From 7-13 March 2020, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Johor Bahru had sent a representative, Professor Dr. Nor Haniza Sarmin (Prof Niza) to Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Istanbul as a part of the Erasmus+ Staff Teaching Mobility Programme (Outbound). Prof Niza is a Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, UTM.
Upon Prof Niza’s arrival at METU on Friday, 7 March 2020, she was greeted by Mr Hikmet, who initially came to UTM in February 2020 for his Staff Mobility Programme (Inbound) under Erasmus+. He helped to send her to the METU Guest House which is located on campus.
Later that morning, Prof Niza had a meeting with Mohamad Arab, a UTM Outbound Student to METU under the Erasmus+ Program. Later, Mohamad accompanied her on a campus tour.
On Saturday, 8 March 2020, Prof Niza had another campus walk and a lunch meeting with Prof Mahmut Kuzucuoğlu and his wife Prof Fareda.
On Sunday, 8 March 2020, Prof Niza set up a meeting with Chenar Abdulla, a Master student in METU to discuss about research and publication.
After that, she had a meeting with Mr Mehmet Ozeren, the Manager of METU students’ dormitories and where Mr Hikmet is stationed on campus.
On Monday, 9 March 2020, Prof Niza went for a meeting with Dr Betul Bulut Sahin, METU Erasmus+ Coordinator at the METU International Office.
Later on, she met with Prof Leila Miller from International University of Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, who is also a Visiting Professor under the Erasmus+ Teaching Staff Mobility program and had a fruitful discussion on possible collaboration with UTM.
Prof Niza then had a meeting with Dr Gokhan Benli, Mathematics Department Erasmus+ Coordinator at METU who is responsible for arranging her teaching appointments while at METU. The meeting extended to lunch, which was joined by Prof Mahmut.
Prof Niza’s first lecture was that afternoon for two hours. Starting with an ice-breaking session, those present were postgraduate mathematics students and academic staff. Then, she shared a brief introduction about UTM, including its research strength and mobility program, followed by the first lecture titled ‘Introduction to Graphs of Groups’.
On Tuesday morning, 10 March 2020, Prof Niza had a research discussion with Nazmi, a research assistant in the Mathematics Department at METU.
In her second lecture that afternoon, Prof Niza gave a lecture titled ‘On Energy and Laplacian Energy of Graphs Associated with Groups’.
On Wednesday, 11 March 2020, more materials on ‘The Energy of Graphs, and the Graph Polynomials’ were discussed, followed by a discussion with some Pure Mathematics professors.
Later that night, Prof Niza had a dinner with Nur Arina & Mohamed Arab (from UTP and UTM, respectively), two exchange students at METU under the Erasmus+ scholarship.
Thursday, 12 March 2020 started with a lunch meeting and research discussion with Prof Mahmut. Later in the afternoon, Prof Niza had an opportunity to attending a weekly seminar at the Mathematics Department.
Prof Niza’s fourth class in METU later that afternoon was on the topic ‘Topological Indices of Graphs Associated to Groups’.
On Friday, 13 March 2020, her last day at METU, Prof Niza had a meeting with staff from the International Office, the Erasmus+ Coordinator in the Mathematics Department and some professors of METU, thus ending her five-day official visit.
