Shake It Up: Professional Earthquake Engineering Course Starting Soon

Seismology is a vital component of engineering, architecture, and related fields such as geology and geophysics. Albania is located in a high seismic activity zone, where unfortunately destructive earthquakes can occur periodically.

Metropolitan University Tirana is introducing, for the first time, a dedicated postgraduate course in earthquake engineering in collaboration with the renowned Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology in Skopje, UKIM-IZIIS SS Cyril.

The professional course profile, titled “Shake it up: From Theory to Practice in Earthquake Engineering,” is designed for engineers and architects, utilizing methods such as “mobile lab” and “shake table” for earthquake testing and stimulation. UMT thus fulfills, at a higher level, the vision to provide students access and exposure to the most innovative university and scientific laboratories where they study.

“Metropolitan University Tirana made a valuable contribution with expertise during the 2019 earthquake in Albania. Faculty members of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at UMT went into the field to assess damages in hundreds of buildings, in close collaboration with state institutions. This has prompted us to offer this postgraduate course in earthquake engineering beyond the curriculum that students undergo in bachelor’s and master’s programs in Civil Engineering, and other related fields,” expresses Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emre Çeçen, lecturer at UMT.

Professor Çeçen elaborates on the course details, which can be pursued by all graduates at the bachelor’s level in Civil Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Architecture, or similar fields. He emphasizes that lecturers in this course will be the best Albanian and international experts, with extensive experience in real projects and broad scientific activity.

“We have prepared a highly updated curriculum covering topics such as seismic risk treatment, engineering structures, geotechnical engineering towards earthquakes, principles of designing and assessing existing bridges, dams, or tunnels, damage assessment and costs after earthquakes, leading to dynamic structure testing or risk management. It is a comprehensive and contemporary curriculum that we have developed with our partners at IZIIS in North Macedonia according to international best practices. It should be noted that the IZIIS Dynamic Testing Laboratory is one of the strategic laboratories where continuous scientific and applied research is conducted in the field of structural dynamics, and IZIIS itself is the largest research institution in the region, established after the devastating earthquake of 1963 in Skopje,” explains Professor Emre Çeçen.