Résumé

Download my CV here.

I travel the world and collaborate with smart people all over the globe. I’m grateful that I spent a year as a full-time researcher at UPenn, one of the US Ivy League institutions. Currently, I work at 九州大学, one of the famous Japanese “Imperial” universities. Here are all my academic “homes”:

Research

Academia gives me the opportunity to dive into topics that I find super interesting. My research focuses on supporting educators and students through automated analysis of learning data.

Publications

All my papers are freely available on GitHub and Google Scholar. I regularly present my research at top-tier scientific conferences – in the USA, Europe, and Asia – like ACM SIGCSE and LAK.

Grant Projects

I've received a prestigious award to fund my new machine learning project. I contributed to European and national open-source projects for cybersecurity and incident response training.

Teaching

My goal is to offer interesting and valuable classes on data science, Python, and cyber-security. I received highly positive feedback and a university-wide award for the best teacher.

Student Mentoring

I really enjoy guiding and advising students! I'm currently looking for a Ph.D. candidate. I also supervise bachelor and master theses: see the currently available topics on the lab website.

YouTube Math Videos

Besides in-person classes, I created educational videos in my project Elea: Teach yourself math and for the company Datakabinet that provides teaching materials to thousands of schools.

References

“Valdemar always comes up with new ideas out of the box and strives to deliver outstanding performance and high quality solutions.”

Jakub Tomiš, entrepreneur and my former teacher

“The best tutor I ever had. Fair, always perfectly prepared. Friendly approach, kind, charismatic. I looked forward to every single class.”

Anonymous feedback from Software Engineering classes

“Individual approach. The lessons are not generic or boring, he creates extra activities. Comprehensible explanations. Fun classes.”

Anonymous feedback from programming classes

“Your videos saved me. Your explanations are great. I often don't get it in my math classes, but your videos made me understand right away.”

Ema Černáková, comment on my math video on YouTube

“It was fun, you created a perfect atmosphere and I learned a lot. I'll start studying computing at home, too. Thank you, you're great.”

Anonymous feedback from programming workshops for high-school girls.

“Beep-boop-beeeeeep.”

R2-D2

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

Me at the age of 4

Hosting a workshop for high school students

Cybersecurity Laboratory, Masaryk University

Supervising the Czech Cyber Team

European Cybersecurity Challenge, London

Teaching a lecture on data mining

University of Pennsylvania, USA

About me

Music

I played electric guitar in my art-rock band in high school. We had three shows, so it was a big deal! My teacher was Martin Novák, an excellent musician from Sto Múch. I enjoy a wide range of genres: jazz, fusion, grunge, art-rock, this, electronic, and pop.

Travelling

Exploring new places is fascinating. I visited 31 countries on 4 continents (Europe, North and South America, and Asia), but there are still many places on the bucket list. This website features pictures from my travels. There's more on my Instagram.

Sports

Working out regularly at the gym is essential for me. I also swim and used to box (not anymore, getting hit doesn't go well with my job). In summer, I enjoy walks in nature; but as for winter sports, I prefer playing board games (such as Imperial Assault) with friends.

Movies

I love watching movies; my favorite director is Christopher Nolan. I'm also a fan of stand-up comedy (Ricky Gervais, Bill Burr, Louis CK) and hard-hitting humor like South Park. Also, I find it really relaxing to watch random YouTube videos, as I used to do with my brother.



With a good boy (on the right)

Corgi cafe in Bangkok, Thailand

Admiring the Mount Fuji view

Arakurayama Sengen Park, Japan

Using food to make friends

Nara Park, Japan

Swimming with the fishies

Okinawa, Japan

View from a castle

Corfu, Greece

Dog sledding beyond the polar circle

Tromsø, Norway

Ocean's Eleven vibes

Bellagio, Las Vegas, USA

With my buddy Ryan Reynolds (left)

Madame Tussauds Museum, Florida, USA

Contact

How to write my name:
  • For official purposes, please copy and paste my native name: “Valdemar Švábenský” (with accented characters in the last name).
  • If accents are not available, please use English alphabet only: “Valdemar Svabensky”.
  • For informal/everyday communication, I prefer just the first name (i.e., “Valdemar” is ok).