Earlier we reported on the shortage of Math Ph.D’s in India. Slowly the Bhubaneswar area is emerging as a center for Mathematics starting from mentoring at the high school level (at IMA) to pursuing Ph.D at NISER, IIT, Utkal and Ravenshaw. There is also a good chance that one of the proposed 10 science magnet high schools will be established in this area. (The top Math center in India is Chennai which has IIT Madras, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Chennai Mathematical Institute.) Below we list Math faculty (mostly with Ph.Ds) in institutes and universities in the Bhubaneswar area.
Meet Kamalakshya Mahatab, the genius and product of the IMA has B.Sc(Hons) in Mathematics & Computing programme which is designed to orient students to pursue mathematics as a research career.
He completed the B.SC.(Hons) in 2010 at IMA and see the results of his.
Appeared in IIT JAM and stood first to qualify for Indian Statistical Institute.
Faced the All India Examination for Integrated Ph.D program at TIFR Centre Bangalore and stood first.
He qualified join the integrated Ph.D Program of Indian Institute of Science, Banglore.
Again he has qualified for the integrated Ph.D programme of Institute Mathematical Sciences Chennai.
He also qualified to join the integrated Ph.D programme TIFR, Mumbai.
Out of these six options he is opting join the TIFR, Mumbai.
From the first batch in the year 2009, eight students took admission in this batch.
02 qualified in the IIT JAM, 02 qualified for Central University Hyderabad, 03 joined Utkal University .
One of the boys who qualified in the IIT JAM joined as integrated Ph.D Programme.
… The Student who was second in 2003, RMTS, Himalaya N. Senapati, went on to represent India in Astronomy Olympiad at Semiz, Crimea, Ukraine and earned a silver medal.
Professor Pattanayak has mentored nearly 60 plus scholars of various background, who are doing Ph.Ds in various IITs, Math institutes of India at this time.
… Interestingly nearly 15 of Ph.D students are SC/ST students – who are supposed to be weak in Math.
… One of his mentored student, Abhilash Mishra of Sambalpur is now a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, who has come back to support the program both financially and physically, by teaching students.
The other of the 08 students of 2009 batch is Deepak Kumar Sahu, who is from Nuapada district, is actually in a job in Pune which pays him 9.5 lakhs per annum.
He has personally mentored many math Olympiad students since 1988 and Somani Pattnayak last year was selected directly by MIT, USA.
Interestingly she spents most of her winter vacation last year in Math Camps in IMA …
The available course in IIT & IGNOU are not extensive and only covers macro level that to for few hours . This is a combination of Computing,Maths,Physics & Finance (Derivatives & Risk Management) . Let us wait for some more info.
Following is an excerpt from the expressbuzz report about the success of IMA Bhubaneswar’s program.
… With a student of the Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) at Andharua getting a job of financial analyst with SunGard Technology, Pune with a package of Rs 9 lakh per annum, the institute is hoping that more students will replicate the success in future with its PG course in computational finance.
In fact, IMA’s computational finance is the only such course offered by any institution in India. With risk and return constituting the major concern for every investor, mathematicians can try to capture patterns vis-a-vis predictability, which may help the former to decide on his/her plan.
Computational finance, otherwise called financial engineering, deals with portfolio selection, options and features, asset pricing, managing derivative markets and hedging uncertainty.
… While another student got a research offer from University of Antwerp, Belgium, another has received an offer from a leading insurance service provider as a risk assessment consultant, he added.
IMA’s bachelor-level course attracts applications from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar besides Orissa. It is encouraging to see applications by some students this year, who had participated in the Rural Mathematics Talent Search examination by the institute way back in 2003, he informed.
With 30 seats in each course, IMA has also got a research exchange programme with University of Western Ontario, Canada and has produced 50 researchers so far in the field.
I was discussing with several people associated with NISER Bhubaneswar. I was told that the NISERs and IISER are having difficulty finding good faculty in mathematics, especially in pure mathematics. (On the other hand they can find very good people in Physics, Chemistry and Biology.) I did a quick survey of the IISERs and NISER and indeed they have much more faculty in Physics, Chemistry and Biology than in Mathematics. Following is a rough count made on Jan 30, 2010.
