Research Profile

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT. My research agenda integrates infrastructure systems across the transportation, energy, and building sectors and investigates the impacts of human-technology interactions and industrial processes on those systems. A key goal is determining investment needs to develop sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as digitalization. I use a range of methods drawing on both engineering and social sciences, e.g., agent-based modeling, techno-economic modeling, stated-choice experiments, regressions, (un)supervised machine learning, and field studies. With my research findings, I aim to inform decision-making in industry and policy. I have attracted over 220,000 USD in research grants and fellowships, including from the Swiss National Science Foundation. I am passionate about increasing diversity and inclusion inside and outside of the research community through mentorship, teaching, and outreach.

Publications

My work has investigated the interaction of technology control with decision-making, incentives for changing the use of technology to improve system outcomes, and the impact of the adoption and use of new technologies on system dynamics. For example, I examined the decision-making of adopting heat pumps and charging electric vehicles in interaction with control algorithms and incentives.

As I aim to support the knowledge transfer between academia, industry, policy, and the public, my publications include peer-reviewed journal articles, practitioner articles, and blog posts.

Scientific Conference Contributions

I enjoy exchanging ideas about sustainable human-technology systems with colleagues across different countries and backgrounds. I seek to engage with communities across fields, including complexity science, operations research, behavioral science, technology innovation, and system modeling.

Talks

Besides invited presentations at scientific seminars, I regularly speak at industry and policy conferences/seminars, co-lead workshops with different stakeholders, and have been a podcast guest.

Advising and Teaching

One of my passions is to engage with students from various backgrounds, including different engineering disciplines, natural sciences, and social sciences. I particularly enjoy developing student research projects and discussing them in weekly one-on-one meetings. From undergraduate to graduate courses and from large lectures to small seminars, I find discussions with students inspiring and seek to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on pressing societal challenges, such as climate change. I have implemented innovative teaching methods, e.g., peer assessment and the Six Sentence Argument (6SA), and developed online teaching videos.