Venue: Ramanujan Lecture Hall, ICTS Bangalore
Monday, 07 May 2018
In this talk I will give an introduction to research in fluid mechanics, and outline some open questions, and also how we may try to answer them by deriving and solving suitable equations. I will then describe our recent work on particles in turbulence, and discuss how this is relevant for clouds.
I will talk about the work we have been carrying out on understanding social structure and behaviour in the Kabini Elephant Population, southern India. We try to test broad predictions from socioecological theory in the Kabini population. I will speculate about applications of the theory to academia.
Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Origami is ancient art of paper folding from japan it was mostly used for religious purpose in japan and entertainment by magicians in america but in 1895 a book titled GEOMETRIC EXERCISES IN PAPER FOLDING BY T SUNDER RAO was published in chennai india which changed all that it combined for the first time maths and paper folding ever since folders and mathematicians are working together in this line i have utilised origami for teaching maths in schools paper being easily available material and has all india reach i have employed this to clarify difficult concepts in maths at school level. i have a LIMCA book of records in my name for origami.
The history of open wells dates back to the Harappan civilisation. Wells are perhaps man’s first efforts to access water. Before that he depended on natural rivers, springs and lakes. In India, over centuries, open wells have played a major role in conservation and optimum usage of water during times of water-shortage. Apart from their obvious practical value, some of them are crafted exquisitely enough to be called works of art. In fact, an open well in Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, dated over 2,300 years ago, still has water. And beautiful, ancient open wells lined with brickwork exist in Dholavira, Gujarat, to this day.
Currently however aquifers are very rapidly depleting due to extensive groundwater extraction. Where does an Open Well fit in this context ?
Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Many animal groups such as crickets, frogs and birds use long-distance acoustic signals for mate attraction. The senders are typically males and the ‘intended’ receivers are females of the same species. Each species has a unique acoustic signal and females use its spectral and temporal properties to recognize and locate calling males of their species. In tropical rainforests, where large numbers of species may call together, acoustic masking interference is believed to pose a serious problem for communication. Over the past 18 years, my research group has worked on an assemblage of acoustically communicating species of crickets in the tropical evergreen forests of Kudremukh National Park. We have examined sender and receiver strategies for communication in the complex, noisy acoustic environment of the dusk chorus. In this context, signal structure, signal degradation and signaler behaviour have been examined for evidence of sender strategies to avoid masking interference. Receiver strategies are also being examined in terms of auditory mechanics, physiology and behaviour. A detailed understanding of senders, signals and receivers should ultimately provide insights both into the functioning of natural acoustic communication networks and the evolutionary forces that do, or do not, shape them.
I will describe stories of some of the famous women in Physics and Mathematics from the world over starting from early times to the middle of 20th century. I will then talk a little bit about situation in India. I will end with a short discussion about why this needs to be changed and what is to be done (or being done) to make it happen.
Thursday, 10 May 2018
Proofs and definitions are two essential ingredients of mathematics, at research level as well in basic mathematics. Carefully (even pedantically) argued proofs are what make long serial reasoning possible in mathematics, and comprise one of its distinctive features. Solving problems from textbooks is an activity that is close enough to give an idea of this feature of mathematics. Indeed, that is what this workshop is all about. On the other hand, when studying a subject, we often take definitions as given. But a highly creative part of mathematics is to make the right definitions. In this lecture we shall ruminate on the roles of proofs and definitions through several examples taken from undergraduate mathematics curriculum. It is aimed to be understandable to first year BSc students.
TBA
Friday, 11 May 2018
TBA
The Right to Education (RTE) of 2009 mandates that access to quality education is a legal right of every child in India. What does this mean in the context of Mathematics? And what does it entail for how mathematics is taught in our schools and also for what is taught?
It is now commonly said that learning mathematics is not about learning procedures or formulae. But can mathematics as problem solving start at the primary school level? We will take some examples from concepts at the primary school level to explore how this could be possible. The talk will draw from experiences of working with government schools in delhi and elsewhere.
Sunday, 13 May 2018
In this session participants will get chance to design some experiments with their own hands and they will also observe about 20 novel science experiments which helps to understand concepts of science and Mathematics.
