We are excited to welcome our new graduate and undergraduate researchers to the CONCISE Lab for the Fall 2026 semester! We look forward to their contributions, fresh perspectives, and growth as they begin their research journeys with our team. We wish them a productive, rewarding, and successful semester ahead!
Charlotte Witmer-Rich
BS Industrial & Systems Engineering
SOMAK ROY
MS Electrical Engineering
BENJAMIN PEREZ
BS Civil Engineering
We are excited to welcome
ROSEMARY SILVY
as a new Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering at the CONCISE Lab, Lehigh University!
Rosemary holds an M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Mathematics from Mahatma Gandhi University, India. Her previous research explored graph neural networks and hybrid deep learning models, with work published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP). At CONCISE, she will work on controller optimization and cybersecurity for water distribution systems.
We are delighted to have Rosemary on the team and look forward to her contributions. Welcome to CONCISE, Rosemary!
A big congratulations to Dr. Oluwabunmi Iwakin on successfully completing his Ph.D. and defending his dissertation on June 10, 2026!
Bunmi’s dissertation, “Data-Driven Methods for Optimal Planning and Management of Interconnected Critical Infrastructure Systems,” explored innovative data-driven approaches for improving the planning and management of interconnected water and energy infrastructure systems.
After completing his Ph.D. at Lehigh University, Bunmi began a new chapter at Argonne National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher, where he is developing efficient data-driven methods for water-energy systems.
We are excited to see where his research journey takes him next and wish him every success in this new role. Congratulations, Bunmi, and all the best from the CONCISE Lab!
APR 2026
We are delighted to congratulate CONCISE Lab member Dr. Saskia Putri on successfully defending her doctoral dissertation on April 10, 2026. Her dissertation, titled “Advancing Model Predictive Control Frameworks for Integrated Water-Energy Systems,” reflects her outstanding research contributions at the intersection of water, energy, and control systems.
Saskia was also recognized with the Best Dissertation Award from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Lehigh University, a wonderful recognition of her hard work and research accomplishments.
Following her Ph.D., Saskia joined Siemens, where she is currently working on control systems for power applications.
We are incredibly proud of Saskia and grateful for all her contributions to the CONCISE Lab. We wish her continued success in this exciting new chapter of her career. Congratulations, Dr. Putri, you will be missed!
We are glad to share that CONCISE's PhD Candidate, Nazia Raza, once again received the second-place award in the Graduate Student Technical Paper Competition at the ASCE EWRI Conference 2026, held in Mobile, Alabama.
Nazia’s award-winning work investigates the application of Neural Stochastic Differential Equations to uncover hidden stochastic dynamics in cyber-physical water systems. This research contributes to the development of more intelligent, uncertainty-aware, and resilient approaches for modeling and monitoring water infrastructure systems.
Congratulations to Nazia on this well-deserved recognition!
Read more about this work here.
The CONCISE Lab presented seven research works at the ASCE Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) Congress 2026, held in Mobile, Alabama. The presentations highlighted the lab’s ongoing efforts to advance intelligent, resilient, and data-driven water infrastructure systems.
Model-free, data-driven control frameworks.
Neural SDE-based stochastic dynamic modeling.
Uncertainty-aware leak detection.
Data-driven linearization.
Existing and missing gaps in interconnected water-energy infrastructure systems.
Two real-time datasets collected from the physical water distribution testbed and the quadrupled tank process are publicly available on our GitHub page and Zenodo.
Congratulations to CONCISE Lab members who presented their work at EWRI Congress 2026.
Oluwabunmi Iwakin (First Place)
Nazia Raza (People's Choice Award)
Lehigh University's CONCISE Lab has entered a new collaboration with Siemens to advance real-time monitoring and control solutions for microgrids supporting AI-intensive data centers. This partnership focuses on developing resilient and adaptive power systems capable of handling the rapid and unpredictable load changes driven by large-scale artificial intelligence operations.
