Dr. Cynthia Lee, received her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where her research focused on probabilistic methods for improving critical infrastructure resilience. Specifically, she developed frameworks to increase infrastructure monitoring capabilities with nontraditional data sources through data integration and machine learning classifiers and investigated the impact of network parameters on component vulnerabilities. 

During her Ph.D., Dr. Lee received the first-place paper award in infrastructure at Resilience Week 2018, completed Georgia Tech’s Tech to Teaching certification through the Center for Teaching and Learning, and received nominations to participate in several workshops for promoting diversity and interdisciplinary collaboration in research and academia. 

Prior to her Ph.D. work, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Tufts University and Stanford University, respectively. In her spare time, Dr. Lee enjoys rock climbing, hiking, and exploring new cities through eating.

“I am so excited to join the engineering faculty at the Cooper Union! My research interests are in improving infrastructure resilience, especially in urban environments, and New York City is full of opportunities to explore the impacts of civil infrastructures on our daily lives. 
I am also passionate about teaching and building up students’ confidence in their own abilities, and I am excited to work with the students at Cooper. I had the pleasure of meeting students during my visit, and seeing their enthusiasm, engagement, and curiosity was one of the most important factors in my decision to join the Department of Civil Engineering at Cooper. I am looking forward to being on campus and meeting the students and faculty in person someday soon!” – Cynthia Lee