Dr. Sofía Pérez-Guzmán serves as an Assistant Professor within the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also holds a courtesy appointment at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. Prior to this, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment.

Dr. Pérez-Guzmán's primary interest lies in addressing wicked problems within supply chain and transportation domains. These challenges often encompass disruptions, human behavior, multiple stakeholders, and equity and sustainability objectives. Her ongoing research focuses on disaster response logistics, food systems logistics, and urban freight transportation, with an overarching aim of enhancing the social performance of supply chains. Her research methodologies include optimization, simulation, data analytics, econometrics, empirical approaches, as well as behavioral and economic theories.

Education

• Ph.D. Transportation Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2022
• M.S. Economics Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2022
• M.S. Transportation Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2020
• B.S. Industrial Engineering Universidad del Valle (Colombia) 2017
   

Distinctions & Awards

•    Trailblazer in Engineering Fellow from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 2022.
•    Civil and Environmental Engineering Rising Star from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, 2021.
•    Second place at the National Institute of Justice Challenge of the US Department of Justice, category Year 3, Female Parolees, Small Groups, 2021.
•    First place at the Supply Chain Data Analytics Competition hosted by the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago, 2021.
•    NY State Legacy Leadership Award from the Women’s Transportation Seminar, 2018.
•    Prest & Gio scholarship from Procter & Gamble. Bogota, Colombia, 2015.

Saeed is an assistant professor at the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Before joining Georgia Tech, he was postdoctoral associate at MIT working with Professor Mohammad Alizadeh. Saeed received his Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Tech, where he was advised by Professors Mostafa Ammar and Ellen Zegura. His Ph.D. was partially supported by the Google Ph.D. Fellowship in Systems and Networking. He received his bachelor's degree from Alexandria University in 2010. His research interests broadly cover the theory, design, and implementation of scalable computer networks and systems, including resource scheduling, congestion control, wireless networks, and cyber-physical systems.

Dr. Boukouvala is originally from Piraeus, which is the port of Athens in Greece. As the daughter of an airforce pilot, she travelled a lot with her family. Her first international move was actually to the USA, where she spent one year in Montgomery, Alabama. She later on lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Crete, Greece, before returning to Athens to get her B.S Degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University in Athens. In 2008, she moved back to the US to obtain a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Rutgers University in NJ. She then worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in both Princeton University and Texas A&M University. In August 2016, Dr. Boukouvala returned to the South East US, as an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. 

Her research interest in Process Systems Engineering (PSE) started during her PhD years, where she worked under the supervision of Dr. Marianthi Ierapetritou, on modeling and optimization of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing. Her background on optimization and data-driven modeling was enhanced during her years as a postdoc with the late Christodoulos A. Floudas. Dr. Boukouvala is a proud 4th generation member of the academic family tree of the father of PSE, Roger Sargent.

Dr. Bert Bras has been a Professor at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology since September 1992. From 2001 to 2004, he served as the Director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Sustainable Technology and Development. 

In 2014, he was named a Brook Byers Professor of Sustainability. He was named the Associate Chair for Administration for the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech in 2016 and briefly served as Interim School Chair in 2018. 

Dr. Bras’ 25-year career as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology equips him with considerable expertise in sustainable design and manufacturing that has taken him through many areas of industry, from automotive to alternative energy.

He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Twente (Netherlands) and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University of Houston. Prior to completing his Ph.D., he worked at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN).

Chen has an extensive research interests in environmental science and engineering. More specifically, he is a leading researcher in the environmental applications of nanomaterials and their potential fate, transport, transformation, bioaccumulation and toxicity in the environment. His interests in environmental nanomaterials dated back in his graduate research in 1992. He has also been active on algae based bio-renewable energy and sustainable urban development. Chen has been principle and co-principal investigators for 28 research projects (by June 2010) funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, Boeing and other organizations. The total funds are $7 million. He has also served as a review member or panel review member in the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy evaluation committee. He has also been invited to serve as an abroad review expert for the China Changjiang Scholars Program (which is to awarded to the top researchers in China). He has published more than 40 papers and two book chapters in this field.

Chen received his Ph.D in Nankai University, China. He joined the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in May 2009.

Allannah is a Ph.D. candidate in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Allannah’s research focuses on waste heat recovery and water conservation. She is currently developing a system for seasonal thermal energy storage using absorption with upgraded heat delivery for residential and industrial end uses. The system aims to offset the imbalance that exists between energy supply and demand. She is also developing techniques to reuse and reduce energy and water consumption in the highly energy-intensive Aluminum casting industry. Allannah has worked as a summer research intern for the Electricity Supply Board in Ireland to design a district heating system for citizens in fuel poverty.

Allannah earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland in 2022 where she graduated first in her class.

Advisor: Srinivas Garimella

Fanijo’s research centres around sustainable and smart-resilient buildings/civil infrastructure with a particular interest in decarbonizing infrastructure using novel low-carbon construction materials and alternative energy sources. Buildings contribute to more than one-third (39%) of the global energy-related CO2 emissions and 35% of global energy consumption, mainly from manufacturing, building materials and transportation. As such, advanced research on developing innovative construction materials is urgently required to address the carbon emissions from materials and construction processes of buildings' life cycle. His research approach includes examining the fresh properties and rheology, early-age cracking, microstructure evaluation, mechanical and durability performance, and life cycle assessment of building systems (particularly cementitious composites) made with these sustainable construction materials. 

He has also conducted research across different disciplines, including cementitious and concrete composites; corrosion monitoring and mitigation; concrete durability; green concrete technology using recycled and by-product materials; 3D printing of cementitious materials; highway pavement; geopolymers; fibre-reinforced concrete; advanced sensing technologies and automation; and non-destructive structural monitoring and evaluation. 

Fanijo received his B.S. in Building Construction with first-class honours from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. In 2019, He earned an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Idaho. Subsequently, he got his PhD in Civil Engineering (with a simultaneous Master’s degree – MEng in Material Science and Engineering) from Virginia Tech in 2022. He has worked on numerous funded research projects and published in various peer-reviewed journals and proceedings. Fanijo has also received numerous national and international awards for his excellence in research, with his recent NSBE Golden Torch Award recognized as the graduate student of the year 2022. 

At Georgia Tech, he is passionate about teaching construction materials and methods and their critical role in the design and construction of buildings. Fanijo developed and currently teaching the Construction Materials and Methods Course so that Building Construction students can have in-depth knowledge of building materials and systems, their properties, and their intrinsic relationship to structural systems and environmental performance. He also develops and teaches courses on Green Construction Technology, Concrete Durability and Sustainable Construction Materials and Techniques. 

Fanijo is a Professional Engineer (P.E.) and LEED Green Associate with more than five years of working experience in the construction sector.

Ching-Hua Huang, Ph.D., is the Turnipseed Family Chair and Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Huang received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Huang’s expertise includes environmental chemistry, advanced water/wastewater treatment technology, contaminants of emerging concern, sustainable water reuse, waste remediation and resource recovery. Huang has supervised many research projects sponsored by various agencies, and has published more than 170 peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters and conference proceeding papers. She is the Associate Editor of the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science & Technology Water and the Editorial Advisory Board member of Environmental Science & Technology.