As part of this collaboration, PhD student Saskia Putri has been awarded a year-long Siemens research fellowship. Saskia will work closely with Siemens researchers to design and model a localized data-center microgrid, develop real-time disturbance detection tools, and validate control strategies using resources from the CONCISE and INTEGRITY (Director: Javad Khazaei) laboratories.
You can read the full story here.CONCISE is awarded $100K for eighteen months as a part of Lehigh's National Science Foundation ART grant through the Seed Translational Research Project (STRP). Our team will develop and translate a multi-modal leakage and operational failure detection framework on real-world smart water distribution systems.
As part of this research, two of our PhD students, Nazia Raza (lead researcher) and Oluwabunmi Iwakin (co-researcher), will develop a digital twin of Lehigh's water distribution system for real-time anomaly detection.
Co-PIs: Edward Boscola (left) and Doug Spengel (right)
This paper proposes a data-driven predictive control framework that leverages deep neural networks to approximate stability-guaranteed nonlinear model predictive control policies, enabling automated power management for MVDC shipboard microgrids under highly dynamic conditions such as pulsed loads, faults, and cyberattacks. For more details, access the paper with this link.
It was a true honor to welcome Dr. Terry Hart (pictured far left), a former NASA astronaut and professor, whose distinguished career in aerospace and control systems added a unique perspective to the discussions.
The visit fostered a rich exchange of ideas, highlighted collaborative possibilities, and reinforced the alignment between academic research and real-world industrial challenges. We look forward to continuing this dialogue and exploring potential avenues for future collaboration with Siemens.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently granted the Atlantic Marine Energy Center (AMEC) $12 million to expand research and development in marine energy initiatives. In total, DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office invested more than $41 million in this latest round of funding using the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to four university-led National Marine Energy Centers located across the country. The centers will use the funds to support research, infrastructure improvements, strategy, administration, outreach, and communications around their projects.
Read the full blog post here here.
Congratulating Saskia for receiving ASCE foundation support for presenting her research in upcoming EWRI Congress 2025 at Anchorage, Alaska.
One of our PhD students, Saskia Putri, is featured by Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure and Energy (ICPIE) for her research in integrated water-energy systems, contributing to advancements in sustainable infrastructure.
Read the full blog post here here.
We deeply appreciate Lehigh University for recognizing the efforts of our CONCISE members and for featuring this news on their website. You can read the full announcement on Lehigh University's website.
We proudly announce that our two Ph.D. students Nazia and Saskia have received the Best Paper Award under the Graduate Paper Competition at EWRI Congress, 2024.
Nazia received the second-best paper award for "A Holistic Cybersecurity Framework against False Data Injection Attacks in Smart Water Distribution Systems Employing Auto-Encoders".
Saskia is honored with the third-best paper award for "Data Driven System Identification of Water Distribution Systems via Kernel-Based Interpolation."
We are excited to announce our new Undergraduate Researcher to the team! She is the first generation engineer bringing her passion and intelligence to the CONCISE lab.
NEW OPENING JAN, 2023
At CONCISE lab, we are always looking for talented and passionate PhD students. If you have the following skills, please follow the application process:
Desired skills:
Proficiency in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Algorithms
Proficiency in Optimization and Control Systems
Proficiency in Communication Skills (speaking and writing)
Proficiency in (or willingness to learn) LaTex
Background in Water Systems
Background in Water-Energy Nexus
Proficiency in MATLAB/Python
How to apply: Please email your detailed CV, one sample publication, TOEFL/IELTS scores, and unofficial transcripts as one single PDF to moazeni@lehigh.edu. Please specify “CONCISE applicant” in the email subject. Women and students from historically marginalized groups are highly encouraged to apply!
Note : The candidate must be accepted in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Program of Lehigh University.
We are excited to announce the newest addition to our team at CONCISE Lab. She is an incoming PhD student who will be joining us in Fall 2024. Daniela comes to us from Ecuador, bringing a unique blend of skills and experiences that promise to enrich our research community.