
Computer Science, New York University Tandon School of Engineering
PhD Expected 2022
We are excited to introduce our GradSWE Communications Coordinator, Rasika Bhalerao! Rasika has been involved in SWE since her freshman year at the University of Washington, when she joined the section of about 30 students. During her second year, she served as a Director of Evening With Industry, an annual 1000-student career fair and 200-member banquet. During her junior and senior years, she served as the treasurer of UW's section. By the time she graduated, the section had over 400 students, and she greatly enjoyed watching it grow. As a graduate student at New York University, she has served on our GradSWE board as the Social Media Coordinator and Communications Coordinator for 3 years.
Rasika’s main goal as a PhD candidate is a career in higher level education, focusing on teaching. She has been an instructor for courses in Applied machine learning, Artificial intelligence, Practical natural language processing, Network security, and Security analytics.
Rasika's research is focused on applying machine learning and natural language processing tools to real-world problems such as cybersecurity and social justice. Some of her work includes measuring bias in pretrained language models, analyzing illicit activity on underground forums, and understanding language on social media. She is currently studying the ethics and efficacy of anti-trafficking messages on the sex worker community. She plans to pursue this stream of work further, focusing on assisting survivors of tech-facilitated intimate partner violence and preventing online harassment.
Outside of work and school, Rasika enjoys playing the piano, petting cats, and rock climbing.
Fun Fact: When Rasika adopted her cat Mini she was unhealthily overweight, but with the help of a diet, Mini is now a healthy weight, jumping, playing, and enjoying life!
Find Rasika at her website at https://rasikabh.github.io!