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Manuela received her PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Nottingham in 2023. Her research focuses on concrete-filled steel tubular structures and blind bolted connections, integrating experiments with finite element analysis and machine learning to predict structural connection responses. Manuela's work has been supported by the prestigious Faculty of Engineering Excellence Scholarship in 2019. In 2022, she joined the EPSRC-funded RESIST project at the University of Birmingham, where she investigated the resistance of progressive collapse in steel structures that incorporate hybrid carbon-stainless steel components. In September 2025, she was appointed as a Glasgow Engineering Futures Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. Her current research project, called FUture Steel connections Integrating Machine Learning Optimisation and 3D-printed Stainless Steel (FUSION), explores innovative methods to optimize structural steel connections using additive manufacturing and artificial intelligence. Her research interests encompass steel and aluminium structures, additive manufacturing of metals for construction, fracture modeling, finite element analysis, and metamodeling techniques.
University of Glasgow • Glasgow
Glasgow Engineering Futures Research Fellow focusing on innovative methods in steel connection optimization.