# Khanh D. Nguyen

> AI Software Engineer - inference engineering, model optimization, and edge AI for robotics.

[GitHub](https://github.com/khanhnd61-vr) · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/khanhnd185/) · [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5AdBep8AAAAJ) · [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/khanhnd61) · [Website](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/)

## About

- Build efficient inference engines for neural nets across various devices.
- Optimize VLAs, VLMs, and LLMs for edge deployment.
- Interested in searching and studying efficient neural net architectures.

Topics: Edge AI, Model optimization, Robotics, VLA, C / C++

### Domain

AI Software Engineer: inference engineering · model optimization · edge AI for robotics · AI SDK development · efficient VLA inference

### Research

M.S. in AI Convergence: multimodal learning & affective behavior analysis - 6 peer-reviewed papers (CVPRW, ECCVW, RSSW)

### Mentor

[An Thai Le](https://anindex.github.io/) - Assistant Professor at VinUniversity and Director of Foundation AI at VinRobotics, working on robots that plan, learn, and act reliably with limited compute and data.

## Focus

Making capable AI models run fast on real hardware.

I build lean C/C++ inference engines that bring VLMs, VLAs, and LLMs to CPUs, accelerators, and robots. Inspired by [llama.cpp](https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp): a few lines of simple code, big results on your own hardware. The two projects I'm proudest of are [vla.cpp](https://github.com/VinRobotics/vla.cpp) and [vla.simd](https://github.com/cair-vinuni/vla.simd). Three companion pages go deeper: [VLA Hub](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/vla-hub/) benchmarks every model they serve on every device, [VLA Arch](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/vla-arch/) illustrates each model's architecture as block diagrams, and [XPU Arch](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/xpu-arch/) diagrams the CPUs, GPUs, NPUs and systems on chip behind VLA Hub.

## Projects

### vla.cpp

The open-source project I'm P.I.C of at VinRobotics - bringing Vision-Language-Action models to local hardware, in the spirit of llama.cpp for robotics.

- GitHub: https://github.com/VinRobotics/vla.cpp
- arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.08094
- Project page: https://vlacpp.github.io/
- Tags: C++, ggml, Inference, VLA
- Authors: K.D. Nguyen, H.T. Ho, C.T. Nguyen, T.Q. Duong, L.D. Le, D.M.H. Nguyen, V.A. Ngo, [A.T. Le](https://anindex.github.io/)

### vla.simd

Efficient CPU inference for language-conditioned manipulation - shared SIMD micro-kernels (AVX2 / NEON) plus IMPACT, a language-conditioned policy that supplies 30+ actions per second on a Raspberry Pi 5.

- GitHub: https://github.com/cair-vinuni/vla.simd
- arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24274
- Project page: https://vla-simd.github.io/
- Tags: C++, SIMD, CPU inference, VLA
- Authors: K.D. Nguyen, [H.M. Truong](https://tmhoanggg.github.io/), [A.T. Le](https://anindex.github.io/)

### FoldQuantVLA

Native low-bit quantization of VLA models - W8A8 and W4A4 projections run on the INT8 / INT4 tensor cores through custom TensorRT plugins, 1.20-1.33× faster than float TensorRT on Jetson AGX Orin across GR00T and π0.5.

- GitHub: https://github.com/cair-vinuni/FoldQuantVLA
- arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24433
- Project page: https://review-artifact-27f4.github.io/foldquantvla
- Tags: Quantization, TensorRT, INT4, VLA
- Authors: H.T. Ho, K.D. Nguyen, Q.D. Nguyen, T.Q. Duong, N. Le, M. Guo, V.A. Ngo, [A.T. Le](https://anindex.github.io/)

### ggml-compiler

Compiles PyTorch and ONNX models into ggml programs that run on CPU and CUDA without Python - LLMs, VLMs and the robot policies built on them, each checked against llama.cpp and vla.cpp.

- GitHub: https://github.com/khanhnd61-vr/ggml-compiler
- Tags: Compiler, ggml, PyTorch, ONNX, GGUF

## News

- 2026-10-28: Reviewer for [ICRA 2027](https://2027.ieee-icra.org/), the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, held in Seoul on May 24-28, 2027.
- 2026-09-16: Deployed VLA in real-time on Raspberry Pi with [vla.simd](https://vla-simd.github.io/).
- 2026-08-11: Speaker at [SOICT Summer School 2026](https://soict.hust.edu.vn/summer-school) hosted by Hanoi University of Science and Technology, topic [Edge AI in Robotics](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/modelopt101/).
- 2026-07-02: Released [ReadItDown](https://github.com/khanhnd61-vr/readitdown), a minimal Markdown viewer with a folder explorer and built-in terminal, on the web and on Linux, macOS and Windows.
- 2024-05-31: 3rd place at the [REACT 2024 Challenge](https://sites.google.com/cam.ac.uk/react2024/) held with [IEEE FG 2024](https://fg2024.ieee-biometrics.org/), generating multiple appropriate facial reactions ([paper](https://brosdocs.net/fg2024/CT10.pdf)).

## Companion pages

- [VLA Hub](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/vla-hub/): measured latency and memory for open VLA models on GPUs, NPUs and CPUs, run with vla.cpp and vla.simd
- [VLA Arch](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/vla-arch/): each model's architecture as block diagrams
- [XPU Arch](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/xpu-arch/): block diagrams of the CPUs, GPUs, NPUs and systems on chip behind VLA Hub
- [ReadItDown](https://khanhnd61-vr.github.io/readitdown/): a minimal, fast Markdown viewer - try it online, or download the desktop app for Linux, macOS and Windows