Andres Diaz-Pinto was among those at the forefront of transforming healthcare with AI well before he joined NVIDIA.
During his postdoctoral research in active learning for medical imaging at King’s College London (KCL), Diaz-Pinto played an important role in creating MONAI Label, an open-source tool that uses AI to accelerate medical image annotation. It’s part of the MONAI open-source project for AI in medical imaging that was pioneered by KCL and NVIDIA.
After a year of collaboration with the NVIDIA healthcare team on MONAI Label, Diaz-Pinto joined the company, bringing his expertise in developing and deploying AI and deep learning models in the cloud for medical image analysis.
Since joining NVIDIA in 2022 as a senior deep learning engineer, Diaz-Pinto has channeled his passion for research into his work.
“I work with some amazing people at NVIDIA, and there’s so much to learn from a technical perspective,” he said. “At the same time, I can continue my research work with KCL, other universities and hospitals.”
A native of Cúcuta, Colombia, Diaz-Pinto understood from an early age the importance of education. He became the first in his family to graduate high school and attend university. Today, he holds a doctorate in computer vision and deep learning and has completed two postdoctoral positions.
“Having faced hardships in Cúcuta, I quickly understood how important higher education would be in helping me and my family improve our situation,” he said.
In his current role, Diaz-Pinto helped advance brain surgery. The machine learning algorithms and computer vision technologies he’s helping create enhance the accuracy, speed and efficiency of medical imaging. And that allows radiologists to analyze medical images so they can better detect, diagnose and treat diseases, helping improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
While he loves research, prioritizing life outside of work is just as important for Diaz-Pinto, especially as he’s a new father.
“My son was born 18 months ago, and I was able to spend lots of quality time with him thanks to NVIDIA’s 12-week paternity leave policy,” he said.
Fatherhood has given Diaz-Pinto a fresh perspective on life, deepening his love for learning. He also emphasizes the importance of hard work and humility that being a parent involves, saying, “You won’t always have the best ideas or all the answers.”
Outside of work and family, Diaz-Pinto enjoys cycling and exploring the city. During the recent company free days, he completed a 90-kilometer ride from London to Brighton in just four hours.
Always optimistic about the future, Diaz-Pinto believes AI is rapidly becoming a transformative force in healthcare. He envisions a future where robots are trained to enhance surgeons’ dexterity to perform safer and faster operations on patients.
“At NVIDIA, I learn something new every day,” he said. “Right now, I’m using the NVIDIA Omniverse platform to simulate surgical tasks with photorealistic digital twins of human organs.”
Learn more about NVIDIA life, culture and careers.