Trust to demystify maths with workshops

Mumbai: Aimed at inculcating mentality for research among high school students with a keen interest in mathematics, Raising a Mathe-matician (RAM) Foundati-on, a Mumbai-based charitable trust, has introduced residential and national-level training workshops to eradicate the fear of mathematics and instil numerical skills, analytical thinking and provide an insight into ancient Indian mathematics.

RAM was set up by four mathematics educators to bring a change in the outlook towards the subject. The foundation covers different techniques in squaring, cubing, compound multiplication and the Karapayadi number system to both students and teachers.

“The same exposure in maths in school, high school and college is given to each and every student. Their knowledge of concepts is more or less limited to mainstream mathematics. Specialisation is absent in these levels and, thus, our idea is to take students who are passionate about maths out of the general examination appr-oach and to a pure and applied form,” Vinay Nair, one of the co-founders of RAM, said. “Lack of awareness and knowledge is the prime reason why this programme plays an important role,” he added.

Mr Nair, who also teaches maths in schools and colleges, said that students aren’t aware of career opportunities for those with a special interest in the subject. “If they are good in maths, they opt for engineering through entrance examinations. Meanwhile, what is left unexplored is financial mathematics, mathematics in computer science, mathematics in economics or even a doctorate in Mathematics. Adding to this, our country, which has well-known mathematics from ancient India, is right now being researched by westerners,” he said.

RAM imparts the not-so-famous lessons and concepts from 12th centu-ry mathematicians, which are being developed and evolved in India.

Currently, all programmes are for high school students, parents and teachers.:

Aimed at inculcating mentality for research among high school students with a keen interest in mathematics, Raising a Mathe-matician (RAM) Foundati-on, a Mumbai-based charitable trust, has introduced residential and national-level training workshops to eradicate the fear of mathematics and instil numerical skills, analytical thinking and provide an insight into ancient Indian mathematics.

RAM was set up by four mathematics educators to bring a change in the outlook towards the subject. The foundation covers different techniques in squaring, cubing, compound multiplication and the Karapayadi number system to both students and teachers.

“The same exposure in maths in school, high school and college is given to each and every student. Their knowledge of concepts is more or less limited to mainstream mathematics. Specialisation is absent in these levels and, thus, our idea is to take students who are passionate about maths out of the general examination appr-oach and to a pure and applied form,” Vinay Nair, one of the co-founders of RAM, said. “Lack of awareness and knowledge is the prime reason why this programme plays an important role,” he added.

Mr Nair, who also teaches maths in schools and colleges, said that students aren’t aware of career opportunities for those with a special interest in the subject. “If they are good in maths, they opt for engineering through entrance examinations. Meanwhile, what is left unexplored is financial mathematics, mathematics in computer science, mathematics in economics or even a doctorate in Mathematics. Adding to this, our country, which has well-known mathematics from ancient India, is right now being researched by westerners,” he said.

RAM imparts the not-so-famous lessons and concepts from 12th centu-ry mathematicians, which are being developed and evolved in India.

Currently, all programmes are for high school students, parents and teachers.