Vivek Sakhrani

 

Ph.D. Candidate
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Email: akhrani@mit.edu

Vivek Sakhrani is a PhD candidate and researcher in the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. He is currently working on the theory and practice of “Dual-Domain Design” – the interplay between technical systems design and organizational arrangements required in delivering engineered socio-technical systems such as Large Infrastructure Projects (LIPs). Vivek’s dissertation work focuses on the choice of asset procurement (EPC) versus service provision (PPPs) as the mode of delivery for large projects, and their associated trade-offs. With CCES, he is one of the lead modelers on the Sustainable Infrastructure Planning System (SIPS), developing a model that integrates uncertainty and system dynamics to support decision-making for stakeholders in the KSA water system.

Prior to CCES, Vivek contributed to a number of different research efforts at MIT including with the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD), the MIT Energy Initiative (MITei), and the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR). He was the lead researcher and author on two chapters of MITei’s Future of the Electric Grid study. He also conducted a four-country study on Electricity Network Tariff Design for MIT CEEPR, and participated in the development of the “House of Project Complexity” framework for understanding complexity in Large Infrastructure Projects. Vivek’s S.M. thesis investigated investment decision-making and contractual issues in new power generation investments.

Vivek has consulted for the World Bank on infrastructure system design issues in both the power and water sector in Kenya and Afghanistan. His prior work has also informed power plant design improvements at the Lower Colorado River Authority, water system expansion for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and energy regulatory design for the Department of Energy Resources for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

At MIT, Vivek is a Martin Fellow for Sustainability (2011–2012) and an MIT Global Fellow (2012). He served as a graduate student representative on the Corporation Joint Advisory Committee (2010–2012), a small advisory group that works directly with the MIT Corporation (the Board of Trustees). He is also Co-President of the Engineering Systems Society (2012-2013).