Author: Fernanda Cruz Rios

Nondestructive evaluation meets material reuse! Today we had the first session of our RECLAIM project at Drexel University College of Engineering – Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at Drexel University. RECLAIM stands for Robotic Evaluation for Circular Lifecycle Assessment of Infrastructure Materials. In this project, born from a collaboration between myself and Arvin Ebrahimkhanlou, PhD,…

CIRCLE Lab representing Drexel at AEESP 2025

May 27, 2025

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First time at an AEESP conference and I loved it!Highlights:— I cannot get over how beautiful Duke’s campus is;— The sense of community, support, and solidarity was overwhelming;— The leadership talks were inspiring and got me teary-eyed. Our work matters! And our colleagues inspire us.— There was an excellent session on Climate education for engineering!—…

ENVE 571 students learn from LCA practitioner and industry alumni

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Shannon Belfield , Senior Project Manager at Sustainable Solutions and an alumna of the Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at Drexel University, gave an engaging guest lecture to our ENVE 571 students earlier this week. She shared insights on a Life Cycle Assessment her company did for a circular economy program. Students appreciated learning from…

AE 444 Students use AI-generated images to design the world’s WORST building envelope!

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For the first week of my Architectural Engineering course about Building Envelope Systems, we talked about functions and performance aspects of the building envelope, from technical to environmental and sociocultural design considerations. We had a lot of fun with a 15-min class activity where I asked students to use AI to design the world’s worst…

AE 444 Students visit a LEED Platinum building

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Field trip day!! Had the pleasure to take my Building Envelope Systems students on a field trip to University Place 3.0, the first certified WELL Platinum and LEED Platinum lab building in the US! Thank you Marelisa Gibson, Chloe Bendistis, AIA, LEED AP, and the rest of the team at UPA | University Place Associates…

Dr. Cruz Rios implements innovative double dice game to improve classroom engagement, learning, and creativity!

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I feel energized! Today I tested an innovative teaching strategy I learned at Drexel’s Teaching and Learning Center in my Building Envelope Systems class at Drexel University College of Engineering. Here’s how it works: each team gets a double dice and a dry erase board (to keep score). A double dice has one number inside…

Dr. Cruz Rios and Dr. Carneiro Marques awarded Longsview Fellowship

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Happy to share that Amanda Carneiro Marques, Ph.D. and I were awarded a Longsview Fellowship for our research project in circular water strategies, flood mitigation, and climate resilience! Thankful to Drexel University College of Engineering for the support to get this exciting project started. We needed this bump of confidence lately! And of course especially…

New publication from CIRCLE Lab: Circular economy policies in different countries

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A new paper on circular economy policies in the construction sector is out — glad to have been a part of it! This study looks at how Italy, Germany, the U.S., and Japan integrate circular principles into their policy frameworks—especially in construction and the built environment. Shoutout to Giulia Marzani for leading this work! The…

CIRCLE Lab research featured on Drexel News

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