Inspiring the next generation of engineers
Professional engineer Mara Morga returned to academia to teach at ARU, where she uses her latest research findings to inform and inspire engineering students.
I'm now a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering and the Built Environment. I am module leader and tutor of few modules and I supervise dissertations at all academic grades.
What the students see – lectures and marking – is only part of my job as a tutor. It also includes preparation and selection of teaching material, planning sessions to customise the learning experience according to the needs of each class, and a few administrative activities.
I am able to balance teaching and research and so, to bring to the most advanced knowledge to my students, I do research on risk and resilience to natural disasters, and on vibrations control and structural degradation. Although I am keen on modelling the environment using numbers, I am progressively adding another passion to engineering: the observation of the interaction of people, built environment and natural phenomena.
As a child I had always been curious about natural phenomena, constructions, numbers, computers and mechanisms.
I bring my enthusiasm for engineering to students. When I teach, I link all mathematical and physical abstract models to phenomena and objects in the world surrounding us, and to the engineering practice I experienced before joining ARU.
ARU cares about students’ wellbeing and diversity and prepares them to live in the globalised world. As a tutor I strive to guide the students I'm supervising to find their passion and the abilities that will make their career successful.