Dr Seyed Ghaffar - Dr Seyed Ghaffar is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Civil Engineering. He is Chartered Civil Engineer (
CEng, MICE), Member of the Institute of Concrete Technology (
MICT) and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (
FHEA).
He is the
leader of
Additive
Manufacturing
Technology in
Construction research group (
AMTC). The focus of AMTC is on valorising construction and demolition waste using materials science and innovative technologies (i.e.
3D printing) to achieve the circular economy goals of sustainable construction. In line with aims of the AMTC group, Dr Ghaffar, as the
Principal Investigator, has been successful in securing
€220K project funded by the
H2020 EU Commission on ''
Digital fabrication and integration of
Material reuse for environmentally friendly cementitious composite building blocks (
DigiMat)''.
Dr Ghaffar is also the
Principal Investigator of the
£250K project funded by the
British Council (Institutional Links) on '
Direct
Writing
of
Cementitious
Inks to
Scaffolds with Complex Microarchitectures (
DiWoCIS)'.
Dr Ghaffar's research covers a number of construction materials, with a focus on the development of low carbon technologies suitable for new and retrofitting applications. He is the
Principal Investigator of the
£300K project funded from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (
EPSRC) on '
High-
Performance
Compressed
Straw
Board (
HPCSB): A New Generation of Building Materials'.
Dr Ghaffar is the
Associate Editor of the Journal of
Results in Engineering (Elsevier) and the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers -
Structures and Buildings (ICE Publishing).
During his PhD (2012-2016), Dr Ghaffar was simultaneously working as a research associate on several European research projects, i.e.
Grow2Build, VIP4ALL, REWOBIOREF and GELCLAD.
Natural fibre composite production, formulation and characterisation are part of Dr Ghaffar's research expertise. In 2015, he was appointed Manager of Grow2Build European Centre of Excellence (
Grow2Build), which serves as a permanent focal point for local manufacturers, industries and research centres interested in bio-based building products, providing technical support and innovation for utilisation of bio-based products in the construction industry.
Moreover, construction waste management and valorisation (
WasteValue) is another of Dr Ghaffar's research interests. This research aims to study the feasibility of
the circular economy (cradle to cradle) management of waste and environmental sustainability of the systems in construction. WasteValue evaluates and analyses current technologies and strategies concerning construction and demolition waste management in the UK.