FACETS 2017
A two-day mathematics program
#This is the 2017 edition of the institute's outreach program for advanced undergraduate (BSc third year) and postgraduate (MSc) students of mathematics.
However, anybody with an interest and some background in college level mathematics (from student to senior professor) is welcome to apply to participate. In particular, summer interns, research scholars, and postdocs in any scientific or engineering discipline (with some interest and aptitude for mathematics) are encouraged to apply.
What's planned
#- Come and interact with professional mathematicians working at the cutting edge of research.
- Let them share with you the excitement of mathematical discovery.
- Learn about careers in Mathematics.
- Find out how mathematics is used in real life.
- Return inspired to learn more.
The speakers
#- Alok Laddha, Physics, CMI
- Hema Murthy, Computer Science & Engineering, IITM
- Priyavrat Deshpande, Mathematics, CMI
- R. Ramanujam, Computer Science, IMSc
- Shubashree Desikan, Science Writing, The Hindu
- Vijay Ravikumar, Mathematics, CMI
- S. Viswanath, Mathematics, IMSc
Download the poster PDF (166 KB)
#Schedule
#3rd July 2017
#| 09:00 - 09:30 | Registration and Introduction |
| 09:30 - 11:00 | When Algebra meets Combinatorics S. Viswanath, IMSc Combinatorics is fundamental to most of mathematics; we often need to count precisely how many objects there are of a certain kind. Algebra is broadly the study of abstract structures and rules for their manipulation. In this talk, we will consider many examples of interesting algebraic functions which arise as solutions to counting problems. Many beautiful algebraic identities turn out to have combinatorial explanations, and the search for such explanations has often led to new insights and discoveries. |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Tea / Coffee |
| 11:30 - 13:00 | Building speech synthesis systems for Indian languages Hema Murthy, IITM Slides PDF (3.5 MB) |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 - 15:30 | Do Maps Make the World Go Round? Vijay Ravikumar, CMI Gauss's Theorema Egregium tells us that the sphere and the plane have different curvatures, and as a consequence there can never be a perfect map of the surface of the Earth. However, there are projections which manage to preserve important features of our planet's surface, such as infinitesimal surface area, geodesic curves, and angles of intersection. We will look at some classical examples of maps that perfectly capture the above properties, and discuss some of the underlying geometry. Then we will take a look at a few modern innovations, including a tetrahedron that can be "unfolded" into an infinitely repeating, center-less map of Earth. Slides PDF |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Tea / Coffee |
| 16:00 - 17:00 | Is our leader really our leader ? R. Ramanujam, IMSc Modern democracies rely on general elections to form governments. People elect a candidate from a choice of alternatives, and the one declared elected is supposed to "represent" all the voters. This also holds for voting in committees to arrive at a decision. The world over, there are many ways to conduct elections. Our Presidential election is very different from that of France or the USA. Is there a mathematical way to decide which is the best election procedure ? Are there ways to ensure that nobody can manipulate elections to achieve the results they want ? Attempts to answer such questions bring together ideas and techniques from not only politics, economics and sociology, but also mathematics and computer science. The talk is meant to introduce the basic ideas of this fast-growing field of research. (Working on these problems could get you a Nobel Prize in Economics; there have been three such winners, including a famous Indian.) Slides PDF (552 KB) |
4th July 2017
#| 09:30 - 11:00 | Geometry and Physics of space-time Alok Laddha, CMI |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Tea / Coffee |
| 11:30 - 13:00 | Configuration space of flexible polygons: a mathematical model to understand the workings of a closed linkage Priyavrat Deshpande, CMI A linkage is a mechanism built with rigid bars that are connected using freely revolving joints. We come across many linkages in our daily life, for example, a desk lamp, deployable mirror, vehicle suspensions etc. Even a robot arm is an example of a linkage. The configuration space of a linkage is the set of all its possible states or the places it can reach. A clear and concise understanding of this set is needed in several real life applications. In this talk I will explain how one comes up with a simple mathematical model called a flexible polygon in order to 'visually' describe the configurations of closed linkages. Slides PDF |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 - 15:00 | Experiences of a Science journalist Shubashree Desikan, The Hindu Slides PPT (3.9 MB) |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Tea / Coffee |
| 15:30 - 17:00 | Panel Discussion on Careers Involving Mathematics The session will be chaired by R. Ramanujam, professor of Theoretical Computer Science at IMSc. The panelists are: - Alok Laddha (Physics, CMI) - Gautam Menon (Physics and Biophysics, IMSc) - Priyavrat Deshpande (Mathematics, CMI) - Shubashree Desikan (Science Desk, The Hindu) |
The program is free of cost. Lunch and snacks will be provided.
However, participants have to make their own arrangements for travel and accommodation.
How to Participate
#Registration for the event is now closed.
Invitations will be sent out on 29th June.