Dr. Abubakr Muhammad
Principal Investigator (WP2, Digital Innovations)
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
Dr. Abubakr Muhammad is an associate professor of electrical engineering, the founding director of the Center for Water Informatics & Technology (WIT), and the lead for NCRA National Agricultural Robotics Lab at LUMS. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2005 from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA winning an institute-wide best Ph.D. Dissertation Award. He received master's degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and McGill University. Since 2008, his research group at LUMS is doing applied research in robotics, automation and AI with applications to water, agriculture, and environmental issues. He serves on various advisory panels to government agencies and industry in Pakistan on water, climate and agricultural policy, especially on the use of emerging digital technologies for these sectors.
Research interests
- Climate Water Models
- Precision agriculture
- Irrigation decision support tools
- Socio-hydrological systems analysis
Work experience and education
2016 - present
Director, Centre for Water Informatics & Technology (WIT)
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
Aug 2015 - present
Associate Professor
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
Sep 2019 - Sep 2022
Chair, Department of Electrical Engineering
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
2008 - 2015
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
2007 - 2008
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
McGill University, Canada
2006 - 2007
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Pennsylvania, United States of America
2001 – 2005
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Electrical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America
2003 – 2005
MS, Mathematics
Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America
2001 – 2002
MS, Electrical Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America
1995 – 2000
BSc, Electrical Engineering,
University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Pakistan
Selected publications
Wescoat, J. L., Jr., Koshul, B., & Muhammad, A. 2025. Principled pragmatism in water resources research: An historical and philosophical perspective on studies in South Asia and beyond. Water Resources Research, 61, e2025WR040155.
Hassan, W., Manzoor, T. and Muhammad, A., 2024. The limits to equity in water allocation under scarcity. Journal of Hydrology, 639, p.131631.
Rafique, H., Zainab, R., Ahmad, Z. and Muhammad, A., 2024, July. A quality assured in-situ real-time soil moisture monitoring network for the Indus Basin. In IGARSS 2024-2024 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (pp. 5155-5161). IEEE.
Hassan, W., Manzoor, T. and Muhammad, A., 2023. Improving equity in demand-driven irrigation systems through a rights-preserving water allocation mechanism. Agricultural Water Management, 287, p.108443.
Ilyas, A., Parkinson, S., Vinca, A., Byers, E., Manzoor, T., Riahi, K., Willaarts, B., Siddiqi, A. and Muhammad, A., 2022. Balancing smart irrigation and hydropower investments for sustainable water conservation in the Indus basin. Environmental science & policy, 135, pp.147-161.
Affan, A., Nasir, H.A., Manzoor, T. and Muhammad, A., 2022. Mobile sensing for estimation of hydro-dynamic parameters for minimally gauged open channels. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 198, p.107072.
Hassan, W., Manzoor, T., Jaleel, H. and Muhammad, A., 2021. Demand-based water allocation in irrigation systems using mechanism design: A case study from Pakistan. Agricultural Water Management, 256, p.107075.