The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : An evening of mathematics and recognition of excellence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 08, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

An evening of mathematics and recognition of excellence

Staff Reporter

Three outstanding students received the Ramanujan Maths Talent Awards

Photo: S. Thanthoni

Brainy kids: G. Vignesh, K. Praneesh and A. Saimali with former bureaucrats P. Murari (left) and Iravatham Mahadevan in Chennai on Friday. —

CHENNAI: “Subtraction is only the addition of negative numbers. Multiplication is nothing but repeated addition and division is only repeated subtraction, so addition is the most important part of mathematics,” said Srinivasa Rao, senior professor of mathematics, while interacting with some of the city’s brightest students at the Ramanujan Awards 2007.

It was an evening of mathematics and recognition of excellence at the Dakshinamurthy Auditorium on Friday.

Three outstanding students G. Vignesh, K. Praneesh and A. Saimali from P.S. Senior Secondary School, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School and DAV Senior Secondary School respectively, received the Ramanujan Maths Talent Awards.

They were selected by a panel of five professors in an interactive session.

The awards were presented by former bureaucrat P. Murari.

It was also an opportunity for the students to interact with professors of mathematics K.N. Ranganathan and K. Srinivasa Rao, and explore various areas of the field and get their doubts cleared.

The two professors also gave the students valuable practical tips on how to excel in their studies.

Mr. Ranganathan and Mr. Srinivasa Rao also impressed upon them the need to read “poetry and prose” and the newspapers in addition to solving mathematical problems in order to become rounded individuals.

Speaking on the occasion, Srinivasa Ramanujan Academy of Maths Talent secretary P. Jegadeesan said: “My only aim is to create another Ramanujan.”

Former bureaucrat Iravatham Mahadevan said, “We should have knowledge centres where merit and merit alone counts…”

Mr. Mahadevan said that it is only in such an environment that talent like that of Ramanujan’s would be allowed to bloom. “We had a very unequal society where certain people enjoyed a disproportionate level of advantages. This is why some form of affirmative action is required.”

Mr. Mahadevan, a historian, also voiced his opinion on the need to teach the history of mathematics in schools.

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