Beginning in Fall 2018, he will join the faculty in the Learning Sciences program in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. His research draws on critical ethnographic, historical, as well as participatory design-based methodologies to examine the politics of learning and the politics of knowledge production in STEM disciplines, with a focus on engineering and computer science. His work has appeared in the Harvard Educational Review, Journal of the Learning Sciences, Cognition and Instruction, Equity & Excellence in Education, and Teachers College Record. Dr. Vakil received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in Education with a focus on mathematics, science, and technology from UC Berkeley.