Varada’s Homepage

Welcome to my webpage! I am Varada Kolhatkar (IPA: [ʋəɾəda kɔːlɦəʈkər]). (If you are curious, Varada (वरदा) is a Sanskrit name, which means the one who grants your wishes!) I grew up in a traditional household in a city called Pune in India. My first language is Marathi.

My background is in computer science and I received my Ph.D. in computational linguistics from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. My heart is in teaching and learning and in the 2018-19 academic year, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to teach for the Master of Data Science program at the University of British Columbia. Since then, I’ve been teaching courses in applied machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing in the Department of Computer Science and the Master of Data Science program . My current roles are Assistant Professor of Teaching and Co-Director of the Master of Data Science Vancouver program. In simple terms, I strive to help students learn computer science and data science, while also working to ensure the smooth operation of our Master of Data Science program.

In the past, I have spent time as a researcher in industry as well as in academia in different cities around the world, including Duluth, Baltimore, Toronto, Ottawa, Stuttgart, and Hamburg.