Assoc.
Prof. Andrea N. Ofori-boadu
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University,
USA
Dr. Andrea Nana Ofori-Boadu is an
Associate Professor of Construction Science and Management
with the Department of Built Environment within the College
of Science and Technology at North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University (NC A & T). Prior to NC A & T,
Andrea served in various practitioner roles on residential,
commercial, and highway construction projects in Ghana and
the U.S. Her passion is to utilize her talents to advance
sustainability in construction materials, processes, and
workforce development.
Andrea has taught, mentored, and served as a role model to
over 1500 undergraduate and graduate students. She has
received almost $2M from funding agencies to include the
National Science Foundation (NSF). Her NC A & T Center of
Excellence for Product Design and Advanced Manufacturing
(CEPDAM) funding allowed her to conduct feasibility studies
on bio-char modified cement pastes. In 2019, she received
her prestigious NSF CAREER grant to construct substantive
theories that explain professional identity development
processes in undergraduate architecture, engineering, and
construction (AEC) women in the United States. In 2020, Dr.
Ofori-Boadu received an NSF-RAPID grant to construct
substantive theories that explain undergraduate STEM student
decision-making processes during pandemics. Her research
findings have resulted in a patent (U.S. Patent No.
11,104,611; August 31, 2021), 168 citations, 40
peer-reviewed publications, 90 presentations, 92 poster
presentations, and website references such as on the
International Bio-char Initiative website. She has also
served as a peer reviewer for the National Science
Foundation (NSF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, American
Society for Engineering Education, and International Journal
of Building Pathology and Adaptation.
In 2021, Dr. Ofori-Boadu was chosen by CEPDAM to showcase
her research work in a promotional video series named “Women
in Design and Manufacturing”. Andrea has received several
teaching, mentoring, and research excellence awards to
include the 2021 Outstanding College of Science and
Technology Faculty STEMinist Mentoring Award, the 2020
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Outstanding
Educator Award, the 2020 NC A & T Junior Faculty Teaching
Excellence Award, and the 2019 NC A & T Outstanding Young
Investigator Research Excellence Award.
Dr. Ofori-Boadu is currently the Director for the Emerging
Built Environment Women Center, the year-round Professional
Development Program for undergraduate Architecture,
Engineering, and Construction women, and the STEAM
ACTIVATED! Program for middle-school girls at NC A & T.
Andrea is married to Victor Ofori-Boadu and they are blessed
with three wonderful children.
Title:
Advancing Agricultural Waste Bio-chars for Sustainable
Partial Cement Replacement Applications
Abstract:
Portland cement production for cement-based materials such
as concrete presents serious challenges due to its high
energy consumption and environmental pollution.
Consequently, waste materials are being considered for
partial cement replacement. Furthermore, agricultural
communities are increasingly more interested in waste
management options that reduce negative impacts on humans
and environments. Therefore, advancing the utilization of
agricultural waste bio-chars for more sustainable partial
cement replacement applications is promising. It is
important to conduct rigorous experimental research to
increase understanding of relationships existing between the
physiochemical properties of bio-chars and the early-age
characteristics of biochar modified cement pastes. Varied
material sourcing, processing, and characterization methods
are essential in understanding the effects of bio-chars on
the microstructure and early-age characteristics of cement
pastes. Findings indicate that carbon/silicon ratio,
oxygen/carbon ratio, alkali and alkaline metal content,
chlorine content, carboxylic and alkyne surface functional
groups, hydrophobic content, and surface areas of bio-chars
may be used to estimate bio-char suitability for cement
replacement. Highly reactive bio-chars demonstrate potential
for accelerator applications which will reduce overall
construction time and related costs. Bio-chars with
significant hydrophobic groups demonstrate potential for
permeability reduction applications which will improve
durability. Highly porous bio-chars demonstrate potential
for flow reduction applications. However, further research
is needed to minimize negative impacts on compression
strength and gain insights into more advanced applications
such as three-dimensional concrete printing, shotcreting,
and self-healing. Empirical findings advance research and
practice towards optimum utilization of biomass in
cement-based materials. Reductions in Portland cement
production and agricultural waste deterioration will slow
down the progression of negative environmental and human
health impacts. Also, agricultural, manufacturing, and
construction employment opportunities will improve quality
of life.
Senior Lecturer Rashid Maqbool
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
Dr. Rashid Maqbool is a Senior Lecturer
and Deputy Programme Leader for B.Sc. and M.Sc. Programmes
in Construction Project Management at the Department of
Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Northumbria
University, United Kingdom. He is also holding a Campus
Coordinator Role for the Northumbria University, London
Campus. Prior to joining Northumbria University, he worked
as a Postdoctoral Fellow in two prestigious universities of
the world—one in the Tsinghua University, China and the
second in the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(NTNU), Norway. He started his academic career as a Research
Associate from the COMSATS University Islamabad and as a
visiting Professor from the Pontificia Universidad Católica
del Perú (PUCP), Lima, Peru., where he taught multiple
courses on Construction and Project Management. He has also
collaborated actively with researchers in several national
and international funded projects.
Dr. Maqbool earned his PhD in Engineering and Project
Management from the Beijing Jiaotong University in 2018,
where he received four prestigious academic awards for his
research contributions. His research interests and
publications focus on Construction Project Management,
Sustainable Built Environment, Renewable Energy Projects,
and Sustainable Urban Development. Dr. Maqbool has written
over forty research papers, which have been published in top
ranked Journals in Construction Project Management and
Sustainable Development, such as Journal of Civil
Engineering and Management, Project Management Journal,
Science of the Total Environment, Journal of Cleaner
Production, Advances in Civil Engineering, Energy,
Sustainable Development, Energy Sustainability & Society,
Energy & Environment, Sustainability, and International
Journal of Project Organization & Management, etc. He is
also an active reviewer and board member for many top
Journals on Construction Project Management and Sustainable
Development.
