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General Information

Name Vivek Bharadwaj
Affiliation Machine Learning Engineer, Apple
Research Interests Graph Neural Networks, GPU Kernel Engineering, Randomized Algorithms, Sparsity in Machine Learning, Tensor Decomposition
Languages C, C++, Python, Java, OCaml
Tools MPI, CUDA, OpenMP, Pybind11, Pytorch

Education

  • 2020-2025
    PhD in Computer Science
    University of California, Berkeley
    • Advisors: James Demmel and Aydın Buluç
    • Funding: DOE National Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
  • 2016-2020
    BS, Computer Science and Mathematics
    California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
    • Cumulative GPA: 3.9/4.3

Experience

  • Sep 2025-Now
    Machine Learning Engineer
    Apple
    • Mapping machine learning workloads to hardware on the platform architecture team.
    • Work spans performance modeling, kernel engineering, and algorithm exploration.
  • Summer 2024
    Sparse Linear Algebra Intern
    NVIDIA Math Libraries Team
    • Rewrote large parts of cuSPARSELt, a library for structured sparse-dense matrix multiplication in machine learning, for new Blackwell generation GPUs.
    • Investigated custom semiring support with JIT linking for sparse matrix-vector multiplication.
  • Summers '23
    '21, '20
    Graduate Student Researcher
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Focused on high-performance algorithms for randomized sparse problems.
    • Research blended theoretical and applied work, from new randomized algorithms to optimized software kernels for high performance.
  • Summer 2022
    Visiting Graduate Student Researcher
    National Renewable Energy Laboratory
    • Focused on Krylov subspace methods for ill-conditioned linear systems.
    • Wrote CUDA kernels for randomized butterfly transformations and incomplete LDL preconditioners.
  • Summer 2019
    Software Engineering Intern
    Jane Street Capital
    • Wrote protocols to relay market data from exchanges to traders.
    • Improved Iron, an in-house fork of the Mercurial version control system.
  • Summer 2018
    Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Intern
    Anandkumar Lab, Caltech
    • Focused on tensor decompositions and Gaussian process modeling.
    • Mentored by Rose Yu (now UCSD).
  • Summer 2017
    Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Intern
    Shapiro Lab, Caltech
    • Focused on GPU-based MRI simulations of diffusing water molecule spins.
    • Work published in a journal of the German Chemical Society (code on GitHub).

Publications, Talks, and Teaching

  • See links in the navigation bar.

Awards and Fellowships

  • 2024
    • Berkeley Teaching Effectiveness Award
  • 2022
    • Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor
  • 2021
    • Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
  • 2020
    • Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation GRFP
    • Caltech Thomas A. Tisch Prize for Undergraduate Teaching
  • 2019
    • Best Educational Hack, Hacktech
  • 2017
    • Ph11 Scholar
  • 2016
    • National Merit Scholar

Professional Service

  • Ongoing
    Peer review for the following journals / conferences:
    • 2026: SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing
    • 2025: ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software
    • 2025: ACM SPAA Junior PC
    • 2025: GrAPL IPDPS Workshop
    • 2024: Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
    • 2024: Supercomputing (SC) Artifact Evaluation
    • 2023: Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications, Wiley
    • 2021: IEEE Signal Processing Letters
  • Mar 2022
    • Reviewer, Berkeley SURF Research Applications
  • 2019-2020
    Caltech Board of Control
    • Served on the student panel adjudicating cases of academic dishonesty.
  • 2018
    • Student Chair, Caltech CS Student-Faculty Conference

Volunteering

  • Ongoing
    Middle / High School Competition Judge
    • Alameda County Science Fair (2023, 2022)
    • USA Young Physicists' Tournament (2021)
    • Blair Middle School Science Fair (2020)
  • Oct-Dec 2021
    CRS Science Ambassador
    • Presented science talks virtually for students at Washington Elementary, Richmond.
  • Jan-Mar 2021
    Virtual Be a Scientist Mentor
    • Coached Berkeley students through science projects weekly.
  • Jan-Apr 2020
    Caltech RISE Tutor
    • Volunteer tutor for high school students in need of assistance from Pasadena Unified School District.