I am a lecturer in Structural Engineering and Programme Leader for BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering. Prior to my academic appointment, I worked in the industry for 5 years developing cold-formed steel (CFS) portal framing systems. In first two years of my industrial experience, I held a position of KTP Associate which led to my appointment as a Research and Development Manager. In this role, I was not only responsible for the development of new products and designs but I was also steering the development of the in-house design software.

I was awarded my PhD from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Strathclyde for the thesis ‘Effect of stressed skin action on the behaviour of cold-formed steel portal frames with non-linear flexible joints and top-hat purlins’.  My research project focused on understanding the ‘true’ behaviour of metal clad CFS portal frame and interaction between frame and building envelope. For this research, I have used a combination of extensive full-scale testing and simple FE modelling. Due to a large scale of my experiments I had to design several smart systems monitoring the 3D behaviour of tested structures. I have experience in using strain gauges, load cells, linear and rotational displacement transducers, pressure gauges, thermocouples, accelerometers and anemometers. I have also developed several virtual instruments (National Instruments LabVIEW software) for data acquisition, analysis and presentation of results.

As CFS framing systems are relatively new and unconventional form of construction, my research interests are now shifting towards other problems which may challenge light gauge steel industry. One of them is the behaviour of CFS structures in the elevated temperature and their fire resistance. The other subject currently investigated is the behaviour of CFS portal frames under cyclic and seismic loading.

Considering that the computational power increases exponentially each year, I continue my efforts in promoting a use of more advanced analysis methods into everyday design. I am also interested in exploring the composite action between light-gauge steel and other materials such as timber, plasterboard or polymers.

My ambition is also to improve the sustainability of cold-formed steel buildings and to reduce their carbon footprint by combining stressed skin action design with modern optimisation techniques such as a genetic algorithm. CFS buildings are light, easy erected and could be used as temporary shelter or low-cost housing in disaster zones.          

In addition, during my industrial career I have enabled and co-supervised many final year projects at Strathclyde University and Queen’s University Belfast. I can proudly say that the industry benefited from every student projects coordinated by me and hard work of students contributed to the development of new products and designs.  As an engineer, I believe that my job is to improve the built environment and that this could be done most effectively through applied research and educating next generation of engineers.