Akhilesh Raj

Akhilesh Raj

I am a Ph.D. candidate at Vanderbilt University specializing in reinforcement learning and HPC optimization. My research focuses on advancing AI-driven solutions for energy-efficient computing and cyber-physical systems.

Akhilesh Raj - Personal Academic Website

Welcome to my personal website!

I am a Ph.D. candidate at Vanderbilt University specializing in high-performance computing (HPC) and reinforcement learning for energy-efficient systems. My research focuses on optimizing the performance and power consumption of HPC systems using AI-driven approaches, including reinforcement learning, for efficient resource management.

I am passionate about advancing AI technologies and their applications in real-time systems, cybersecurity for operational technology (OT) networks, and the development of intelligent infrastructure for future computing systems.

My current work is supported by collaborations with institutions like Argonne National Laboratory, focusing on energy-efficient computational architectures and advanced testbeds for evaluating cybersecurity agents.

On this website, you will find details about my research, publications, talks, and projects. Please feel free to explore and contact me if you have any questions or would like to collaborate.

Research Interests

  • Reinforcement Learning for HPC Power Optimization: Applying offline reinforcement learning to design autonomous CPU power controllers that improve energy efficiency of parallel applications at runtime. My approach leverages application-agnostic performance data (heartbeats) and hardware performance counters via Intel RAPL, achieving measurable energy savings with minimal performance degradation across compute-bound and memory-bound workloads.

  • Cybersecurity for Operational Technology (OT) Networks: Developing advanced testbeds for testing and evaluating attack-resilient network agents (blue agents) in industrial environments. Using open-source software and an OpenStack-based network emulator, I simulate real-world industrial use cases and demonstrate detection and mitigation of adversarial attacks on OT infrastructure.

    • Chemical Plant Demo — RL agent controlling a simulated chemical plant under cyber-attack:
  • Power Grid Demo — RL agent managing a power grid testbed under adversarial conditions:

Freelance Projects

  • DropVault Tech: Prototyped a smart, secure package delivery box system with IoT integration.

Contact Information