Prior to his work at Google, he was a professor of industrial design at Arizona State University where he also served as co-director of the Biomimicry Center and director of InnovationSpace. The Biomimicry Center is dedicated to the exploration of biologically-inspired solutions to tackle the challenges of sustainable development. InnovationSpace is a transdisciplinary laboratory where faculty and students from industrial design, visual communication design, business, sustainability, and engineering work in teams and partner with corporations to develop product concepts that hold societal benefit while minimizing impacts on the environment. 

Boradkar holds a Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from University College London; an M.A. in industrial design from The Ohio State University; an MDes in industrial design from the Industrial Design Centre, Bombay; and a Bachelor of Engineering from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India.

He is the author of Designing Things: A Critical Introduction to the Culture of Objects, co-editor of Encountering Things: Design and Theories of Things, and is currently working on a book on Indian design.