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Dr Alba Fuertes

Organisations, People and Technology research group lead

Office

127 

Building location

Chancellor's Building

Areas of interest

  • Quality management in construction
  • Industrialising energy efficient building retrofits
  • Building quality and indoor environment
  • H&S in construction sites

Postgraduate supervision

  • Mensah, M.: A conceptual framework for assessing PPP procurement models value performance for project stakeholders: A cross case study of PPP infrastructure projects
  • Jones, S.: An investigation of the association between construction, indoor air quality and health
  • Akinbami, A.: Effects of daylight on health and productivity of healthcare personnel
  • Ulrich de Alencastro, J.P.: Impact of quality management on the thermal performance of social housing in UK
  • Dangana, Z.: A decision support framework for selecting innovative sustainable technologies for delivering low carbon retail buildings

Teaching

Convenorship:

  • CE2CBT1 - Building Technology (UG Year 2)
  • CE3CPE - BEM Project (UG Year 3)
  • CE3CPM - Construction Management Project (UG Year 3)

           Contributing to:

  • CE3CCD - Dissertation Supervision (UG)
  • CEM10A - Research Skills (MSc)
  • CEM10/18/19B - Dissertation Supervision (MSc)

Research projects

  • Sustainability Hub: Low Carbon Devon (Co-I). European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), 2019 – 2023
  • Energy Game for Awareness of energy efficiency in social housing communities (EnerGAware) (PI at UoP). European Commission Horizon2020, 2015 – 2018. 
  • Sustainable Energy Management for Underground Stations (SEAM4US) (Co-I). European Commission (FP7), 2011 - 2012
  • Embedded Intelligent Controls for buildings with Renewable generation and Storage (ENCOURAGE) (Co-I). European Commission (JTI-CP-ARTEMIS), 2011 - 2012
  • Development of an Homogenous Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) model for the evaluation of the energy consumption and emissions of buildings (Co-I). Ministry for Infrastructure and Buildings, Spanish Government, 2007 - 2010
 

Background

Climate change and the urge for a more sustainable built environment has led the construction industry to re-think how we build new buildings and accelerate the retrofit of the existing building stock. Improving buildings’ energy efficiency will contribute to a reduction in energy consumption and has the potential to increase occupants’ health, wellbeing and productivity by creating more comfortable indoor environments. However, these benefits can only be fully achieved by ensuring that construction projects deliver the required levels of quality and construction defects are avoided. My research generally focuses on construction project management and building performance issues, with a particular interest on the relationship of quality management with building energy efficiency and the indoor environment.

Academic qualifications

  • PhD 2012 (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain)
  • MSc 2007 (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain, Construction Project Management)
  • MEng 2006 (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain, Industrial Engineering (Construction specialisation))

Professional bodies/affiliations

  • Fellow of Higher Education Association (FHEA)
  • Member of Scientific Association of Experts in Occupational Health and Safety, Spain.

Publications