I4SC team

Abdelhak Kaci is a Full Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Sustainable Construction. Mmember of the Laboratory of Mechanics and Materials in Civil Engineering (L2MGC) at CY Cergy Paris University since 2009. He delivers a broad range of courses and has held several academic and leadership roles, and is currently co-head of the Rheology research group. His research focuses on the challenges of environmental and digital transitions in sustainable construction, contributing to technological innovation through the development of eco-materials such as bio-based and geo-sourced materials, alternative aggregates, and low-carbon binders, as well as advanced construction techniques including 3D printing. He also explores innovative approaches to quality control through computer vision and artificial intelligence. An active member of RILEM, he regularly serves as an expert for national and international organizations and scientific journals. 

Saranya Kethees graduated from the Lycée International de l’Est Parisien, where she obtained an International Baccalaureate in the American section with highest honors. She is currently pursuing a dual degree in Civil Engineering and Architecture at CY Tech and ENSA Versailles. Alongside her academic path, she has been actively engaged in European and international collaboration initiatives. She joined the EUTOPIA European University Alliance as a student representative for CY Cergy Paris Université within its Student Council. In this role, she represented the student body while contributing to the development of cross-university dynamics, notably by fostering collaborations between student associations across the alliance and participating in the co-creation of bi-national academic programs. She is currently involved in the I4SC team as a team leader, coordinating an international group of students from Dresden, NOVA, and CY. Within this framework, she leads a project competing in the French national competition Génies de la Construction, reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary approaches at the intersection of engineering, architecture, and sustainability.

Paulina Faria (PF) holds a PhD in Civil Engineering and is an Associate Professor at NOVA. PF has decades of experience in analysing structural pathology associated with buildings and in developing mitigation measures and solutions; in the structural characterisation of buildings and their components; in the development and characterisation of traditional and innovative construction materials and products with low embodied energy; and, in particular, in the passive contribution these can make to the indoor environmental quality of buildings and the built environment. PF, with an h-index of 33 in Scopus, has coordinated and collaborated on various international and Portuguese-funded projects, notably on construction materials, products and low-energy consumption technologies. PF is an Advisory Member of OE, of the Development Advisory Committee of RILEM, of the board of ICOMOS Portugal and of the Board of the Scientific Committee of ISCEAH at ICOMOS.

Guilherme Coelho (GC) is an Assistant Professor at NOVA since April 2024 and is a researcher at CERIS. He specialises in building physics, focusing on the study of the effects of climate - both current and future conditions - to develop climate adaptation measures for buildings and façades, taking into account their carbon footprint and their effect on indoor environmental quality through monitoring campaigns and computer simulation. GC completed his PhD in Civil Engineering in February 2021 at NOVA University Lisbon, where he studied the hygrothermal behaviour of historic (massive and listed) buildings in Portugal through a complex monitoring campaign and simulation studies. Since then, and until August 2022, GC taught at the Faculty of Engineering of the Lusófona University, acting as Principal Investigator (PI) for the BuildingAdapt project, which aimed to identify ways to mitigate the effects of climate change on university buildings. From September 2022 to December 2024, he worked at OsloMet, Norway, as principal investigator on STATICUSCARE, a €1.7 million project aimed at developing a hybrid façade with a lower carbon footprint, integrated into the building’s control systems to carry out preventive maintenance, using digital twins and IoT sensors. GC has participated in national and international projects funded by Norway and EEA grants, FCT, ANI, WMF Portugal and COFAC. He is the author or co-author of 26 indexed publications and has an h-index of 12.

Shravan Muthukrishnan holds the Chair of Digital Fabrication Technologies in Concrete Construction and leads the 3D Concrete Printing research group at TU Dresden, Germany. He earned his Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and completed his PhD in 3D Concrete Printing (3DCP) in Melbourne, Australia, where he was awarded the prestigious Ian Wallace Research Medal for the best graduating doctoral student across all faculties.

Over the past decade, his research has focused on advancing digital fabrication technologies in construction through extensive academic and industry collaborations, resulting in numerous high-impact publications. He is an active member of the RILEM Technical Committee TC 304-ADC, where he led the analysis of interlaboratory data on the mechanical properties of hardened concrete, involving over 30 research institutes worldwide. This work contributed to the development of RILEM recommendations and supported collaborations with standardization bodies such as ASTM, ACI, and ISO. Beyond his academic pursuits, Shravan enjoys traveling, exploring new cultures, and playing cricket and badminton. His international career has taken him to over 25 countries across five continents.