Research Team

Faust Research Group · The University of Texas at Austin

Research Team

The students behind the work — and the alumni now shaping infrastructure research and practice as faculty at Stanford, Tufts, Texas A &M, University of Texas at Tyler, Sam Houston State, and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, and as engineers across utilities, agencies, industry, and the armed services.

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PhD Students

Daniel Butcher

Daniel Butcher

PhD Student, Construction Engineering and Project Management

Dan earned his M.S. from the same program and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy.

His research addresses critical infrastructure challenges in remote Alaskan communities, where traditional water delivery systems are often impractical. His work focuses on hauled water systems, examining how misalignment between formal responsibilities and stakeholder perceptions leads to service failures and cascading economic impacts. He is developing frameworks to improve service reliability and equity in water access for rural communities.

In parallel, Dan is pioneering the application of Gaussian splatting technology to create interactive digital twins of Arctic infrastructure, combining automated semantic tagging with physics-based simulations to predict how climate change — particularly freeze-thaw cycles — will impact critical infrastructure. By integrating community observations with advanced 3D visualization and sensor data, his work provides decision-makers with powerful tools for proactive infrastructure planning and establishes scalable frameworks applicable to remote regions worldwide.

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Elise Huglo

PhD Student (co-advised with Dr. Kerry Kinney)

AL

Ana Lacau

PhD Student, Civil Engineering

Ana earned her Master’s in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering and her Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

Her research examines infrastructure systems in rural Alaska, where challenges of remoteness, climate, and governance shape how communities access and maintain essential services. Ana’s current projects investigate how local knowledge and lived experience can be integrated into infrastructure planning and decision-making. Through community interviews, semi-cognitive mapping, and computational narrative analysis, her work explores how residents interpret and respond to infrastructure disruptions and how these insights can guide more resilient infrastructure policy.

Research interests: integrating community knowledge in infrastructure planning, infrastructure interdependencies, semantic-linking, computational narrative analysis, and rural resilience.

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Master’s Students

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Hannah Choi

Master’s Student, Construction Engineering and Project Management

Hannah earned her Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy.

EM

Erin McDuffie

Master’s Student, Environmental and Water Resources Program

Erin earned her Bachelor’s in Environmental Engineering with a minor in Global Development from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Research interests: extreme weather events such as coastal flooding and inland flash flooding. Her current research focuses on flash flooding and how environmental conditions, built infrastructure, and warning-system communication influence decision-making around emergency planning and response across rural and urban communities in Central Texas.

DH

Dela Houssou

Master’s Student (co-advised with Dr. Krishna Kumar)

Dela’s research supports the group’s TxDOT-funded project on machine learning-based cost and schedule forecasting for highway construction contracts, developing data-driven approaches to improve planning for the state highway program.

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Undergraduate Students

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Tommy Wan

Senior, Civil Engineering, Government, and Plan II

Tommy is interested in the intersection of engineering and policy, public involvement in infrastructure decisions, and community development in Southwest Houston.

Policy & research interests: infrastructure & capital improvement, community development, urban planning, water infrastructure and wastewater rehabilitation, transportation, aviation & space, climate in resilient systems, and Texas energy.

Group Alumni

All degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.

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PhD Alumni

  • Helena Tiedmann (co-supervised with Dr. Lina Sela)Summer 2023CE

    Exploring Multi-level Interactions between Water Infrastructure Systems and Population Dynamics

    → J. Philip Keillor Wisconsin Coastal Management–Sea Grant Fellow

  • Euijin YangSpring 2023CE

    Water Infrastructure Resilience in the Face of Extreme Events

    → Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University

  • Khalid K. OsmanSummer 2022CE

    The Operationalization of Equity in the Provision of Water Infrastructure Services

    → Assistant Professor, Stanford University

  • Lauryn SpearingSummer 2021CE

    The Cascading Impacts of Disasters: Understanding how Disaster-Induced Population Changes Impact Water Infrastructure Systems and the Built Environment

    → Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago

  • Amal BakchanSummer 2021CE

    Integrated Approaches for Understanding the Operating Environments of Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Systems in times of Population Dynamics

    → Postdoc, University of South Alabama

  • Kelsey AbelSummer 2021CE

    Modeling Complex Human Systems: Applying Hybrid Methodologies to Simulate and Disrupt Food Inaccessibility and Cascading Impacts

    → Postdoc, Sandia National Labs

  • Felipe ArayaSummer 2020CE

    Understanding hosting communities as a stakeholder in the provision of urban infrastructure to displaced populations

    → Assistant Professor, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María

  • Julie FaureFall 2019CE

    Adapting housing and water sector infrastructure to population dynamics

    → Sustainability Engineer, Austin Water Utility

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Master’s Alumni — Thesis

  • Kyudong KimSummer 2022CE

    Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Moral Sensitivity and Effects of Ethics Education

