Adithya Kulkarni
Job Title: Post-Doctoral Fellow at Virginia Tech
Graduated with a PhD in 2024
Adithya Kulkarni, a first-generation graduate from India, has always been a natural problem solver. His early love for puzzles and innovative solutions led to him to get a degree in computer science, which culminated in a PhD in computer science from Iowa State University. He studied data mining, machine learning, and language processing – aiming to develop effective and scalable algorithms and methods to obtain high-quality annotations for large and complex data. Through his research, he considers the fundamental problems and tackle diverse real-world challenges.
Adithya initially joined Iowa State University as a master’s student. He soon decided to pursue a PhD to achieve his research goals. His success in research and teaching is reflected in some of his happiest memories, such when his first paper got accepted or when he received the Teaching Excellence Award. The supportive community around him also contributed positively to his experiences. He has fond memories of spending time with friends and enjoying the beautiful spring weather here in Ames.
While Adithya chose Iowa State University because of our research opportunities and strong academic program, he found success through the supportive community he built.
“My course instructors, especially Dr. Pavan Aduri and my PhD advisor, Dr. Qi Li, were instrumental in shaping my career trajectory. Their motivation helped me succeed in my PhD journey,” he says. “They were incredibly supportive and helped me during distress. Their knowledge and guidance motivated me to aim higher. Furthermore, student services and staff at the university guided me through every step of my study at Iowa State University and helped me achieve my goal. Iowa State University also helped me build a professional network, which helped me achieve my dream job.”
Today, Adithya is a postdoctoral fellow at Virginia Tech, working with Dr. Dawei Zhou and Dr. Lifu Huang. Reflecting on his experience, he states, “Studying at Iowa State was the best decision of my life.”