I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Autonomous Vehicles in Air Transportation Engineering (AVIATE) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada Reno where I am working with Profs. Petros Voulgaris, Naira Hovakimyan, and Srinivasa Salapaka.I obtained my Ph.D from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities where I worked with Prof. Murti Salapaka at the Nanodynamics Laboratory. My thesis research focused on advancing distributed decision-making by balancing information mixing and optimality in distributed optimization. My work aims to develop systems that ensure resilient distributed operation in the face of catastrophic events while preserving the efficiencies of centralized architectures.I am always interested in research in the realms of optimization, machine learning, and decision sciences. If you share an interest in these areas and are looking for collaboration opportunities, feel free to reach out—I’m always excited to work on new and impactful projects!I am an active member of the IEEE Control Systems Society, the IEEE Power and Energy Society, and the INFORMS Optimization Society.Outside my research pursuits, I enjoy reading, art shows, sports, hiking, and honing my culinary skills.Curriculum Vitae

Vivek Khatana is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Autonomous Vehicles in Air Transportation Engineering (AVIATE) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada Reno where I am working with Profs. Petros Voulgaris, Naira Hovakimyan, and Srinivasa Salapaka. His research focuses on a spectrum of topics including optimization, stochastic control, networks of dynamical systems, data-driven system identification, and power systems control.He obtained his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities working with Prof. Murti Salapaka at the Nanodynamics Laboratory. His thesis research focused on advancing distributed decision-making by balancing information mixing and optimality in distributed optimization. His dissertation aims to develop systems that ensure resilient distributed operation in the face of catastrophic events while preserving the efficiencies of centralized architectures.He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.Vivek's academic endeavors have been distinguished by notable achievements, including the receipt of the Summer Undergraduate Research Award at IIT Roorkee in 2016 and the esteemed recognition as an Outstanding Teaching Assistant by the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, in 2021, for his exemplary instruction in State Space Control courses.Committed to advancing his field beyond the confines of academia, Vivek is an active participant in professional societies such as the IEEE Control Systems and Power and Energy Society.Outside of his scholarly pursuits, Vivek enjoys engaging in recreational activities such as badminton, hiking amidst natural landscapes, exploring non-fiction literature, and honing his culinary skills with the creation of new dishes.Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

My research seeks to synergistically combine advances in control theory and optimization with demonstrating the potential of these to advance the adoption of renewable energy technologies toward clean future energy delivery systems. Recently, I have been focusing on the following research topics:

  • Algorithms for Distributed Nonconvex Optimization

  • Stochastic Optimization for Deep/Machine Learning

  • Control for Advanced/Emerging Aerospace Systems

  • Aggregation and Control of Distributed Energy Systems

Publications(Full List on Google Scholar)

Preprints

  • A. Dey, V. Khatana, A. Mani, and M. V. Salapaka, “Guaranteeing Service in Connected Microgrids: Storage Planning and Optimal Power Sharing Policy,” arXiv:2403.08114.

2024

  • V. Khatana and M. V. Salapaka, “Distributed difference of convex optimization,” in 60th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, 2024.

  • V. Khatana, C.-Y. Chang, and W. Wang, “Adaptive online model update algorithm for predictive control in networked systems,” in 60th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, 2024.

  • V. Khatana, S. Chakraborty, and M. V. Salapaka, “A plug and play distributed secondary controller for microgrids with grid-forming inverters,” in Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2024.

  • V. Khatana, S. Chakraborty, G. Saraswat, P. Sourav, and M. V. Salapaka, “A distributed malicious agent detection scheme for resilient power apportioning in microgrids,” in Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2024.

  • A. Dey, V. Khatana, A. Mani, and M. V. Salapaka, “Guaranteeing service in connected microgrids: Storage planning and optimal power sharing policy,” in IEEE American Control Conference, 2024.

2023

  • V. Khatana and M. V. Salapaka, “Noise resilient distributed average consensus over directed graphs,” IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Networks, pp. 1-15, 2023. doi: 10.1109/TSIPN.2023.3324583.

  • V. Khatana, G. Saraswat, S. Patel, and M. V. Salapaka, "Gradconsensus: linearly convergent algorithm for reducing disagreement in multi-agent optimization,” IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, pp. 1-13, 2023. doi: 10.1109/TNSE.2023.3321757.

  • J. Melbourne, G. Saraswat, V. Khatana, S. Patel, and M. V. Salapaka, “Convex decreasing algorithms: distributed synthesis and finite-time termination in higher dimension,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, pp. 1-8, 2023. doi: 10.1109/TAC.2023.3344721.

  • S. Chakraborty, J. Park, G. Saraswat, et al., “Emergency power supply system for critical infrastructures: Design and large scale hardware demonstration,” IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 114 509-114 526, 2023. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3325198.

2022

  • V. Khatana and M. V. Salapaka, “DC-DistADMM:ADMM algorithm for constrained optimization over directed graphs,” IEEE ransactions on Automatic Control, pp. 1-16, 2022. doi:10.1109/TAC.2022.3221856.

  • G. Saraswat, V. Khatana, S. Patel, and M. V. Salapaka, “Distributed finite-time termination for consensus algorithm in switching topologies,” IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, pp. 1-11, 2022. doi:10.1109/TNSE.2022.3216286.

  • J. Melbourne, G. Saraswat, V. Khatana, S. Patel, and M. V. Salapaka, “On the geometry of consensus algorithms with application to distributed termination in higher

  • dimension,” IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 2951-2956, 2020, 21st IFAC World Congress, issn: 2405-8963. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2020.12.971.

  • V. Khatana, S. Chakraborty, G. Saraswat, B. Lundstorm, and M. V. Salapaka, “Evaluation of horizon of viability optimization engine for sustained power to critical infrastructure,” in 2022 IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI), IEEE, 2022, pp. 1-8.

  • J. Wang, S. Chakraborty, V. Khatana, B. Lundstrom, G. Saraswat, and M. Salapaka, “Evaluation of optimal net load management in microgrids using hardware-in-the-loop simulation,” in IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (ISGT), pp. 1-5, 2022. doi:10.1109/ISGT50606.2022.9817515.

Teaching

I have been an instructor for undergraduate courses at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities:

  • EE 4235: Linear Control Systems Laboratory

  • EE 4237: State Space Control Laboratory

  • EE 4163: Energy Conversion and Storage Laboratory

  • EE 2361: Introduction to Microcontrollers Laboratory

Course description: https://dept.aem.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/course-catalog?QFCHK=0&search=yes&ns=1&subject=EE

News

Contact Information

Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering
105 S Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801

Research lightning talk at Midwest Control and Game Theory Workshop, 2024

Engaging discussion with Dr. Ben Kroposki. National Renewable Energy Lab, 2023

Poster presentation at Midwest Control and Game Theory Workshop, 2023

Poster presentation at North American ISGT Conference, 2023

PhD Defense Talk, ECE UMN, 2025