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Bryan La BissoniereSpring 2022EER

    Evaluating Strategies, Opportunities, and Tensions for Implementing Green Stormwater Infrastructure at the Site Scale

    → Austin Water Utility

  • Michaela LaPatinFall 2021CE

    Engineering in a Crisis: Observing Students’ Perceived Roles of Engineers During Pandemics and Natural Disasters

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Miriam TariqFall 2021CE

    Assessing the Impact of Water Contamination Events and Socio-Demographic Drivers on the Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Quality

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Helena Tiedmann (co-supervised with Dr. Lina Sela)Spring 2021EER

    Modeling in a Crisis: Overcoming the Water Sector’s Data Struggles to Realize the Potential of Hydraulic Models

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Meredith BrownFall 2020CE

    Declining Household Plumbing in Certain Alaskan Census-Designated and Incorporated Places

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Daniel ButcherFall 2020CE

    Understanding Multidimensional Aspects of Public Trust in the Water Infrastructure within US Shrinking Cities

    → U.S. Air Force

  • Stephanie ArnoldSummer 2020EER

    Operating at the intersection of social, engineered, and natural systems: Assessing hydrologic impacts of green stormwater infrastructure based on stated rates of adoption

    → City of Austin, Watershed Protection Department

  • Heather Rose (co-supervised with Dr. Michael Webber)Summer 2020EER

    A study of the interdependency of hydroponic wastewater quality and the energy and costs for onsite treatment

    → Texas Water Development Board

  • Victoria IbarraSpring 2020EER

    Can we measure equitable access at the intersection of social and natural systems? A look at the spatial and social distribution of urban parks

    → Bureau of Land Management

  • Neuton Ribeiro Neto (co-supervised with Dr. Carlos Caldas)Spring 2020CE

    Identification of strategies to overcome barriers for the implementation of advanced work packaging

    → Verum Partners

  • Lauryn SpearingFall 2019CE

    Determining multi-level drivers of perceiving undesirable taste and odor in tap water: A joint modeling approach

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Chinelo AgbimSummer 2019EER

    Residential electricity access: Objective versus subjective measures of energy poverty in Texas

    → Energy Acuity

  • Seogjae Choi (co-supervised with Dr. John Borcherding)Fall 2018CE

    Organizational fit and turnover in the construction industry: Exploring the impact of job characteristics among junior professionals

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Beatriz Guerra (co-supervised with Dr. Fernanda Leite)Summer 2018CE

    BIM-based construction waste estimation algorithms for institutional projects

    → Autodesk

  • Khalid OsmanSummer 2018CE

    Temporal dynamics of willingness to pay for alternatives that increase the reliability of water and wastewater service

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Monica Guerra UribeSpring 2018EWRE

    Policy-driven water sector and energy dependencies in Texas border colonias

    → Texas Organizing Project Development Department

  • Jorden CastanedaFall 2017CE

    Analyses of temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent construction standards on expeditionary US air bases

    → U.S. Air Force

  • Julie FaureSpring 2017EWRE

    Rapid population increase and urban housing systems: Legitimization of centralized emergency accommodations for displaced persons

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Euijin YangFall 2016CE

    Temporal dynamics of public perceptions toward water infrastructure in US shrinking cities before and after the Flint Water Crisis

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Kristin Whitley Abbott (co-supervised with Dr. Carey King)Spring 2016EER

    At risk wastewater pipeline identification due to flooding

    → Texas Public Utility Commission

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Master’s Alumni — Department Reports

  • Cristian OrtunoSummer 2023CE

    → Freese and Nichols

  • Peter ThompsonSummer 2019CE

    → U.S. Army

  • Kelsey AbelFall 2018CE

    → PhD Student, UT Austin

  • Amanda AlbanoFall 2018CE

    → Bohler Engineering

  • Rachel Piner (co-supervised with Dr. Lina Sela)Fall 2018EWRE

    → K Friese + Associates

  • Derek Blake HallSummer 2018CE

    → U.S. Navy

  • Allice GholsonFall 2017CE

    → U.S. Coast Guard

  • Dan EldredSummer 2017CE

    → U.S. Navy

  • Billy Dewayne WoodwardSpring 2017CE

    → U.S. Navy

  • Akshaya Lalitha IyerFall 2016CE

    → Peritia Partners

  • Jonathan Alan BatistaFall 2016EWRE

    → Riviera Beach Utility Special District

  • Raghav PrakashSpring 2016CE

    → AGS, Inc

  • Sara Alkayali AlalamSpring 2016CE

    → Deloitte Consulting