Portrait of Manthan Thakker

Manthan Thakker

Senior Research Software Engineer

About

I am Manthan Thakker, a researcher and software engineer within the esteemed Cognitive Services Research Group at Azure AI. My professional journey has predominantly revolved around multimodal research, with a specific focus on seamlessly integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Speech modality.

In my pursuit of pushing the boundaries of technological innovation, I am deeply engrossed in formulating and deploying advanced strategies to transition academic research into tangible production. This involves employing state-of-the-art techniques such as knowledge distillation, pruning, and quantization, primarily for NLP models. Beyond this, my academic curiosities have also led me to explore the intricate terrains of search algorithms and information theory.

My academic credentials include a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University. Between 2016 and 2018, I had the privilege to work under the mentorship of Professor Rose Yu and Professor Mirek Riedewald, both renowned figures in their respective domains.