Lab Director

c.rausch(at)utexas.edu
Office Location: ECJ 5.428
Director, Enabling Technologies in Housing Innovation Center (ETHIC)
Christopher Rausch
Assistant Professor
Assistant Specialty Editor, ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Area(s) of Expertise
Construction Engineering and Project Management
Educational Qualifications
Ph.D., University of Waterloo, Civil Engineering, 2021
M.A.Sc., University of Waterloo, Civil Engineering, 2016
B.A.Sc., University of Waterloo, Civil Engineering, 2015
Technical Interests
Industrialized construction; modular construction; geometric digital twins; digitization; building information modeling; computational design; circular economy; materials reuse.
Post-Doctoral researcher

Jisang Lee
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Jisang is a Postdoctoral research fellow in CEPM. He earned his Bachelor’s and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Yonsei University, South Korea. He projects his knowledge and experience in geospatial information to ETHIC project focusing on industrialized construction, geometric digital twins and circular economy.
PhD students

Seungah Suh
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Seungah [sing-ah] is a PhD student in Construction Engineering and Project Management. She earned her B.S. in Architectural Engineering from Ewha Womans University and M.S. from Yonsei University. Her current research interest is in involving building informatics for building material reuse.

Alberto Emmanuel Pozzer
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Emmanuel is a Ph.D. student in CEPM, co-advised by Dr. Fernanda Leite. He received his master’s degree from UT Austin in 2019 and his bachelor’s from the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste (Argentina) in 2012, both in civil engineering. He has worked in the construction industry for 7 years in PM related positions. His current research focuses on decarbonization of capital projects and dealing with uncertainty in carbon assessments.

Jeehoon Kim
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Jeehoon is a Ph.D. student in Construction Engineering and Project Management. He earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Yonsei University, South Korea. His current research focuses on building a supply chain for material reuse using robotics and AI.
Master’s students

Caitlin Dubay
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Caitlin is a Master’s student in Structural Engineering. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 2023. Her current research focuses on carbon capture and utilization technologies, especially within the construction and transportation industries.

Nirjara Bongurala
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Nirjara is a Master’s student in Construction Engineering and Project Management, researching technologies to enhance supply chain management. She holds a B.Tech from IIT Madras, India. Dedicated to optimizing industry processes, she is exploring innovative solutions to improve construction management.

Mohammed Alghamdi
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Mohammed Alghamdi, a CEPM graduate student at UT Austin, has 10+ years’ experience in oil and gas mega project execution, Certified in PMP®, PMI-RMP®, and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, he serves on AACE KSA’s Board of Directors.

Najiha Mahmoud
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Najiha is a master’s student in CEPM with over five years of experience in infrastructure projects within the mobility industry. She holds a B.S. in civil engineering from Kennesaw State University and is a licensed PE in Georgia and North Carolina. Her research interests include industrialized housing.
Undergraduate Research Assistants

Ethan M Lloyd
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Ethan is an senior undergraduate in civil engineering, focusing on construction management. His previous internships in different companies have allowed him to gain experience in different fields of engineering. He is working on the Green Fund 25-26 project to develop waste diversion and material reuse methods.

Dev Patel
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Dev is a sophomore undergraduate in civil engineering focusing on construction management. His previous experience with Heavy Civil General Contractors and currently DPR Construction have allowed him to gain insights in different fields of CM. Dev works on the ETHIC project analyzing private businesses regarding housing affordability.
Alumni
PhD Students
- Guilherme Eliote, Fall 2024, co-advised by Dr. Fernanda Leite 🔗
Master’s Students
Undergraduate Research Assistants
- Sophia Se-eun Lee, Fall 2024
- Sophia Shelton, Spring 2024
- Alyssa Roy, Spring 2024
- Mary Grace Calara, Spring 2024
- Han M Nguyen, Fall 2023
- Nathan P Titterington, Fall 2023
- Marianne Saab, Summer 2023