Space science covers a wide range of activities from designing experiments to placing satellites in the right orbits, to analysing and interpreting data. Maths is all pervading in the entire gamut of these activities, and is essential for the quantitative estimates. A few examples of maths in each of these activities will be mentioned in the talk.
In this session participants will get chance to design some experiments with their own hands and they will also observe about 20 novel science experiments which helps to understand concepts of science and Mathematics.
Monday, 14 May 2018
Math deals with abstract concepts, rather all mathematical concepts are abstract. Epistemologically math is a form of understanding and the only one that begins as soon as a child starts (pre-)school. So pedagogically it is vital that we find ways for young minds to grasp the abstractness that is unavoidable in math. So we have visuals, manipulatives and models. How good are they? How far can they take us? Where do they break down? What do we do then? Is there a point where visualization fails us? So what’s the point then? This talk will delve into these questions.
Branching random walk arises naturally in mathematical biology, statistical physics and probability theory. Roughly speaking, it models a system of growing particles or organisms that invades an environment in a systematic fashion. Two famous statistical physicists (Eric Brunet and Bernard Derrida) made predictions about the long run configurations of positions of particles in a branching random walk, and asked an open question in their seminal work in 2011. Their question was answered positively by Maillard (2013), and the predictions were mathematically proved recently by Madaule (2017) under certain conditions. In this talk, we shall concentrate on the PhD thesis of Ayan Bhattacharya, who verified Brunet-Derrida predictions outside the Maillard-Madaule setup. (This talk will be based on joint work with Ayan Bhattacharya and Rajat Subhra Hazra.)
Tuesday, 15 May 2018
We will first talk about surfaces, their topology and geometry.
Then we will introduce minimal surfaces and their abundance in nature. We will also mention a beautiful connection to an identity of Ramanujan with some minimal surfaces.
We will give a brief historical overview of infinite series and discuss some simple, interesting facts.
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
This talk will discuss the concept of poverty including the idea of absolute and relative poverty. It will then describe the main method used to calculate the poverty line in India and end with criticisms of this method.
Nature is full of spectacular patterns, and shapes-- such as symmetry of a starfish, spirals of a grape vine tendril, stirpes on tigers or tessellations seen in honeycomb. In this talk, we will first explore such patterns in the insect world and then look into how these patterns shape their intricate lives. Finally we will take a walk to see some examples of such brainy bugs in the ICTS backyard!
Thursday, 17 May 2018
In this talk, we will discuss three simple puzzles inspired through themes in theoretical computer science. The solutions to them will motivate three different sub-areas of theoretical computer science: Logic, complexity theory, and coding theory.
I will give a brief introduction to biomolecules and specifically proteins, the workhorses of our cells. I will the n talk about why proteins (and other biomolecules) being “bio”-chemicals are different from canonical “chemicals”. If time permits, I will talk about how this understanding that biochemicals are different from chemicals can be used to formulate testable hypotheses and further our understanding of proteins.
Friday, 18 May 2018
We humans find animal-watching fascinating. Understanding and predicting the behaviour of animals has been crucial to our survival. There is a marvellous diversity in behaviour – we are yet to understand fully why such diversity exists. I focus on some rare and spectacular social behaviour and discuss how one can puzzle out why animals do what they do and how ecology shapes the evolution of behaviour. I also discuss some applications of animal behaviour, specifically how understanding behaviour from first principles can help predict how animal populations may respond to environmental change.
R is a popular language and environment for statistical computing and graphics that runs on a wide variety of platforms. In this talk, we give a high-level overview of R, and through relevant examples try to outline the features that have led to its popularity in the statistics community.
Chemical reactors are a mainstay of industry, and involve a rich intersection of chemical and physical processes. Mathematical models for chemical reactors have to include features such as complicated reaction rate expressions, mass and heat transport equations, and heat effects. Sophisticated computer simulations of reactor phenomena are vital in order to comprehend, design, and optimise their performance. In this talk, I will touch upon some of the recent developments including catalysts, burning flames, automotive engines, pollution abatement, and so on.