Rishav Sen

Rishav Sen

Ph.D Candidate @ Vanderbilt University

About me

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University, advised by Prof. Abhishek Dubey (SCOPE Lab, Institute for Software Integrated Systems). I develop uncertainty-aware optimization and decision-making methods for electrified mobility and energy systems, with emphasis on EV-grid coordination, online control, and data-driven infrastructure operations.

My work combines MILP, MPC, reinforcement learning, and multi-agent negotiation to make robust real-time decisions under uncertainty.

Research Focus

  • Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) systems: Online control under uncertain EV arrivals, building loads, and user behavior.
  • Sequential decision-making under uncertainty: Scenario generation, stochastic optimization, MCTS, and rolling-horizon MPC.
  • Incentive design and multi-agent coordination: Strategy-aware mechanisms that balance user utility and grid objectives.
  • Digital twins and simulation tooling: Open-source systems for transit and mobility-energy planning (E-Transit-Bench, BTE-Sim, OPTIMUS, MoveOD).

Highlights

  • 14+ publications across top venues including AAMAS (2025, 2026), ACM/IEEE ICCPS (2025, 2026), IEEE ITSC, ACM e-Energy, and IEEE BigData.
  • Best Paper Award Finalist — AAMAS 2025 (Top 5 of 900+ submissions)
  • 2nd Place, Best Poster — INFORMS 2025 Annual Meeting (Top 2 of 300+ submissions)
  • Best PhD Forum Poster Award — ACM/IEEE ICCPS 2025
  • Russell G. Hamilton Scholar — Vanderbilt University
  • OpenMinds NextGen Leader 2025 — Energy & Climate leadership cohort
  • Industry Collaboration — Research Intern at Nissan North America (V2B optimization, 500K+ telematics records analyzed)
  • Cross-Institutional Work — Collaborations with Cornell, Penn State, CARTA, Nissan, Carrier, and CenterPoint Energy

What I Am Working On

  • Robust V2B controllers that combine optimization and learning for uncertain, real-world operation.
  • Negotiation-aware charging frameworks that improve participation while preserving grid reliability.
  • Deployable decision-support pipelines that translate model outputs into operational policies.

Timeline

Beyond Research

Outside the lab, I enjoy building things in both software and hardware. I design and build RC planes and drones, use 3D printing for rapid prototyping, and bring a strong hardware foundation from my undergraduate background in Electronics and Communication Engineering. I also enjoy reading comics and participating in the maker community.