OptiNIC: A Resilient and Tail-Optimal RDMA NIC for Distributed ML Workloads
Ertza Warraich, Ali Imran, Annus Zulfiqar, Shay Vargaftik, Sonia Fahmy, Muhammad Shahbaz
Under submission
I build systems and architectures for large-scale AI, currently building a startup!
Previously, I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at Purdue University, where I worked in the PurNET and NextGArch labs under the supervision of Prof. Muhammad Shahbaz and Prof. Sonia Fahmy. I was also a visiting scholar in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. My research focuses on distributed systems, networking, and the infrastructure that powers modern machine learning.

Ertza Warraich, Ali Imran, Annus Zulfiqar, Shay Vargaftik, Sonia Fahmy, Muhammad Shahbaz
Under submission
Regan McDonald, Marilyn Rego, Ertza Warraich, Annus Zulfiqar, Muhammad Shahbaz
In Networks for AI Computing (NAIC) Workshop, ACM SIGCOMM 2026
Denver, CO. August 2026
Ertza Warraich, Ali Imran, Annus Zulfiqar, Shay Vargaftik, Sonia Fahmy, Muhammad Shahbaz
In IEEE Computer Architecture Letters (IEEE CAL 2025)
Virtual, Online. December 2025
Ertza Warraich, Omer Shabtai, Yonatan Piasetzky, Shay Vargaftik, Matty Kadosh, Lalith Suresh, Muhammad Shahbaz
In Proceedings of the 22nd USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI 2025)
Philadelphia, PA. April 2025
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I'm always open to discussing research collaborations, interesting problems in systems and AI infrastructure, or just saying hello.
Design inspired by Brittany Chiang & Devon Gifford