The 22nd of December is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of the mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan. In the lead up to the day, numerous events were organised by Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth (CVV) in collaboration with the Raising a Mathematician (RAM) Foundation.
One of the major leadup events was the Sridhara Math Contest. The contest was named after an ancient Indian mathematician Sridharacarya (who lived around the 9th and 10th century), who is famous for his treatises Patiganita and Patiganitasara (also called as Trisatika). The quiz was organised for two age groups: Group A had students of grade 8-10 and Group B had participants from Grade 11 to infinity. The contest was held in two rounds.
Round 1 was an online test on 13 December 2020. It was held via Google forms with a time constraint to check the students’ problem-solving skills, ability to abstract, pattern observation skills, etc. in topics like numbers, algebra, geometry, mensuration, counting, puzzles and games. It also checked the students’ knowledge of the history of mathematics and mathematicians. It did not test the problem-solving ability of routine problems from the curriculum or competitive exams. The difficulty level of the online exam was at the level of classes 8 to 10. Click here for the answers to the questions in Round 1
This round had over 160 registrants, of which 139 completed and submitted their responses on time. Through a tough competition, seven contestants from Group A were shortlisted for the final round scheduled at 6:00 pm on 16 December. There was a tie at the sixth position.
The finalists of the contest (from Group A) were:
1. Davin Christino Praveen
2. Kanav Talwar
3. Manu Param
4. Aishwarya Ajit Abhyankar
5. Rohan Kalluraya
6. Shreyas Karthikeyan
7. Charan Karthik L
From Group B, the top scorer in the first round of the contest was Aryan Kusre.
The final round of Sridhara Math Contest was an online quiz with seven finalists shortlisted from the first round of the contest, as above. The quiz was inaugurated by Prof. Nagaraj Neerchal, honourable Vice Chancellor of CVV. Prof. Neerchal and Prof. Gauri Mahulikar, Dean of Faculty, addressed the finalists and wished them.
Raghavendra Bhat, an undergraduate mathematics student at University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA, was the quiz master who drove the quiz with passion and enthusiasm. The quiz had three rounds. The finalists competed hard and performed brilliantly in all the rounds.
At the end of three rounds there was a tie at the third position. The organisers decided to award the third prize to both of them. The final result of the contest is as follows:
1. First Prize: Kanav Talwar
2. Second Prize: Davin Christino Praveen
3. Third Prize: Aishwarya Ajit Abhyankar and Shreyas Karthikeyan
The Sridhara Math Contest 2020 was concluded with a congratulatory note by Prof. Neerchal and Shri Hariharan, Head of Academic Affairs at the Raising a Mathematician Foundation.