Ana Mafalda Matos is the Principal Research of DigiCrete. She is a Civil Engineer (MSc-Materials, PhD-Structures), a post-doctoral researcher, Guest Assistant Professor at FEUP and an integrated member of CONSTRUCT. Her research fields are developing and characterising carbon efficient and advanced cementitious materials (self-compacting concrete, high- and ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced cementitious composites, digital concrete), non-conventional supplementary cementitious materials and wastes valorisation, experimental factorial design, modelling of material behaviour and non-destructive testing.
Mário Pimentel is an Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering Department of FEUP, Pro-Rector of the University of Porto and Integrated Member of CONSTRUCT. His research interests focus on Structural Concrete, Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis, Constitutive modelling of cement based materials, ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced cement-based composites (UHPFRC) – including characterisation of material behaviour, modelling and structural applications – , and structural health monitoring.
Paula Milheiro-Oliveira is an Associate Professor at the Civil Engineering Department of FEUP. She is an integrated member of the Center of Mathematics of the UPorto. Her work and training is strongly interdisciplinary and she specialises in stochastic systems and their application in engineering problems, including statistical modelling of the real world, simulation and forecasting. She has more than 15 years of experience in using the design of experiments approach to investigate the effect of design variables and their coupled effects on the relevant construction materials properties.
Randolph Kirchain is a Principal Research Scientist and the Director of Concrete Sustainability Hub at MIT. Dr Kirchain studies the economic and environmental implications of engineering and system design decisions, particularly in materials production and recovery systems. He specializes in product and firm environmental footprinting, manufacturing and life-cycle cost analysis and characterization of sustainable material systems of cementitious materials at different scales. He has applied these methods to a range of products and industries, including pavements, buildings, and waste treatment and recovery. Dr. Kirchain is the director of MIT Materials Systems Lab and has been leading and actively involving in multiple committees dedicated to materials sustainability.
Hessam Azarijafari is a Research Scientist and Deputy Director of the Concrete Sustainability Hib at MIT. His background is in concrete technology and industrial ecology. As a principal investigator and researcher, he has been leading different projects on the life cycle sustainability of concrete infrastructure systems. He has worked on the performance of concrete with high-volume pozzolans and contributed to multiple global-scale projects on natural carbon sequestration of cementitious materials. Hessam is a voting and advisory member of several technical committees on sustainable construction and environmental assessment, such as ISO 14082 Radiative Forcing Management, ACI 130- Concrete Sustainability, and EC3: Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator. Hessam has been serving as the chair of the ACI eco-concrete competition to promote and educate life cycle sustainability to undergraduate students in civil engineering.
Renny Varghese is a Civil Engineer (MsC in Structural Engineering) and Research Assistant in the scope of DigiCrete. She worked as Assistant professor in the Bachelor Diploma in Civil Engineering in three reputed Universities in India before moving to Portugal.
Mariana Fonseca is Civil Engineer with a MSc in Urban Construction of Civil Engineering. She is currently PhD Student of Doctoral Program in Civil Engineering at FEUP. She awarded an individual PhD scholarship funded by FCT and her research project is “Performance-based design of printable cement-based materials: enhancing mixtures robustness and eco-efficiency”. Her research fields are construction materials, waste valorisation, Construction and Demolition Waste, digitisation and 3D printing technology and Circular Economy.
Paula Silva is Senior Technician in the Civil Engineering Department a FEUP. She has degree in Civil Engineering and Master’s degree in Sustainable Construction and Rehabilitation. Her Main research interests are supporting teaching and R&D projects, mechanical characterization and durability tests on cementitious materials and high-performance concrete, instrumentation and monitoring of reinforced concrete models.
Cláudio Ferraz is a laboratory technician in the Structural Laboratory of FEUP. With a passion for solving problems and a sharp, critical mind, Cláudio tackles each day with positivity and a hunger for new challenges. From structural monitoring to assisting with PhD studies and site inspections, plays a vital role in various projects. Fueled by a thirst for knowledge, Cláudio Ferraz seeks to learn and grow with every opportunity, striving to deepen his understanding of civil engineering with each passing day.