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Speaker Biography

Dr. Negar Kalantar is an associate professor and Co-director of Digital Craft Lab at CCA. Her research and practice encompass the intersections of architecture, science, and engineering. By integrating digital and analog fabrication workflows across various scales, her interdisciplinary research explores the potential of transformable design principles. This approach helps develop adaptive designs, building components, and interior spaces that demonstrate real-time morphological changes in response to users and their environment. Her current research emphasizes the role of additive manufacturing technology (3D printing) in fostering innovation and creating interactive, responsive environments. A key aspect of her cross-disciplinary research is bridging the latest advancements in additive manufacturing technologies with large-scale structures. She primarily focuses on the application of robotics in additive manufacturing technology, aiming to revolutionize not only how infrastructures are constructed but also how they are designed and built from start to finish.

Kalantar has received numerous awards and grants, such as the Autodesk Technology Center Grant 2018, the Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award 2018 (a National Science Foundation-sponsored honor recognizing visionary concepts with the potential to shape the future of manufacturing research and education), the 2017 Montague Teaching Excellence Scholar Award, the National Science Foundation EAGER Award 2015 for Initiative Research on "Interaction of Smart Materials for Transparent, Self-regulating Building Skins," and the X-Grant 2018 from the Texas A&M President's Excellence Fund for developing sustainable materials for 3D printed buildings.

With expertise in additive manufacturing (3D printing) and robotic technologies, Kalantar has held various academic and professional positions. Before joining CCA, she served as an assistant professor of Architecture at Texas A&M University, where she led the Advanced Infrastructure Materials and Manufacturing (AIMM) Lab at the Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR).

Co-authors/Co-presenters

Zofia K. Rybkowski, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University
Mehdi Farahbaksh, Visiting Assistant Professor and Architecture, University of Texas