Skip to content
vbVatsalya Betala

About · New York, NY

I like the part where the clean textbook problem becomes messy.

Computer Science + Mathematics · AI / ML · Optimization · Intelligent Systems

Vatsalya Betala

I was born and brought up in India, did my undergrad in Computer Science and Mathematics, and also completed a Diploma in Artificial Intelligence at IIT Ropar. I never really had one perfectly planned path through any of it. I just kept following the things I found interesting enough to spend way too much time on. That took me through math, machine learning, optimization, computer vision, research, and a bunch of systems that started as side projects and somehow became real things people used.

Now I’m in New York doing my M.S. in Artificial Intelligence at Columbia, and I’m still figuring out what I want to go deepest on. I know I like building things, I know I like understanding why they work, and I know I get restless when I only understand something at the surface level. The exact label matters less to me than finding hard problems I can properly get lost in.

Teaching

Teaching made me less tolerant of explanations I don't understand myself.

At Krea, I worked as a Teaching Assistant for Discrete Mathematics and Responsible AI.

The job involved tutorials, grading, and doubt-clearing sessions, but the part I valued most was having to explain an idea clearly enough that someone else could reconstruct it rather than simply memorize it.

Leadership

Before most of the ML work, there was Parmarth.

I co-founded Parmarth during the pandemic and served as CTO.

What started as an attempt to coordinate people and resources grew into a volunteer network of more than 200 people across multiple Indian cities.

The group helped more than 800 people access medical resources and essential support during crises including COVID-19.

I built and deployed a volunteer-matching web application and helped organize more than 20 technology-awareness sessions.

This experience belongs on the site because it shaped how I think about building software: the system matters, but so does whether someone can actually use it when they need it.

A few external signals

  • EMPOWER · 2025

    PlantGuard won the EMPOWER inter-college hackathon organized by the IIM Ahmedabad Social Innovation Club together with Ashoka University’s Social Impact Club and Computer Science Society. The project was selected among 20 national finalists and received a ₹50,000 prize in 2025.

    PlantGuard on GitHub (opens in a new tab)It later became my undergraduate thesis
    • Vatsalya presenting at a podium beside a slide reading “Plant Guard: Empowering rural farmers with offline AI-powered plant disease detection”, with an EMPOWER: Tech for Good Hackathon 2025 banner behind him.
      Pitching PlantGuard: offline, AI-powered plant disease detection for rural farmers.
    • Hands setting up a breadboard prototype with jumper wires, a small board with a display and a power bank, while someone holds a phone showing the app.
      The live demo: the offline hardware prototype, with the app on a phone.
    • Vatsalya and a teammate holding certificates on stage in front of the EMPOWER: Tech for Good Hackathon screen, with two organizers beside them.
      And then we won.

    Built with Aarav Akali (hardware & IoT) and Sparsh Makharia (backend & business). I led the AI/ML side.

  • IIT Ropar · 2024

    Selected for IIT Ropar’s competitive Diploma in Artificial Intelligence program in 2024.

Education

  • Columbia University

    M.S. in Artificial Intelligence

    Aug 2026 – Present

    Expected Dec 2027

  • Krea University

    B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science & Mathematics

    Relevant areas: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Linear Algebra, Probability & Statistics, Numerical Methods, Operating Systems, Algorithms, Responsible AI

    Jun 2026

    GPA 8.89 / 10

  • IIT Ropar

    Diploma in Artificial Intelligence

    Relevant areas: Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning, Explainable AI, Computer Vision, NLP with Transformers

    Jun 2026

Off the clock

The parts that don’t fit on a resume.

A few things about me that have nothing to do with work.

fuel:
coffee
hands:
keyboard # the musical kind
weekends:
football
default_mode:
overthink
good_enough:
rarely
reading:
[psychology, nutrition]
favourite_hobby:
eating

$ status: somehow still functioning

I optimise things that really don’t need it.

maximize    everything
subject to  sanity ≥ 0
  • I will genuinely spend 20 minutes trying to save 30 seconds.
  • If I notice a better way to do something, I usually have to try it.
  • Very useful for projects. Slightly annoying everywhere else.

Coffee

Coffee first. Ideally one I brewed myself, because I love that part too.

That’s pretty much the whole section.

Keyboard

I play keys.

Mostly because sometimes I need to do something with my hands that isn’t typing.

Very picky.

  • If something feels off, I notice.
  • And if I know I can fix it, I usually find it very hard to leave it alone.
  • This applies to code, design, writing, and unfortunately a lot of other things too.

Eating vs. reading about eating

  1. I love food.
  2. I also somehow ended up reading a lot about nutrition.
  3. These two interests do not always get along.

Psychology

I read a lot of psychology because I find people interesting.

Sometimes I’m trying to understand other people.

Sometimes I’m very obviously trying to understand myself.

That’s honestly most of it.

Want to talk about something difficult?

Research, ML engineering, optimization, agentic systems, or an interesting problem that doesn’t fit neatly into one of those labels.

Email meGitHubLinkedInResume