Work

Alas, our time in Turkey is not all play, at least for me.  I am on a teaching Fulbright which means my main duties for the Fulbright are instuctional in nature.  I am teaching IE 380 Quality Assurance which is a required class of third year students (juniors).  There are three sections and I teach the Wednesday and Friday one.  The other two sections are taught by my colleague Emre and this is his maiden voyage with this class having graduated last year from Carnegie Mellon.

It is interesting in Turkey that courses are scheduled daily independently, that is, they are start and end at different times on their different days.  For example, my course is from 1:40 to 3:30 PM on Wednesdays (with a 10 minute break in the middle) and from 3:40 to 5:30 PM on Fridays.  Now, if you add up the contact hours they total four, not three.  This is because at Bilkent courses are scheduled with an extra class period to allow for recitation, make up classes or whatever an instructor wants.  Needless to say I chose the 4:40 to 5:30 PM block as the extra hour.  I figured going so late on Fridays was already asking a lot of the students.  This extra hour scheduling makes sense once you understand it.

My class has 48 students in it.  I have not counted proportions of men versus women but I would guess 40% perhaps are ladies.  I was graciously given the services of a teaching assistant and this is Bilgesu.  She is a master's student who also completed her undergraduate degree in IE at Bilkent.  She plans to graduate in summer and hopes for a career in industry.  She is very helpful and always cheerful.  Bilgesu hails from Eskisehir, a city about 3 hours drive west of Ankara.  She travels to her family most weekends using the high speed train that connects Ankara to Eskisehir (and will eventually connect Ankara to Istanbul).

The students' English is very good from what I can tell.  I teach using the same language and pace as I do in the U.S.  They students are also like U.S. ones.  When I ask a question, there are normally only a small subset who readily answer while the rest sit politely.  They do seem less involved with their cell phones in class than their counterparts in the U.S.

Our classroom is in the computer building, a 10 minute or so walk uphill from my office building.  The classroom is well equipped and just the right size for our class.  All in all, pretty decent teaching arrangements.

My wonderful teaching assistant Bilgesu

My class, happy that it is Friday afternoon

Another view

You can see the coat rack in the back and the windows which look out on some fir trees

The classroom is just the right size and very modern and bright

A posed picture of me getting ready to conduct the day's lecture

My office is on the main floor of the IE department, which is housed (along with the engineering departments except for electrical engineering which has its own large building) in the Rectorluk.  By its title you can also guess it houses the Rector (that is, President or Chancellor of the university).  His kingdom is on the second and third floors (using U.S. terminology) and the IE department is on the fourth (by they call it the third) floor.  Some IE offices are also on the third (or they call it second) floor.  My office is between two other visiting professors. Oguz was actually a student at University of Pittsburgh when I was there and is now on the faculty at University of Wisconsin.  He studied at Bilkent so he has returned to his alma mater for his year of sabbatical.  He is on a mainly research sabbatical and is not teaching this term.  The other is Claudio a professor from a university in Italy near Rome.  I have not yet discovered its name.  He is teaching two classes and conducting research with another IE faculty member.  He is also only here one term, like me.  (I seem to be the only Fulbright scholar at Bilkent this term.)  You can see by the pictures that my office, although half the size of regular faculty offices, is very large with spectacular views across to the city of Ankara.  The computer in my office broke just before I arrived so a rather ancient one was substituted.  This proved unworkable and my ever obliging department chair Osman arranged for a new computer which was just installed.  So, no excuses for me not to be productive at Bilkent!

The Rectorluk building seen from across campus.  My office is on the fourth floor towards the right

My original PC - note the floppy drive!  It seems that in Turkey (or Bilkent at least) the floppy drive is not dead.  I have seen the floppy disks for sale at the university bookstore

My original monitor.  I am using a Turkish keyboard which is taking some getting used to as the arrangements of some characters are different from the English keyboards.

My desk.  The furniture is basic but satisfactory.  In Turkish academic offices along with the two guest chairs there is always a small low table between them (normally the chairs face this table but I moved mine).  This is designed so the guests can take tea.

View towards the southeast from my office.  BTW, my office has a small balcony.  If I were a smoker I could smoke there.  As a non-smoker I am not sure what other utility this offers other than getting fresh air.

View to the northeast from my office.  The cityscape is visible with Atakule, the bulbous tower that is a landmark, easily seen on clear days.  The tall apartment buildings in the middle of the picture are actually the group in the Middle Campus where we live.  Our lojman is just off to the left and not visible.