Dr. Riccardo Taormina

Profile

I joined TU Delft’s Department of Water Management in July 2019 to start my tenure track as Assistant Professor in Urban Water Infrastructure. I have a BSc and a MSc in Environmental Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, and I got a PhD degree in Civil Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to joining TU Delft, I worked as a Postdoc at the iTrust Research Center of Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Research

My research activity involves the use of data, computational modelling, and machine learning/AI for solving complex water problems, mainly in urban contexts. At TU Delft I want to delve deeper in the emerging field of Digital Water, with a focus on IoT solutions, digital twins, and advanced data analytics for sustainable water resources management. I also carry out research in cyber-physical security of urban water infrastructure, which was the main topic of my postdoctoral experience.

  • Hassanzadeh, A., Rasekh, A., Galelli, S., Aghashahi, M., Taormina, R., Ostfeld, A. and Banks, C.M., 2019. A review of Cybersecurity Incidents in the Water Sector. Journal of Environmental Engineering (in press).
  • Taormina, R., Galelli, S., Douglas, H.C., Tippenhauer, N.O., Salomons, E. and Ostfeld, A., 2019.  A toolbox for assessing the impacts of cyber-physical attacks on water distribution systems. Environmental Modelling & Software, 112, pp.46-51.
  • Taormina, R. and Galelli, S., 2018. Deep-Learning Approach to the Detection and Localization of Cyber-Physical Attacks on Water Distribution Systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 144(10), 04018065.
  • Taormina, R., Galelli, S., Tippenhauer, N. O., Salomons, E., Ostfeld, A., Eliades, D. G., ... and Brentan, B. M., 2018. Battle of the Attack Detection Algorithms: Disclosing Cyber Attacks on Water Distribution Networks. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 144(8), 04018048.
  • Taormina, R., Galelli, S., Tippenhauer, N.O., Salomons, E. and Ostfeld, A., 2017. Characterizing Cyber-Physical Attacks on Water Distribution Systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 143(5), 04017009.
  • Taormina, R., Galelli, S., Karakaya, G. and Ahipaşaoğlu, S.D., 2016. An information theoretic approach to select alternate subsets of predictors for data-driven hydrological models. Journal of Hydrology, 542, pp.18-34.
  • Taormina, R. and Chau, K.W., 2015. Data-driven input variable selection for rainfall–runoff modeling using binary-coded particle swarm optimization and Extreme Learning Machines. Journal of Hydrology, 529, pp.1617-1632. 
  • Taormina, R., Chau, K.W. and Sethi, R., 2012. Artificial neural network simulation of hourly groundwater levels in a coastal aquifer system of the Venice lagoon. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 25(8), pp.1670-1676.

(Co-PI) LEarning from Network and Process data to secure Water Distribution Systems (LENP-WDS) — Singapore NSoE-DeST-SCI
The overarching goal of this project is to design and implement analytics to improve the cyber-physical security of water distribution systems. The project will address three specific problems/objectives, namely: 1) Overcoming the lack of network and process data for water distribution systems under attack; 2) Improving the accuracy of attack detection algorithms; 3) Facilitating and automating timely attack responses via Reinforcement Learning.

  • Chair of the ASCE Technical Task Subcommittee on Cyber-Physical Security of Water Distribution Systems.
  • Guest Editor, special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441) on “Smart Urban Water Networks.

Riccardo Taormina

Assistant Professor

  • r.taormina@tudelft.nl

  • Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
    Building 23
    Stevinweg 1
    2628 CN Delft

    Room: 4.51

Availability:
Monday to Friday

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