Vito Francioso received his bachelor’s degree (2015) and master’s degree (2017) in construction engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Italy. During the last year of his M.S. program, he studied at Universidade de Coruña, Spain. He is a current PhD student in civil engineering at Purdue and a 2021 recipient of the Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship. He has served as a teaching assistant for three semesters, two of them in a civil engineering materials course and one in a mechanical engineering design course. His research focuses on unveiling a fundamental understanding of using construction and industrial waste materials in cementitious composites at a dimensional and temporal multi-scale level. He is a member of the Civil Engineering Graduate Advisory Council (CEGSAC) and is the former chair of CEGSAC’s Sport, Wellness & Health Committee. He has volunteered to help undergraduate students prepare for ASCE competitions and organized a Mental Wellness and Stress Management Workshop. He has personally mentored seven undergraduates as well as several others, most belonging to minority or underrepresented groups, via the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and Office of Undergraduate Research programs. As a future faculty member, he feels a responsibility to encourage students of all genders, backgrounds and ethnicities to work in the STEM disciplines and is committed to organizing workshops or mentorship programs specifically for students belonging to underrepresented groups.

Research Interests

Civil engineering, Engineering materials, Concrete, Sustainability, Recycled materials