Research group

WATSUP group

Current students


Gerardo Andres Riano-Briceno

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2023)
Research Topic: Urban water systems modeling and deep learning
M.Sc. The University of de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia (2018)
Selected joint publications:
G. Riaño‐Briceño, L. Sela, and B. R. Hodges. “Distributed and vectorized method of characteristics for fast transient simulations in water distribution systems.” Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 2021.

Meghna Thomas

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2024)
Research Topic: State estimation in water distribution systems
I am currently researching how to determine the state of a WDN given limited head, flow, and demand measurements. My previous research includes the development of a Python package that can aggregate and reduce WDN models.

Matthew Frankel

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2024)
Research Topic: Intelligent Water Systems; Water quality modeling; Data mining
M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (2021)
Selected joint publications:
M. Frankel, L. Xing, C. Chewning, and L. Sela. “Water-energy benchmarking and predictive modeling in multi-family residential and non-residential buildings.” Applied Energy, 281(1), 116074, pp. 1-17, January 2021.

Greg Hendrickson

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2024)
Research Topic: Optimal Management of Desalination for Coastal Water Supply Systems
This research explores the optimal management of coastal regional water supply systems that include desalination as a primary water source. We develop an optimization model to address challenges introduced by the inclusion of desalination and explore how desalination can be integrated with reservoir operation to increase the resiliency of water-stressed regional systems. Currently, our model is being tested on the Israeli National Water Supply System.

Konstantinos Sitaropoulos

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2024) (with Prof. Salvatore)
Research Topic: Leak detection and monitoring in urban water distribution systems using acoustic sensor technology.
Konstantinos’ research project focuses on developing algorithms for early detection of leaks in underground water pipes using acoustic sensors attached to fire hydrants.

Becky Cantrell

M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2024)
Research Topic: Improving water service provision in Rural Alaska
This research aims to improve the resiliency of water service, including identifying a suitable form of leak detection, through collaboration with the community and regional technical organizations in Norton Sound region. Research methods include digitizing technical information and documenting institutional knowledge, developing a hydraulic model that can provide guidance on performance and impact of operational decisions.

Yifan Huang

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2026)

Gautam Kunwar

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2026)

 


Alumni

Helena Tiedmann

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (2023) (with Prof. Faust)
Research Topic: Implications of human-infrastructure interactions on water systems
Helena holds a Master of Science in Energy and Earth Resources from The University of Texas at Austin and Bachelor of Science in environmental geology and political science from Beloit College in Wisconsin. She is passionate about understanding human-infrastructure interactions in the face of extreme events, changing climate, and shifting populations. Helena’s current projects involve using hydraulic models to understand the impacts of COVID-19 social distancing policies on urban water infrastructure systems and investigating water infrastructure recovery from extreme events such as the 2021 Texas winter storm.

Erik Vosburgh

M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (2023)
Research Topic: Timeseries mining for extracting meaningful information from online water quality sensors

Runal Shrivastava

M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (2023)
Research Topic: Acoustic-based leak detection in water distribution systems

Sara Davila

M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (2022) (with Prof. Passalacqua)
Research Topic: Modeling river floodplain connectivity in the Lower Rio Grande, Texas
The Rio Grande is a border between two countries and as such is heavily controlled for proper control of flood alleviation, water distribution, and to maintain the geographical border between Mexico and the United States. We use hydrodynamic modeling techniques to understand how the Lower Rio Grande floodplain interacted with the channel before and after the dams were constructed.

Lu Xing

Postdoctoral Fellow (2021)
Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin (2021)
Research Topics: Integrating Data Mining and Transient Modeling for Anomaly Detection and Condition Assessment in Water Distribution Systems
My research interest is to leverage numerical modeling, algorithm development, remote sensing, IoT, and artificial intelligence to (1) develop physics-based and data-driven models to achieve high-performance modeling of water infrastructure systems and enhance the coordination between interdependent urban infrastructure systems; (2) improve the operation, control, and management of water infrastructure systems; and (3) promote the integration of technical and social components in the development of smart cities.
Personal Website: https://glorialulu.github.io
GitHub: https://github.com/glorialulu
Selected joint publications:
L. Xing, T. Raviv, L. Sela. “Sensor placement for robust burst identification in water systems: Balancing modeling accuracy, parsimony, and uncertainties.” Advanced Engineering Informatics, 51, 2022.
L. Xing and L. Sela. “Transient simulations in water distribution networks: TNSet Python package.” Advances in Engineering Software, 149, 2020.
L. Xing and L. Sela. “Unsteady pressure patterns discovery from high-frequency sensing in water distribution systems.Water Research, 158, 291-300, 2019.

Ahmed Abokifa

Postdoctoral Fellow (2019)
Research Topics: Water quality modeling; Fate and transport; Water chemistry
Selected joint publications:
A. A. Abokifa, L. Katz, and L. Sela “Spatiotemporal trends of recovery from lead contamination in Flint, MI as revealed by crowdsourced water sampling.” Water Research, 171(15), 2020.
A. Abokifa, L. Xing, and L. Sela. “Investigating the impacts of water conservation on water quality in distribution networks using an advection-dispersion transport model.Water, 12(4), pp. 1-18, April 2020.
A. Abokifa, P. Biswasb, B. R. Hodges, and L. Sela. “WUDESIM: a toolkit for simulating water quality in the dead-end branches of drinking water distribution networks.” Urban Water Journal, 17(1), pp. 54-64, January 2020.
A. A. Abokifa and L. Sela “Identification of Spatial Patterns in Water Distribution Pipe Failure Data Using Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis.Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 145 (12), 2019.

Talha Rifaai

M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (2020)
Research Topic: Pipe failure prediction
M.Sc. Industrial Engineering from Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs , Morocco
Selected joint publications:
T. M. Rifaai, A.A. Abokifa, and L. Sela. “Integrated approach for pipe failure prediction and condition scoring in water infrastructure systems.” Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 220, 2021.

Justin Durant

M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (2020)
Topic: Water-Energy intensity benchmarking and event detection in UT buildings
B.S. Biology from University of South Carolina

Janice Zhuang


M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (2018)
Project: Integrated water systems
B.Sc., The University of Virginia (2014)
Selected joint publications:
J. Zhuang and L. Sela “Impact of emerging water savings scenarios on performance of urban water networks.” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 146(1), 2020.

Michael Link

M.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (Fall 2017)
Project: Water demand prediction for campus buildings
B.Sc., Oregon State University (2016)

Undergraduate students

Camila Correa

camila

B.Sc. The University of Texas at Austin (expected 2017)
Project: Gaussian processes for modeling water quality