SAT Industry Professor, Alumna Tout Benefits of Self-Healing Concrete

Gurram Gopal, an industry professor in Illinois Institute of Technology’s Department of
Industrial Technology and Management, and Maria Perez-Coca Lopez, a former special projects
student and alumna, published an article in the March/April 2019 edition of Facilities
Management Journal that delves into the opportunities provided by the development of self-
healing concrete, which utilizes an active organism to seal and fix cracks that develop.

Gopal and Lopez, who recently earned a master’s degree from Illinois Tech in industrial
technology and operations, write about why using traditional (inert) concrete has become an
issue, in particular, for cold-weather cities like Chicago and how the continued development of
self-healing concrete products could allow it and similar urban areas to drastically cut road
maintenance costs, among other benefits, in the article titled “Self-Healing Concrete Solutions.”