"An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God.” Srinivasa Ramanujan
A seminar on the occasion of National Mathematics Day was conducted at Lady Shri Ram College on 22 December 2023, to commemorate the birth anniversary of the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Many participants across schools and colleges of Delhi were a part of the seminar. Ms. Garima and Ms. Tincy Kaur of The Indian School-Second Shift represented the School at the event.
Dr Jonaki Ghosh, a senior faculty member of the elementary education wing of Lady Shri Ram College, felicitated the eminent resource person Professor TV Venkateshwaran, with a planter.
As an ice breaking activity, Professor Venkateshwaran asked the participants to introduce themselves and shared a brief conversation with each. He shared many interesting facts about the early life, education, career, personal life, achievements and the last days of Srinivasa Ramanujan. He emphasised on three words, ‘enigma, inspire and hope’, which can be taken as the crux of learnings from the great mathematician’s life.
Despite facing many odds, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3,900 formulae during his short life. Many were completely novel, highlighting his original and highly unconventional results, such as the Ramanujan Prime, the Ramanujan Theta Function, Partition Formulae and Mock Theta Functions, which opened entirely new areas of knowledge and inspired vast mathematical research thereafter. Interestingly, these formulae and their results, were once rejected! Prof Venkateshwaran also threw light on various other aspects of Ramanujan’s life.
After this stirring talk, the second session of the seminar was conducted by Dr Jonaki Ghosh, who challenged the participants by presenting various mathematical puzzles in an interesting manner. All the participants brainstormed together and came up with solutions to these interesting puzzles. These included finding solutions using arithmetic progression series, framing the magic square, etc. Dr Ghosh appreciated and encouraged the team spirit and the 'out of the box' thinking presented by the teachers present.
At the end of this stimulating day, many participants shared their learning experiences from the event. It was a great opportunity to share ideas with fellow members of the teaching fraternity. The facilitators’ brilliant technical and pedagogical knowledge benefitted the participants. The seminar was informative, constructive as well as interactive, and an enriching experience for all.
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