Prospective Students & Postdocs
Recruitment
I am currently looking for 2-3 new PhD students and/or postdocs to join my group at Vanderbilt —
The Research
My group studies cyber-physical and urban infrastructure systems. We are especially interested in network theory, optimization, control, estimation, and learning for dynamic systems.
Application areas include sustainable energy systems and converter-rich power networks, drinking water and stormwater systems, transportation networks, infrastructure security, and climate-aware decision-making.
What Helps
Strong mathematical maturity: linear algebra, probability, calculus, and analysis.
Comfort with control theory, optimization, dynamical systems, or machine learning.
Excellent programming habits and willingness to build reproducible computational work.
Clear communication, intellectual honesty, and kindness toward collaborators.
For postdocs: a strong publication record in high-quality journals or conferences.
How to Write
Send a short email to ahmad.taha@vanderbilt.edu with your CV, transcripts, and any papers or preprints you would like me to see. Keep the email concise and specific.
The most useful emails point to a particular research direction, model, paper, or application area and explain what you would like to work on. Generic praise, rankings, and copy-pasted paper titles are much less useful than one thoughtful paragraph. I am open about the research topic and directions, as long as the prerequisites are available. Best of luck!