As evident from the above, all of the above institutes are struggling in hiring faculty in Mathematics. Also, while the young faculty in the other fields (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) mostly have post-doc experiences, most of the younger Math faculty do not have that experience.
One of the reasons behind the shortage of Math Ph.ds is that most people who love Mathematics in high school go on to pursue engineering and perhaps there is a mistaken impression that the career prospects in mathematics is not good. Thus there is a big need for institutions like
which is making great efforts to popularize Math among youngsters.
I hope some of the people who loved Math in high school, and now are in other (say IT) jobs would consider pursuing Math. Some of the top places to pursue Ph.D in Mathematics in India are:
India could also consider hiring foreigners. At least in the USA many Math Ph.Ds from top schools do not get a tenure track faculty position and end up teaching in community colleges. Some of them may jump at an opportunity to be a faculty in IISERs, NISER and other institutions.
About 124 students of rural schools were felicitated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday for their brilliant performance at the National Math Olympiad.
Shradha Ranjan Grahacharya, a Class IX student at Kanakpur in Jagatsighpur district, wants to be a scientist and do research in her favourite subject, algebra. Although mathematics as always been her favourite, she began to take greater interest in the field after she was selected for the Rural Mathematics Olympiad (RMO) in 2006 when she was in Class VI.
"After I was picked for the RMO camp, I started liking the subject even more. At the camp, teachers taught us some easy methods to solving difficult mathematical problems," said Shradha, who stood first in the Junior Mathematics Olympiad, 2008.
According to IMA director Swadhinananda Pattanaik, there is a lack of interest in mathematics among parents and teachers, especially in government schools in villages. Hence, the IMA has decided to make teaching of mathematics an interesting and fun-filled activity.
"In most classrooms, there is little opportunity to understand maths beyond the level of solving equations. Typically, students just memorize mathematical facts without actually understanding the subject," he said.
Encouraging the young mathematicians, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said, "The IMA’s efforts are commendable, especially the special programmes to prepare students for premier institutes like IIT and NISER. This is the only institute of its kind in the country. I hope it will spread its wings globally very soon".
Besides the 124 young students, 33 senior students who performed well in the Regional and National Mathematics Olympiad were also felicitated. IMA is also conducting summer camps for undergraduate and post-graduate students.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman.
The new campus of Institute of Mathematics and Applications inaugurated here today was, in many ways, an idea conceptualised by chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik and a reflection of the fact that ‘Tata Steel was as much a state of mind as a corporate house’.
It is spread over 23 acre and laid out from spiral lines of the golden equation. Mathematical equations apart, the institute’s golden formula is not only to become a world class centre of excellence but also to train and teach rural tribal students. From conceptualisation to construction, it had taken just three years.
Inaugurating the institute campus, the CM praised Tata Steel for having contributed to the development of the institute and architect Mr Karan Grover. "We are committed to make this a world class institute," he asserted.
"Bhubaneswar has become a hub for education be it engineering colleges, management institutes, the IIIT, NISER or the IIT," he said. "Very soon I will hold a meeting with mathematicians and others to get a proper feedback on the problems and lacunae as well as to get ideas on developing this institute, from international quarters," he informed.
The institute will also have facilities like computer labs, class rooms, library rooms as well as residential accommodations for the faculty and researchers.
The campus of this institute has been built in 7000 sq metre complex, with an investment of Rs.140 million.
As many as 96 students can undertake higher research in mathematics.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said the Institute of Mathematics and Application would be made a world class institute. "The new buildings of the institute and other infrastructure would be ready within one month," he said.
Patnaik said this while distributing prizes to the winners of the regional mathematic Olympiads in a glittering function at Jaydev Bhawan. "Mathematics plays an immense role in development of science and technology," he said, adding that the Mathematics Institute should play a pro-active role in spreading the knowledge of mathematics in the tribal dominated areas. "More tribals would come up to take up mathematics as a subject," he said.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of the eminent mathematician Professor Gokulananda Das. Science and Technology Minister Duryodhana Majhi, Professor Venkata Chela of Indian Science and Technology, Bangalore also delivered their speeches. Director of the Institute Professor Swadhin Patnaik delivered the welcome speech.
