Speakers

LECTURE TITLE: "Seismic safety of reinforced concrete buildings: Lessons from recent earthquakes, standards, and case studies."

Humberto Varum is currently full professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), Portugal. Previously, he was associate professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Aveiro, Portugal, where he had taught from 1997 to 2014. Since October 2010, he is Honorary Lecturer at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College of London (UCL), London, United Kingdom. In 2012, he was professor of the Master in “Evaluation Control and Reduction of Environmental Seismic Risk”, at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy. Since July 2016, he is Visiting Professor at the College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fujian, China.

He is director of the PhD program in Civil Engineering at FEUP. He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Aveiro. Previously, he concluded a master's degree in Structures of Civil Engineering and a degree in Civil Engineering both from the University of Porto, Portugal. He was a grant-holder and temporary agent at the ELSA laboratory, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Italy, for three years, where he developed research on earthquake assessment and rehabilitation of existing structures. He has working experience both in research and in industry, having worked at an international level in structural design and retrofit. He has been Seconded National Expert to the European Commission in the period July 2009 to August 2010, at the Joint Research Centre. He is Integrated Member and Vice-Coordinator of CONSTRUCT research unit: Institute of R&D in Structures and Construction. Since May 2015, he his member of the directorate body of the Construction Institute of the University of Porto, and President since May 2019.

He is Member of the National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), since 2009, and Expert Member of the ICOMOS’s International Scientific Committee of Earthen Architectural Heritage (ISCEAH). He is Member of the PROTERRA Iberian-American Network, since 2012. Member of the Project Team 2 for the development of the 2 nd generation of EN Eurocodes (SC8.T2 - material dependent sections of EN 1998-1). Member of the Technical Committee TC 274-TCE ”Testing and characterization of earth-based building materials and elements” (RILEM). Member of the Seismic; action group of fib's TG10.1, for the development of the Model Code 2020. Member of the IABSE Working Group 7 ‘Earthquake Resistant Structures’ (Task Group 1.1). He is national delegate of the CICOP Net Confederation, since 2012. He is Member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering, since 2018. Since June 2019, he is External Researcher of Grupo de Gestión de Riesgos de Desastres en Infraestructura Social y Vivienda de Bajo Costo (GERDIS), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), Lima, Peru. He is Member of the International Scientific Board (ISB) of AdMaS (Advanced Materials, Structures and Technologies) Centre, of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic, since 2013.

He has participated to post-earthquake field reconnaissance missions, in particular to L’Aquila (Italy, 2009), Lorca (Spain, 2011), Emilia-Romagna (Italy, 2012), Gorkha (Nepal, 2015) and Puebla (Mexico, 2017). His research experience combines large-scale earthquake testing and non-linear analytical modelling of structural systems. In his teaching he has specialised in the structural behaviour, dynamic of structures, strength of materials and conservation of structures. His main research interests include: assessment, strengthening and repair of structures; structural health monitoring; structural testing and modelling; earthquake engineering; earth construction rehabilitation and seismic strengthening. He has coordinated and participated in several national and international research projects. He has supervised Master and PhD studies in the field of structural characterization and seismic retrofitting of structures. He has co-authored over 500 publications in international peer reviewed scientific journals, books and conference proceedings, in the fields of earthquake engineering, assessment and strengthening of structures, and earth construction retrofitting. He speaks fluently Portuguese (mother tongue), Spanish, English and Italian and has a good command of French.

LECTURE TITLE: "Innovate digital solutions for urban vulnerability assessment and risk mitigation"

Tiago Miguel Ferreira is currently a Lecturer and a Deputy Programme Leader for the MSc in Civil Engineering at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), UK, and an Invited Associate Professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Before joining UWE Bristol, he was a researcher at the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE) at the University of Minho, Portugal, where he was also part of the teaching team for the Advanced Masters in Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions. His academic focus revolves around the study of the structural vulnerability of historical buildings and urban areas in the face of natural and anthropogenic hazards, including earthquakes, fires, floods, and landslides. More recently, his focus has expanded to explore the interactions between these hazards and their impact on both physical and social vulnerability, encompassing both single and compound, as well as cascading hazards. Recognised as one of the top 2% more influential scientists globally by Elsevier BV and Stanford University in 2021, 2022 and 2023, his academic contributions extend to 200+ publications, including 80+ articles in leading international journals. Over the past decade, he has actively participated in 13 R&D projects, securing a total funding of £10.9+ million, and supervised and co-supervised dozens of MSc students and PhD students in various countries. 

LECTURE TITLE: " Insights into Enhancing Durability in Cement-Based Composites from Residues".

Laís Costa is a Civil Engineer with a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Federal Ouro Preto (UFOP - Brazil). Her PhD research has highlighted the potential application of steel slag as a resource in producing more durable and economical concrete. Nowadays, as a professor at the Federal University of Ceará, she focuses her research on the valorization of residues by applying the principles of the circular economy, resulting in several publications on residue reuse, social technologies, technology transfer, and eco-efficient materials. She also studies the development of new cement-based materials with an emphasis on durability. She actively participated in 6 R&D projects related to cement-based materials and reutilization of industrial residues. Her experience includes a period as a researcher at the Structural Durability Laboratory at Hanyang University, South Korea, enriching her global perspective.

