Carolina Delci: Leading the Charge in Sustainable Infrastructure

Carolina Araújo Moreira Delci often has dreamed of transforming the world around her. As a child, she says, she was fascinated by how bridges, dams, and skyscrapers can reshape urban landscapes.

“Even back then, I could see the power that engineering had to touch lives at scale,” Delci says. “I wanted to be part of that.”

Today she is making her mark through multiple megaprojects. As a civil engineer at Salum Construções, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, she leads high-impact infrastructure developments.

Salum specializes in road and railway construction, drainage systems, containment structures, and decharacterization of iron ore tailings dams—the process of redesigning the massive earthen structures designed to store huge amounts of the waste that remains after iron ore is processed. Its projects involve complex challenges that require precision, agility, and foresight.

As Delci sees it, she’s not just building infrastructure; she’s building a smarter, safer future.

She was elevated this year to IEEE senior member, a professional milestone that acknowledges the impact she has had on her field.

“Becoming a senior member,” she says, “reaffirmed that the path I chose—to blend technology with infrastructure—can truly drive meaningful change.”

A childhood dream takes shape

Delci was born in Itabirito, a small Brazilian town nestled in the mountains. Her father, a furniture store owner, and her mother, an artisan, instilled in her a love for learning and allowed her the freedom to dream big.

In 2012 she enrolled at Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte (UniBH) to study civil engineering. Delci chose what she calls a “sandwich bachelor’s program”—an arrangement in which students begin their studies at their chosen local university, complete part of their coursework at a university abroad, and then return to their home institution to finish the degree.

In 2014 she was awarded a full scholarship by Brazil’s federal Science Without Borders grant program. It covered tuition, housing, health insurance, learning materials, and airfare.

“I believed that international academic experience would broaden my perspective and greatly enhance my education,” Delci says. But, she adds, she had to learn a new language to continue her studies. First she took intensive English courses at Eötvös József College, in Baja, Hungary. She then completed two semesters of civil engineering courses, taught in English, at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. From May to July 2015, she interned at Budapest Waterworks, a city utility. She worked in the three main departments of the company: engineering, project management, and water treatment.

Delci returned to UniBH in the second semester of 2015 and earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2017. That same year, she earned a technical diploma in civil construction process operations from the Federação das Indústrias do Estado de Minas Gerais, a regional industry association based in Belo Horizonte. In 2021 she earned a postgraduate degree in project management from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, also in Belo Horizonte.

The technology behind the earth movers

Her ambition led her to get hands-on technical training early. In 2012, during her first stint at UniBH, she was an intern at Delphi Automotive Systems do Brasil, in Itabirito, Minas Gerais. The role gave her hands-on experience in infrastructure maintenance of the industrial plant, including preparing purchase requisitions and work orders, as well as monitoring modifications in the plant layout, she says.

She joined Salum Construções in 2020 as a trainee engineer. She worked on the remediation of waste rock piles at the Vale Vargem Grande complex in Minas Gerais, part of Brazil’s “Iron Quadrangle.” The site is one of many owned by Vale, the world’s leading producer of iron ore.

“I want to keep working on sustainable solutions, mentoring young engineers, and influencing policy to make the industry more environmentally responsible.”

The initiative was part of Vale’s broader efforts to minimize reliance on tailings dams—earthen structures built to contain waste byproducts of ore processing— particularly after Brazil’s Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. More than 200 Vale employees and contractors were killed when a dam at the company’s Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho collapsed, releasing a 10-meter-high tidal wave containing more than 11 million cubic meters of toxic ore waste.

Assigned to the waste rock remediation project, Delci began ensuring the rock pile complied with new government environmental and safety standards implemented after the Brumadinho disaster. Among the methods she and her team tried was dry stacking, whereby fine, pulverized rock is filtered from tailings and deposited in piles rather than left in the form of sludge.

“Further studies and environmental licensing are still needed for large-scale implementation” of dry stacking, she says.

Today, she’s a civil engineer at Salum. As part of its corporate engineering team, she oversees several large-scale projects.

She uses cutting-edge technology including artificial intelligence and 4D building information modeling. BIM, a digital construction planning method, uses 3D modeling to link each building component—including earthworks, drainage systems and pavement layers—with the construction schedule, with time being the fourth dimension. Such modeling makes the entire project more predictable by allowing teams to anticipate and mitigate risks before they impact the schedule. Her work also focuses on construction principles borrowed from lean manufacturing that emphasize reducing waste.

Her approach and knowledge have drawn the attention of her Salum peers and the construction industry at large, she says.

“I’ve always been passionate about digital engineering and how it can help reduce costs, save time, and improve safety,” she says. “It’s not just about getting the work done. It’s about doing it smarter and more sustainably.”

She’s also helping to reshape a traditionally male-dominated field.

“Heavy civil construction didn’t intimidate me; it motivated me,” she says. “I wanted to show that engineering talent has no gender. There’s space for women to lead here, and we’re claiming it.”

Her research has been published in Revista Cientifica Sistemática, the Brazilian Journal of Development, and other journals. She has received recognition for leading initiatives that use digital technology to improve large-scale construction. A key indicator of this recognition is the widespread citation of her research by experts. For instance, her articles ‘Digital Monitoring of Heavy Equipment…’ and ‘The Effectiveness of Last Planner System…’ have been cited 66 and 56 times, respectively, according to Google Scholar. In academia, this level of citation is an exceptionally high honor, demonstrating that her work is a foundational and influential contribution to the advancement of knowledge in her field.

The IEEE advantage

Delci heard about IEEE through colleagues who praised its global network of members and technical resources. She joined, she says, to expand her knowledge, collaborate with innovators, and stay ahead of technological trends.

Today she serves as a volunteer reviewer for several IEEE technical committees and senior member applications, giving back to the organization that helped elevate her career.

“IEEE showed me that engineering isn’t just local—it’s global,” she says. “It’s a community of people who believe in building something better, together.”

A focus on sustainable solutions

Asked about her long-term goals, Moreira doesn’t hesitate. “I want to keep working on sustainable solutions, mentoring young engineers, and influencing policy,” she says, “to make the industry more environmentally responsible.”

Her advice to students considering engineering? “If you’re curious and want to solve real problems, engineering is for you,” she says. “Don’t let stereotypes define your path. We need all kinds of minds to build a better world.”

“Engineering is how we leave our mark on the world,” she says. “I intend to make mine count.”