Thomas R. Gardos

Since Fall of 2023, I am Associate Professor of the Practice with Boston University’s Faculty of Computing and Data Science and the inaugural director of the MS in Data Science program.

My interests are large multimodal and language models, computer vision, neural networks and data science more broadly. My approach is to blend theory and practice both in my teaching and also research projects. Theory enables you to solve problems from first principles if necessary and practice often uncovers new problems that require better analytical approaches. Where possible, I like to deploy solutions as open source projects.

I’ve taught (led, coached) the senior-level BU Spark! Machine Learning Practicum over numerous semesters. I also introduced a new senior/graduate-level Deep Learning for Data Science course in the Spring of 2024, which is now a regularly offered course. I also teach the graduate level Tools for Data Science and starting in Spring of 2025 will be teaching undergraduate level Programming for Data Science.

Prior to joining BU, I spent 30 years at Intel Corp., most recently leading a small R&D team developing low-power computer vision algorithms and contributing to the definition of an ultra-low power computer vision ASIC.