Under the slogan “The Resistance of the Kurdish Peshmerga Forces Preserves the Scientific Development” and in the presence of Asst. Prof. Dr. Lazgin Abdi Jamil, the President of the University of Zakho, the Department of Mathematics at the University of Zakho under the supervision of the committee organizers Dr. Shaker M. Rasheed and Dr. Naseem S. Khidir, organized a workshop entitled “First Swedish-Kurdish Workshop in Educational Aspects of Applied and Industrial Mathematics”. The workshop started on Sunday, the 11th of October 2015 at the Hall of the Department of Chemistry and ended on Monday, the 12th of October 2015. The workshop was a cooperation program between the Lund University in Sweden and the University of Zakho.

In addition to the presence of the President of the University of Zakho, a number of representatives of the University of Duhok, the University of Soran, the Salahaddin University, the Duhok Polytechnic University, vice- presidents, deans, lecturers and students of the University of Zakho attended this workshop and held a minute’s silence in honour of all fallen martyrs, at the beginning of the event. Soon afterwards, the President of the University of Zakho held a speech where he welcomed all guests and in particular the representatives of the Lund University and also praised the Swedish university for its successful cooperation program with the Department of Mathematics at the University of Zakho, which resulted in this two- day workshop. Furthermore, Asst. Prof. Dr. Lazgin Abdi Jameel mentioned in his speech that this workshop could function as a positive factor in strengthening relations between the UoZ and foreign universities and also in the scientific progress, including scientific study programs and scientific researches.

Afterwards, the representative of the Lund University, Dr. Claus Führer held a speech. Opening his address, Dr. Führer expressed his pleasure to be at the University of Zakho in the Kurdistan Region for scientific matters. Subsequently, two short documentaries were presented in order to describe both universities and then lecturer of both universities started the first session, including a number of presentations, which dealt with different educational aspects of applied and industrial Mathematics.

The sessions stood under a fixed schedule, starting from 9:30 to 17:00. The second session continued with several presentations by lecturers from different universities in the Kurdistan Region, as well as lecturers from the Lund University. After each session table discussions were held, in order to get a clearer approach, in aiming to enhance the prospective teaching vision within departments of Mathematics at universities in the Kurdistan Region and how to establish a foundation of the right usage of applied and industrial mathematics. At the end of the workshop, the President of the University of Zakho thanked all participants for their active participation in the workshop and certificates were distributed to the participants. As a result of this workshop, a memorandum has been signed between the Lund University and the University of Zakho. Furthermore, the Lund University was pleased to offer the collaboration of the University of Zakho in the Erasmus+ programme.