Vaibhav Upadhyay

Hello! I’m Vaibhav, a first-year PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Daniel Liberzon.

I completed my Bachelor of Technology in Aerospace Engineering and Master of Technology at the Centre for Systems and Control at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay under the supervision of Prof. Debasish Chatterjee.

Outside academics, I enjoy trekking, hiking, exploring other cultures, and capturing the world through my lens whenever I get the chance. A collection of my naive endeavours can be found here. Alongside my academic and outdoor pursuits, I have a growing interest in the history of Indian philosophy and ancient scriptures. In this spirit, I hold to the following:

दूरेण ह्यवरं कर्म बुद्धियोगाद्धनञ्जय ।
बुद्धौ शरणमन्विच्छ कृपणाः फलहेतवः ॥

- a reminder to seek wisdom over the mere pursuit of results (~Bhagavad Gita, Verse 49, Sankhya Yoga).

I am interested in developing mathematically rigorous tools for practically relevant problems, with particular emphasis on the interplay between differential topology, control theory, stochastic processes, optimal transportation, and numerical optimization.