Neerja Thakkar

EECS PhD Student @ Berkeley

UC Berkeley

Hello! I’m a PhD student in BAIR at UC Berkeley, advised by Jitendra Malik. I am interested in research in 3D computer vision, robotics and AI for social good. I am supported by a Chancellor’s Fellowship from Berkeley and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

I did my undergrad at Dartmouth, where I worked with Chris Bailey-Kellogg, Wojciech Jarosz, and Neel Joshi at Microsoft Research. From 2019-2020, I was a visiting student at the University of Zaragoza’s Graphics and Imaging Lab on a Fulbright Research Scholarship to Spain.

I’m looking for strong Berkeley undergrads to collaborate with. Feel free to email me if you are interested.

Interests

3D Computer Vision
AI for Social Good
Generative Models
Robotics

Education

PhD in EECS, 2025 (expected)

UC Berkeley
BA in Computer Science and Mathematics, 2019

Dartmouth College

Experience

Software Engineering Intern

Facebook

Jun 2018 – Aug 2018 Seattle

Interned on the integrity computer vision team. Optimized deep convolutional neural networks by implementing pruning algorithms.

MIT Press Intern for Introduction to Algorithms

MIT Press

Mar 2018 – Jun 2018

Worked with Thomas Cormen on writing solutions for the instructors manual for the 4th edition of Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest and Stein.

Computer Science Teaching Assistant

Dartmouth College CS Department

Mar 2016 – Mar 2019 Hanover, NH

Served as a teaching assistant for:

CS1 Introduction to Programming and Computation
CS11 Foundations of Applied Computing
CS30 Discrete Math for Computer Science

Honors and Awards

Graduate Research Fellowship

National Science Foundation 2021

Fellowship that provides three years of financial support

Chancellor’s Fellowship

UC Berkeley 2020

Two-year university fellowship

EECS Excellence Award

UC Berkeley EECS Department 2020

Selected by UC Berkeley EECS faculty, based on academic record

Fulbright Research Scholarship to Spain

Fulbright 2019

Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, High Honors in Computer Science major

Dartmouth College 2019

Honors upon graduation from Dartmouth College

Hannah T. Croasdale Award

Dartmouth College 2019

Given to the person who has made the most significant contribution to the quality of life for women at Dartmouth

Goldwater Scholarship Honorable Mention

Barry Goldwater Foundation 2018

Adobe Research Women-in-Technology Scholarship

Adobe Research 2018

Recognizes outstanding undergraduate female students anywhere in the world who are studying computer science, awarded to 10 women internationally, award includes $10,000 and research mentor

Citations for Meritorious Performance

Dartmouth College 2016 – 2018

In Computer Graphics (2018), Software Design and Implementation (2017), and First-Year Writing Seminar (2016)

See all publications