V Kamakoti (right), director IIT Madras and Sadagopan Rakesh introduce the course on Out of the Box Thinking through mathematics Source: IIT Madras
In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) will launch a course on 'Out of the Box Thinking' through mathematics to encourage innovative thinking. The institute is targeting as many as one million school and college students, besides working professionals and researchers as well, through this course.
The course will be offered online, free of cost through IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, a section 08 company of IIT Madras. The same will also issue the Grade Certification for students who take the examinations against a nominal fee. The final examination will be a proctored one conducted at centres in select cities across India.
The four graded independent levels of the course will be easily accessible to students, professionals and researchers in India as well as foreign countries
The first batch of the course is scheduled to commence on July 1, 2022. Registrations will close on June 24, 2022. Those interested can register through the following link - https://www.pravartak.org.in/out-of-box-thinking.html
Explaining the need for such courses, V. Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said, “This course is a first-of-its-kind in India and will make a major impact in the days to come. The course is being offered free of cost. It will greatly benefit school and college students, especially those residing in rural India."
He added, "Out of the box thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic. In this unique course, such thinking is emphasized through rediscovering the known and unknown facts of mathematics logically with an interesting broader perception of the manner of doing it."
The courses will be taught by Sadagopan Rajesh, Mathematics educator and founder-director of Aryabhatta Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Speaking on the initiative, Rajesh said, “If we approach mathematics with discipline and passion, not necessarily in a formal way, but realize the subject with more logical and analytical reasoning, we can broaden our thinking. The important output is the development of skills which are essential to fit and effectively contribute in a rapidly changing technological world."