He also has over ten years of hands-on working experience in
managing construction and industrial projects. Dr. Maqbool
has received several awards, including “2018 Exchange
Postdoctoral Fellowship under The Top 100 Young Researchers
of the World” at the Tsinghua University, China, “2017
Outstanding International Student—Excellent Doctoral
Student” and three “High-Level CITIC Paper” awards from the
Beijing Jiaotong University, China.
Assoc.
Prof. Masa Noguchi
University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Masa Noguchi is an Associate Professor
in Environmental Design at the Faculty of Architecture,
Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, specialising
in “Environmental Experience Design,” or EXD,
decision-making analysis based on a mass customisation
framework that embraces machine learning and value
engineering techniques for improvement of operational energy
efficiency, affordability, and occupants' wellbeing in the
built environment. In parallel to EXD studies, he also
initiated global movement on zero energy mass custom home,
or ZEMCH, and vertical village subdivision plug-in housing
system research and development for future-proof city
evolution. Dr Noguchi is a Chartered Engineer,
Environmentalist, and Technological Product Designer
registered respectively with the Engineering Council,
Society for the Environment, and the Institution of
Engineering Designers in the UK. In 2002, he also became a
member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and
today, he serves as a Certified Passive House Designer
registered with the Passive House Institute in Germany. Dr
Noguchi is the founding coordinator of ZEMCH Network which
consists of over 871 partners from over 40 countries today
and developed a series of industry-academia knowledge
transfer events. ZEMCH international conferences, ZEMCH
sustainable design workshops and ZEMCH technical missions
are amongst the projects being organised by ZEMCH Network
today in partnership with the regional expert centres based
currently in Australia, Brazil, India, Italy, Korea, UAE and
UK. ZEMCH Network is also aiming to expand the reginal group
in Mexican context. At the Melbourne School of Design, he
spearheads Zero Energy Mass Custom Home or ZEMCH related
courses. Before coming to Melbourne, he was a Reader at the
Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of
Art, where he established a ZEMCH pathway within the Master
of Architectural Studies program. Dr Noguchi leads ZEMCH
engineering design research for the delivery of socially,
economically, environmentally, and humanly sustainable built
environments in global contexts. Inventing a "mass custom
design" system approach to quality affordable housing, he
developed a digitalised interactive mass custom design
communication tool, which was demonstrated in the US
Department of Energy Solar Decathlon's Canadian house 2005.
In 2006, he designed Canada’s first near net zero energy
modular home “EcoTerra house” - built and commercialised
through the federal government’s EQuilibrium sustainable
housing initiative/competition in 2007. Moreover, Dr Noguchi
turned his “mass custom design” system into reality through
the “Donside Urban Village” development in Aberdeen,
Scotland, as well as some low-cost housing developments in
Mexico. He also contributed to a low-cost prefabricated mass
housing projects in Brazil. Serving as the editorial board
member of numerous journals, Dr Noguchi is frequently
invited to deliver keynote lectures on ZEMCH R&D projects at
national and international conferences stressing the need
for Environmental Experience Design methodological research
and practice in built environments for the energy efficiency
and affordability as well as the occupants' physical and
mental health and wellbeing.
Title: ZEMCH Sustainable Design Essentials
Abstract: COVID-19 outbreak has made us
revalue how important human experience and relationship in
tangible and intangible environments are to retain or
enhance our physical and mental health and wellbeing. The
environmental quality of physical (or digital) spaces
occupied by humans depends on personal judgments made
through the spatial experiences that reflect their
individual needs, desires, and expectations. Such spatial or
environmental experiences influential in human activities
and outcomes (e.g., health, well-being, and productivity)
should be researched much further to sustain or perhaps
improve the soundness of our society and economy under any
circumstances of peoples’ lives (e.g., under poverty,
pandemics and/or various natural disasters), to which
humanitarian design and engineering research and practice
can contribute. COVID-19 had also been slowing down human
economic activities to date that unexpectedly helped reduce
CO2 emissions leading to global warming or overall negative
impacts on climate change. According to the International
Energy Agency (IEA), buildings account for 40% of global
operational energy use. Built environments need to be
designed and developed in a way that helps reduce or
eliminate energy consumption and CO2 emissions doomed to
yield negative impacts on climate change. Collectively,
homes and communities are a system of energy and environment
being occupied by the masses, whose life activities and
circumstances tend to be affected by their mental and
physical health and wellbeing conditions. Designing built
environments are influential in this respect and need to be
mass-customised to accommodate today’s diverse needs and
demands of individuals and societies for humans’ sound
living conditions and activities. Due to growing housing
needs and demands, today’s market budded zero energy mass
custom home (ZEMCH) R&D movement in developed and developing
countries. In parallel to studies around technological
advancement, human-centric ZEMCH design engineering should
be researched much further to ensure the delivery of
socially, economically, environmentally, and humanly
sustainable built environments applicable to privileged and
unprivileged families, communities, and nations that are
sharing our common future. This presentation aims to
introduce the ZEMCH sustainable design essentials in the
hope of establishing a base for further ZEMCH R&D activities
in Asian contexts.
