Dr Manuela Cabrera Duran
Glasgow Engineering Futures Research Fellow

Manuela was appointed as a Glasgow Engineering Futures Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow in September 2025. Her current research project, FUture Steel connections Integrating machine learning and OptimisatioN of 3D-printed stainless steel (FUSION), explores innovative methods for optimizing structural steel connections using additive manufacturing and artificial intelligence.
Manuela received her PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Nottingham in 2023, where her work focused on concrete-filled steel tubular structures with blind bolted connections. This project was supported by the prestigious Faculty of Engineering Excellence Scholarship (2019). In 2022, she joined the EPSRC-funded RESIST project (RESilient Infrastructure using STainless steel) at the University of Birmingham, where she investigated the resistance to progressive collapse of steel structures incorporating hybrid carbon-stainless steel components.
Her research interests include steel and aluminium structures, additive manufactured metals for construction, fracture modelling, finite element analysis, and metamodeling techniques.
Email: ​[email protected]