Piyush hails from the Himalayan foothills of India. He is a graduate student in the Architecture and Urbanism Program at MIT.

As a Tata Fellow, Piyush will investigate ways to improve rural water planning in India. He is currently a Research Assistant at the LCAU (Leventhal Centre for Advanced Urbanism) at MIT. He is working with Professor James Wescoat on the research and development of regional water planning in Maharashtra alongside the Government of Maharashtra, India.

A visiting graduate scholar at the Tsinghua University, China and the University of Sydney, Australia, Piyush studied architecture (B.Arch) at SPA Bhopal, India and interdisciplinary design (M.Des) at IIT Delhi, India. He was a scholarship student in the International Habitat Design Studio of TU Delft and Vastu Shilpa Foundation, India. His research interests and projects seamlessly straddle the fields of design, technology, architecture, and urbanism. Most recently, he was engaged in the development of the first-ever vernacular housing index for India. He is passionate about developing technological, design and business solutions for social impact in resource-constrained environments. He has worked with architect BV Doshi, and at IBM R&D Germany, among others.

In his spare time, Piyush likes reading non-fiction, cooking, journaling, sketching, meditating and exploring the intersections of art, psychology and philosophy. He has an undying passion for traveling and exploring new cultures and has travelled around several countries across Asia, Europe, Australia and North America solo.