Dr. Laguarda-Mallo, is a Licensed Architect in Uruguay specialized in Innovation and Mass Timber Construction. He holds two Master's degrees (Timber Construction and Bioproducts Engineering) and a Doctorate in Bioproduct Engineering. She has published over twenty-five peer-reviewed, industry and conference proceedings papers and articles. She has presented at national and international conferences such as the World Conference on Timber Engineering, Forest Products Society International convention, International Mass Timber Conference (2016 & 2017), AECNext 2019, Technology Day 2019 and 2020 , Advancing Prefabrication 2020 and 2021 and Advancing Mass Timber Construction 2020 and 2021. She is currently working as a Project Director at VIATechnik, specializing in Prefabrication, Mass Timber Construction, VDC Technologies and Innovation. At VIATechnik, Maria has helped clients in the adoption of BIM and VDC processes, such as clash detection and coordination, building information modeling, and scan to BIM conversions. Over the past three and half years she has managed large architectural and MEP related projects, working closely with real estate developers, architects, general contractors and subcontractors from different U.S. regions in all aspects and phases of VDC adoption.

Statement:

Everyone in the industry needs to wake up to the fact that we are not going to solve the labor shortage if we continue alienating half of our potential workforce.