NEU Technical Director Joins Panel at ASPIRE

Sureka Sumanasooriya, NEU’s Technical Director, is speaking at the AIA Aspire Experience 2026, September 13-15, 2026. In the panel Concrete 2000–2050: Technological Innovations Transforming Architecture, Sumanasooriya will explore how to achieve high-performance, low-carbon concrete materials. Aspire is a regional design conference created by the AIA state chapters of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 

Panel Description

Concrete is undergoing a structural transformation. Over the past 20 years, innovations in strength, durability, fabrication, and sustainability have fundamentally expanded what concrete can do. In the next 20 years, concrete will evolve from a passive structural material into an active environmental, computational, and infrastructural system. This program synthesizes key innovations architects must understand to design effectively in this new paradigm. The program will be hosted by J. Richard Alsop, Jr., FAIA, and will include internationally recognized industry leaders to introduce a three-part series on concrete created specifically for the architectural profession. The series will be placed on the American Institute of Architects University (AIAU) platform.

The series is being developed jointly between industry leaders, including The American Concrete Association (ACA), The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA), The American Concrete Institute (ACI) and "NEU" - ACI's Center for Excellence for Carbon Neutral Concrete and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Low Carbon Concrete Consortium. The program will increase architects' technical acumen, allowing a high degree of confidence when engaging and communicating with owners, engineers, contractors, suppliers, and mix designers to achieve high-performance, low-carbon concrete materials.

Concrete advances have already brought about over 20% reductions in embodied carbon. The goal for the future is net zero by 2050. But this demands that architects substantially increase their working knowledge of the materials and processes. This program is an in-depth introduction to the series and will provide an understanding of the full scope of industry objectives and opportunities for carbon reduction over the next 25 years.

📅 Aspire is September 13th–15th 🔗 Register now