana
M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering: University of California, Berkeley
M.A. in Applied Mathematics: University of California, Berkeley

Professional Experience

NVIDIA (2019 - Present): As a Data Center Technologist, Heydari leads initiatives to develop innovative cooling solutions that enable the scalable deployment of AI technologies. He has been instrumental in projects that integrate liquid cooling with direct-to-chip technologies to enhance efficiency and reduce energy consumption in data centers.1 4
Rigetti Computing (2018 - 2019): Served as Director of Technical Design, where he was responsible for building the first quantum computing data center.
Baidu (2014 - 2018): Worked as Senior Technical Director and Chief Architect, leading hardware and data center design for one of China's largest AI companies.
Twitter (2011 - 2014): Held the position of Senior Hardware Engineer, focusing on developing custom server hardware for Twitter's data centers.
Facebook (2009 - 2011): Contributed as a Senior Hardware Engineer, helping to develop Facebook’s original Open Compute Project (OCP) server designs.
Sun Microsystems (2000 - 2009): Managed engineering developments across multiple generations of SPARC processors and was involved in various research initiatives related to energy-efficient data centers.2 4 5

Contributions and Innovations

Heydari has over 25 patents related to data center cooling technologies and has played a pivotal role in several significant projects aimed at enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of data centers. Notably, he recently led a team that won a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop an advanced liquid-cooling system designed to meet the future demands of high-performance computing environments.3 6

In addition to his technical expertise, Heydari is actively involved in thought leadership, frequently speaking at conferences about the future of data center design and the integration of AI technologies.2 6