Dr. Gkouti an Assistant Professor in MME at Western University specializing in developing and enhancing advanced materials, composites, and smart structures for innovative applications. their primary research integrates material science, solid mechanics and AI to address challenges in manufacturing, modeling and performance optimization. By leveraging advanced numerical simulations and image-based techniques, they explore the relationship between material microstructures and macroscopic behaviour, improving materials' performance.

Inspired by the capabilities of advanced composite materials, their current research focuses on simulating space-like conditions by mimicking reduced gravitational forces to enable additive manufacturing techniques under microgravity or zero-gravity conditions. This involves embedding paramagnetic particles into materials and using external magnetic fields to counteract gravitational forces, effectively levitating composites. Their team is designing and fabricating a magnetic levitation system to explore stable extrusion processes and material performance, laying the foundation for advanced manufacturing techniques in space environments.

Aligned with this research direction, they are working on a project funded by the Canadian Space Agency (FAST 2023), part of Canada’s supporting contributions to NASA’s Lunar Gateway mission. These efforts aim to advance in-situ skin bioprinting technology for treating astronauts’ severe injuries in space. Specifically, collaborating with York University, their team is developing autonomous bioprinting systems capable of producing tissues in microgravity. Their role focuses on enhancing the understanding of bioprinting under varying gravitational conditions through AI-driven modeling & simulations, contributing to both terrestrial & space technologies