Prior to that, he was a research scientist in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems at MIT. He obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and M.A. in Applied Mathematics, both in 2007, from the University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004. His current research interest is in developing control and optimization tools for complex dynamical networks, multi-agent systems and human-in-the-loop systems. His awards include CCDC best thesis award from UCSB.