Mahjabeen Fatema Mitu

PhD Candidate

Civil & Environmental Engineering

Mahjabeen Fatema Mitu is affiliated as a Ph.D. candidate/ graduate research assistant in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut (UConn). She joined the Hydrometeorology and Hydrologic Remote Sensing Group in Fall 2019 and anticipates graduating later in 2024. Her doctoral research focuses on understanding compound flood damage variability and mechanisms concerning reinforcing flood resilience to address critical environmental challenges against natural disasters.

Mahjabeen’s academic career began with an undergraduate degree, B.Sc. in Water Resources Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), followed by a M.Sc. in Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics (MPG) at the University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart, Germany. Prior to joining the research group at UConn, she worked as a student research assistant at the Institute for Modeling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems, University of Stuttgart led by Dr. András Bárdossy. She worked on her master dissertation there as well, simulating daily precipitation data spatially and temporally to generate a synthetic data model for optimal planning of water resources projects and estimating extreme weather phenomena. Currently, along with her doctoral research she is also involved in the project “Saudi Arabia Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System” with the collaboration of National Center for Meteorology (NCM) – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Weather & Marine Engineering Technologies P.C. (WeMET P.C.) and LENOVO. Previously, she contributed to the project “Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) Flood Risk Evaluation” and worked on “Evaluation of Substations Vulnerability of Flooding in Current and Climate Change Scenarios (Phase II)”. Her other work and primary research interests include:

• Hydraulic and hydrodynamic modeling
• Stochastic modeling
• Geospatial analysis

Her prime technical proficiency spans hydraulic and hydrodynamic modeling (utilizing tools like HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS), stochastic modeling, and data analysis (proficient in R, MATLAB, and Python programming), as well as geospatial analysis using ArcMap and Quantum GIS. Additionally, she took on the role of a lab instructor at UConn for Fluid Mechanics from 2019 to 2022.

Mahjabeen’s dedication extends beyond academia; she is committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering and empowering the next generation of engineers and leaders. Currently she has a leadership role with the John Lof Leadership Academy (JLLA) at UConn.