On 6th March till 13th March 2020, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Johor Bahru had sent a representative, Prof. Dr. Nor Haniza Sarmin to Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Istanbul as a part of 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, 6th 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.
On the same day, Prof. Niza also had a meeting with Mohamad Arab, a UTM Outbound Student to METU under the Erasmus+ Programme. Later, Mohamad accompanied her on a campus tour.
On Saturday, 7th March 2020, Prof. Niza had another campus walk and a lunch meeting with Prof. Mahmut Kuzucuoğlu and his wife Prof. Fareda.
On Sunday, 8th March 2020, Prof. Niza had set up a meeting with Chenar Abdulla, a Master student in METU, to discuss matters about research and publication.
After that, she went to METU students’ dormitories for a meeting with its Manager, Mr Mehmet Ozeren.
On Monday, 9th March 2020, Prof. Niza went for a meeting with Dr. Betul Bulut Sahin, METU Erasmus+ Coordinator at METU International Office.
Later on, she met Prof. Leila Miller from International University of Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, who is also a Visiting Professor under the Erasmus+ Teaching Staff Mobility programme and had a fruitful discussion on possible future collaboration with UTM.
Prof. Niza then had a meeting with Dr. Gokhan Benli, a Mathematics Department Erasmus+ Coordinator who was 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 in the afternoon for two hours. It started with an ice-breaking session with those who were present: mathematics postgraduate students and academic staff. Then, she shared a brief introduction about UTM including its research strength and mobility programme and followed by the first lecture titled ‘Introduction to Graphs of Groups’.
On Tuesday morning, 10th March 2020, Prof. Niza had a research discussion with Mr Nazmi, a research assistant from Mathematics Department at METU.
While in the evening, Prof. Niza gave her second lecture titled ‘On Energy and Laplacian Energy of Graphs Associated with Groups’.
On Wednesday, 11th 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 at night, Prof. Niza had dinner with two exchange students at METU under the Erasmus+ scholarship which were Nur Arina and Mohamed Arab from UTP and UTM respectively.
On Thursday, 12th March 2020, the day was started with a lunch meeting and research discussion with Prof. Mahmut. Later in the afternoon, Prof. Niza had an opportunity to attend a weekly seminar at the Mathematics Department.
Prof. Niza’s fourth class at METU during the day was on the topic ‘Topological Indices of Graphs Associated to Groups’.
On Friday, 13th March 2020, which was her last day at METU, Prof. Niza had a meeting with staff from International Office, Erasmus+ Coordinator in the Mathematics Department, and some professors of METU. Thus, ending her five-day official visit.