LECTURE TITLE: "Environmental issues and urban infrastructure: advanced tools to assess the degradation"

Civil Engineer from UFC (1991). MSc. (1994) and Ph.D. (1997) in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a Full Professor at UFC, Director of Innovation at FUNCAP since 2015, was previously Postgraduate Coordinator and Head of the Department of Transport Engineering, and also Director of Research at the UFC Technology Center. He coordinates the Pavement Mechanics Laboratory and the National Institute of Science and Technology in Characterization of Materials for Infrastructure (INCT-Infra). He is Director of the International Society for Asphalt Pavements, has been a member of the IBP/ABNT Asphalt Commission since 2003, is Associate Editor of ANPET's Transportes Magazine, member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Road Materials and Pavement Design, and reviewer of the main international magazines of the paving area. He has received several awards, including 4 times the Petrobras Technology Award, 3 times the CNT, ABPv, IBP, Mário Kabalen Reston. He has trained more than 40 postgraduate students (master's and doctorate), supervised 8 postdoctoral students, and has more than 300 publications in the main national and international technical/scientific journals and conferences in the area of paving.

LECTURE TITLE:  “Cement-based materials stand for digital and industrial Construction”

Ana Mafalda Matos is a Civil Engineer, with an MSc in Materials and a Ph.D. in Structures, both from the University of Porto (Portugal). She is a Researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering at FEUP and an Integrated Member of The Institute of R&D in Structures and Construction. She teaches Construction Materials and Capstone Project courses for the Bachelor in Civil Engineering. Her research interests include developing and characterising new cementitious materials (eco-efficient concretes, and high and ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced cementitious composites, digital concrete), experimental factorial design, modelling of material behaviour, non-destructive testing and concrete durability. She got 4 awards or distinctions related to her research fields. She is supervisor of 2 doctoral theses, the author of 30 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and more than 20 papers in conferences.

She actively participated in 4 R&D projects related to cement-based materials. Currently, she is the Principal researcher of the project “NEXT GENERATION OF DIGITAL “CONCRETE”: Performance Mix Design and Assessment of Sustainable and circular cementitious composites” in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is a RILEM TC Member of committees: PFC – Performance requirements and testing of fresh printable cement-based materials; DCS – Data-driven concrete science; UMW: Upcycling powder mineral “wastes” into cement matrices, Co-funder of GPBE-YMG (fib young members mirror group in Portugal), and member of Organizing Committee of “Betao Estrutural 2024

LECTURE TITLE: "From the Design to the Sustainability Analysis of a 3D Printed Concrete 12-m Footbridge Prototype in Madrid (Spain)"

Dr. Albert De la Fuente Antequera (Girona, 1982) received a degree in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in 2007. He obtained his PhD title in 2011 from the Civil and Environmental Department of UPC. Albert is an Associate Professor at the UPC in the area of Construction Engineering at UPC, he being coordinator of advanced construction materials and structural concrete design subjects. His research area is Civil and Structural Engineering, focusing mainly on new construction materials and processes, advanced structural design and optimization, and models for sustainability assessment.

Albert has leads averagely 2.0 publicly-funded projects per year and he is intensively collaborating with the top 5 Spanish construction-related companies operating around the world facing relevant and strategic challenges. He leads several industry-oriented research projects related to structural 3D-printing construction, fibre reinforced concrete structures design optimization and new advanced concrete materials. Albert has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in indexed scientific journals and more than 100 contributions in international conferences and active member in several technical international committees. In 2013 he co-founded Smart Engineering (Spin-Off UPC). 

His main research interests are: Design and optimization of fibre reinforced concrete structures, 3D printed concrete for heavy duty structural applications, Sustainability assessment of infrastructures and structural systems, Reliability oriented to optimization of concrete structures.

LECTURE TITLE: "Preserving Our Past, Securing Our Future: Digital Documentation for Cultural Heritage in the context of Climate Change and Natural & Anthropogenic Risks."

Grazia Tucci, PhD in Geodetic and Topographical Sciences, is an architect and Associate Professor of Topography and Cartography at the University of Florence. Within the University, she teaches courses in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), as well as in Architecture. 

At the University of Florence, she founded and leads the Geomatics for Environment and Conservation of Cultural Heritage – GECO Laboratory, where she spearheads activities focused on the documentation, conservation, and enhancement of the environment and cultural heritage through innovative technologies.

Moreover, she acts as the coordinator of Spoke 7, titled "Protection and conservation of Cultural Heritage against climate changes, natural, and anthropic risks," within the Extended Partnership 5 CHANGES initiative - Cultural Heritage Active Innovation for Next-Gen Sustainable Society, funded by the PNRR, representing the University of Florence as the spoke leader.

Since 2022, she is in the board of the National Doctorate in Heritage Science (PhD-HS.it), under the auspices of Sapienza University of Rome, where she oversees Curriculum 1: Advanced materials and methodologies for the safeguarding of cultural heritage, facilitating ecological and digital transitions to mitigate anthropic and natural risks.

She holds the position of Vice President (2024-2027) of the CIPA-HD International Committee and serves as an ICOMOS ITALY Council Member (2023-2025). She co-Chairs Working Group 11, “WG IV/11: Cultural Heritage Visualization and Virtual Restoration” (Technical Commission 4), within ISPRS (International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing). She is also the founder and Chair of the GEORES International Conference.

She actively participates in scientific committees and serves on the editorial boards of various series and journals. She also contributes as a reviewer for both Italian and International Journals boasting authorship of over 250 academic publications.