Carla Cotas obtained her Integrated Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Coimbra in July 2008. She has started doing research in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) at the Mechanical Engineering Department of University of Coimbra, in September 2008. She started her PhD studies in Chemical Engineering from University of Coimbra, in September 2011. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Coimbra in January 2016, supervised by Prof. Doctor Maria da Graça Rasteiro and Prof. Doctor Dariusz Asendrych on Modelling of Fiber Suspensions in Pipes. During her PhD she obtained the basis of CFD for her future postdoctoral position.

In September 2016, she started her postdoctoral studies at the Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM, in an industrial project with EFACEC to work on the development of a simulator for fluid flow and heat transfer for Core-type power transformers. This experience enriched her research skills on CFD and on the application of CFD to generate data to validate and calibrate other numerical tools. From her work, a Thermal Hydraulic Network Model (THNM) Dynamic simulator for Core-type power transformers was developed. The application of THNM dynamic simulator has been successfully applied to simulate the fluid flow and heat transfer.

By the end of this period, her research resulted in 6 manuscripts published in international peer-reviewed journals, 12 conference papers and 3 conference abstracts, 7 oral presentations, 2 industrial reports and, 1 simulator.

In addition to her research experience, she has great interest in doing research in order to apply her knowledge base in Chemical Engineering to industrial cases to contribute to the progress on industrial development and innovation.