Dr. Mariana Popescu is Assistant Professor of Parametric Structural Design and Digital Fabrication at TU Delft Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences with a strong interest in innovative ways of approaching the fabrication process and use of materials. She was post-doctoral researcher at the Block Research Group at ETH Zurich, involved in the NCCR Digital Fabrication, where she also obtained her PhD in 2019. 

Her research focuses on the development of KnitCrete, a novel, material-saving, labour-reducing, cost-effective formwork system for casting doubly-curved geometries in concrete using 3D knitting. She is the main author of the award-winning KnitCandela shell and has been included in the MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 list in 2019.