Dr Maria Kutar

Biography	Dr Maria Kutar studied Law at undergraduate level, followed by a Masters and PhD research in Computer Science. In 2004 she joined the University of Salford, firstly in the Information Systems Institute, and then in Salford Business School. Maria has undertaken a variety of academic leadership roles, and led the University Research Ethics Panel. She is currently Director of Undergraduate Business Management Programmes, and Co-Lead for the Disruptive Technologies Research and Innovation Cluster. A key theme in her role is fostering enterprise and innovation through both curriculum design and teaching delivery, and she is Certified Management & Business Educator (CMBE) Maria is the recipient of 3 Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Awards and a Student Union Teaching Award, she is dedicated to delivering excellent teaching and student experience. Her teaching covers a broad range of information systems areas including systems analysis and design, legal and professional issues and emerging / disruptive technologies. Teaching is centred on a constructivist approach, and uses inquiry based pedagogies to foster deep learning. An important focus is to foster creativity in students through the use of varied learning and assessment activities. Maria has worked with a range of businesses on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, including a Digital Transformation project with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and a current Information Sharing project with Greater Manchester Combined Authority. She has contributed to the delivery of short courses in digital transformation to senior leaders. With extensive experience in academic leadership, she has served as Chair of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group 2004-2018, member of the British Computer Society Ethics Expert Panel 2004-2006, and is a current Board Member for the UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS). Maria has supervised 8 PhD student's to completion and has 3 current PhD Students. She has been awarded the Student's Union Teaching Award for Best Supervisor. Maria's research interests are focused on human aspects of technology, and Learning in HE. Primarily, research examines the interplay between digital technologies and their use by people and businesses. This has two main areas of focus – from the business point of view to understand what helps organisations (mostly SMEs) to maximise benefits from their use of digital technologies. From the people side the aim is to understand the consequences of digital technologies – e.g. on their privacy and identity. Dr Kutar's research takes a sociotechnical viewpoint, centred on the belief that system success is influenced by the way in which it interacts with its environment and especially people. This context is important to understand the connectedness of the people and the technical parts, and to maintain focus on design strategies that take into account human need, including considering responsibility and ethical issues.
Research Interests	Digital Transformation, Information Systems, AI and Disruptive Technologies, Technology Ethics and Privacy, Productivity and Technology, Curriculum Design, Learning & Teaching.
Teaching and Learning	Director of UG Business Management programmes. Current modules 24-25: Responsible Technologies (L7) Digital Business Entrepreneurship (L7) Technology Innovation (L6) AI for Business (L6) Mobile Application Development (L5)