Sustainable and Resilient Systems Lab

Dr. Ben Rachunok (top row right)

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, North Carolina

Systems / Risk / Resilience Raleigh, NC

We study communities as interconnected systems—and design better ways to prepare for major disruptions, natural hazards, and other shocks.

Our research combines optimization, data science, machine learning, and simulation to quantify risk, predict impacts, and improve adaptation decisions, with particular attention to how extreme events affect vulnerable groups.

Who we are

Interdisciplinary engineers, applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and statisticians working on real-world problems across three domains.

01 / RISK

Quantifying risk

Measuring how hazards propagate through interconnected social and infrastructure systems.

02 / RESILIENCE

Advancing resilience

Developing decision tools for adaptation, preparedness, and recovery.

03 / EQUITY

Building equitable communities

Identifying and reducing unequal access, exposure, and recovery outcomes.

Join the lab

Research funding is presently limited, so we may not always have funded positions available. I am always open to conversations with students whose interests align with the lab. If you would like to discuss a possible fit, contact Dr. Rachunok at barachun@ncsu.edu.

latest posts

Oct 06, 2026	Meta-optimization: three lessons from the Ph.D.
Sep 30, 2026	Oh no, we started a blog

selected publications

Anticipating Household Rescue Demand in Hurricanes Using Socio-Demographic Data and Machine Learning

Patrick Leavitt^*, Fred Livingston, Brandon McConnell, and 1 more author

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2026

DOI Bib

@article{leavitt2026,
  author = {Leavitt, Patrick and Livingston, Fred and McConnell, Brandon and Rachunok, Benjamin},
  title = {Anticipating Household Rescue Demand in Hurricanes Using Socio-Demographic Data and Machine Learning},
  journal = {International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction},
  year = {2026},
  volume = {145},
  pages = {106405},
  doi = {10.1016/j.ijdrr.2026.106405},
  keywords = {peerjournal,selected},
  author+an = {1=student;4=highlight},
}

Population-level measures of perceived food access reveal barriers beyond geographic proximity

Teresa Groton^* and Benjamin Rachunok

Nature Food, 2026

DOI Bib

@article{groton2026,
  title = {Population-level measures of perceived food access reveal barriers beyond geographic proximity},
  author = {Groton, Teresa and Rachunok, Benjamin},
  journal = {Nature Food},
  year = {2026},
  keywords = {review,selected},
  author+an = {1=student;2=highlight},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2609.12132},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
}

Data Leakage Inflates Generalizability of Power Outage Prediction Models

Yamil Essus^*, Ranga Raju Vatsavai, and Benjamin Rachunok

arXiv preprint, 2026

DOI Bib

@article{essus2026leakage,
  title = {Data Leakage Inflates Generalizability of Power Outage Prediction Models},
  author = {Essus, Yamil and Vatsavai, Ranga Raju and Rachunok, Benjamin},
  journal = {arXiv preprint},
  year = {2026},
  keywords = {review,selected},
  author+an = {1=student;3=highlight},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2608.24665},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
}

Electric Vehicles Limit Equitable Access to Essential Services During Blackouts

Yamil Essus^* and Benjamin Rachunok

NPJ Urban Mobility, 2024

DOI Bib

@article{essus2024,
  author = {Essus, Yamil and Rachunok, Benjamin},
  title = {Electric Vehicles Limit Equitable Access to Essential Services During Blackouts},
  year = {2024},
  keywords = {peerjournal,selected},
  journal = {NPJ Urban Mobility},
  author+an = {2=highlight;1=student},
  doi = {10.1038/s44333-024-00007-3},
}

Two for One: Multi-Objective Disaster Recovery Models Improve Public Utility Post Disaster

Robert Smith^*, Brandon McConnell, Russell King, and 1 more author

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2026

Bib

@article{smith2026,
  title = {Two for One: Multi-Objective Disaster Recovery Models Improve Public Utility Post Disaster},
  author = {Smith, Robert and McConnell, Brandon and King, Russell and Rachunok, Benjamin},
  journal = {International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction},
  year = {2026},
  keywords = {review,selected},
  author+an = {1=student;4=highlight},
}