Tomas Salazar

Background

Tomas Salazar is on the faculty of the Department of Data Science and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Before Porter, Tomas was a data scientist at an e-commerce company.

Tomas's research focuses on natural language processing, with related work in data ethics and fairness; undergraduates are involved in the lab most terms.

Areas of expertise

• Natural language processing
• Data ethics and fairness
• Undergraduate research and project mentoring

Teaching

Tomas regularly teaches courses in Data Science, Applied Mathematics. Specific sections and syllabi are listed in the class schedule each term.

Courses lean on current problems from the field: students read recent work, reproduce a result or method, and then extend it. Tomas builds in low-stakes practice before graded work and gives written feedback on drafts.

Advising and office hours

Tomas advises students in the Data Science programs and holds weekly office hours during the fall and spring terms, posted on the office door and in the course pages. Prospective students are welcome to email to arrange a visit or a call.

Advising conversations usually cover course sequencing, whether to add a minor or a concentration, and how classroom work connects to internships, research, or graduate study. Students who are undecided are welcome; part of the job is helping them narrow things down.

Recent and representative work

Tomas's recent activity is a mix of peer-reviewed work, conference talks, and student-involved projects in natural language processing and data ethics and fairness. Representative items:

• A peer-reviewed article on natural language processing in a disciplinary journal.
• A conference paper on data ethics and fairness, co-authored with an undergraduate researcher.
• An internally funded project applying natural language processing to a regional partner's problem.

Titles and venues here are illustrative. UW–Porter Falls is fictional; Tomas has no real publication record.

Get in touch

The fastest way to reach Tomas is email (tsalazar@uwporterfalls.edu); messages during the fall and spring terms are usually answered within two business days. Prospective students and families can ask the Data Science department office to set up a call, a class visit, or a meeting during an admitted-student day.