The Chief Minister gave away first prizes to Debakanta Mallick (1st) Anup Biswanth Dixit (2nd) of Bhubaneswar, Siddharth Satpahty ( 3rd) and Abinash Das (4th)
Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) here is contemplating to introduce a five-year integrated M Sc programme in computer science.
The course would seek to churn out computer scientists who would use their expertise in providing solutions to a number of fields.
All in all, its scope would go far beyond what is taught at the MCA level today. This should lead to a research programme in computer science in the areas of cryptography, digital image processing and bio-informatics.
Institute director Prof. Swadhin Pattnaik said the integrated programme will help students save one year. Students have to put in additional two years after graduation for pursuing such a programme from other institutes.
The success of the programme would immensely help several sectors recruit highly skilled computer professionals as the country is currently facing crisis for such hands.
Even though a number of technical institutes offer similar programmes today, the product they churn out fail to meet employers’ expectations. IMA, with its level of academic standards, promises to solve this problem.
… The Tata Group is supporting in the development of the infrastructure. However, he ruled out any knowledge of naming the institute after the Tata Group.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph. (Thanks to Sanjoy Das for the pointer.)
After Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, it is now the turn of a national-level mathematics institute from the house of Tatas.
The steel major has decided to come up with an advanced institute in mathematical studies in Bhubaneswar. To be called Tata Institute of Mathematics, the project is being launched in association with Utkal University in Orissa.
“The decision behind coming up with the institute was development of pure mathematics as a research subject and also to arouse interest among youngsters for the subject,” said H.M. Nerurkar, the chief operating officer of Tata Steel at Jamshedpur today.
Scheduled to be opened in two months, the centre is based on the lines of institutes of mathematics located in Pune and Chennai. Once functional, it would work in areas like fundamental research in frontier disciplines of the mathematical and physical sciences: mathematics, theoretical physics among others.
“The institute has been envisaged with the vision of promoting advance studies in different mathematical faculties and practices. It will offer postgraduate and post-doctoral research programme in different mathematics disciplines,” said Nerurkar, adding the place would be an architectural delight with the design by Vadodara-based Karan Grover and Associates.
… The centre will also conduct special courses for schoolchildren to help them develop interest in mathematical studies.
Pioneer reports on this teaming up to give training to selected children from several Tribal department run schools. Following are some excerpts.
The SC & ST Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI) under the ST & SC Development Department has been organising a number of training programmes for the teachers as well as students of tribal schools to promote effective education among the tribals.
The institute, in collaboration with the Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) headed by eminent mathematician Professor Swadhin Pattnaik, identified 47 meritorious tribal students of Class VI from different Tribal Department-run schools and provided them an eight-day-long residential training course from July 17 to 24 to prepare them for the Mathematics Olympiad.
The training programme is considered to be unique and innovative, director of the institute, AB Ota, indicated that more and more such programmes would be held in future in the interest of tribal education.
New Indian Express reports that Institute of Mathematics in Bhubaneswar is taking a lead in creating a new and improved high school Mathematics text in Oriya. Following is an excerpt from that report.
… the citybased Institute of Mathematics and Applications (IMA) has come forward with a project on textbook in two volumes in Oriya.
“The USP of these books are their content: Need-based, contemporary and specially written for those HSC passouts of Oriya medium schools,” says IMA Director Prof Swadhin Pattnaik.
The project, which began earlier this year would be completed in June so that by July the students will get the books through the Textbook Bureau, he says adding these books, apart from inspiring the students to take the subject more seriously, would help in easy understanding of the subject without going for tuitions.
The panel of writers include eminent mathematician and former vice-chancellor of Utkal University Prof Gokulananda Das, Prof PC Das of IIT Kanpur and Prof Pattnaik and mathematicians drawn from the apex colleges of the State.
From the psychological point of view, students can do better if they understand the subject in their mother tongue.
