SRM University-AP concluded the second edition of the prestigious four-week intensive Annual Foundation School for Students of Mathematics. The programme, hosted in collaboration with the National Centre for Mathematics, a joint centre of TIRF and IIT, saw 31 students from various Indian universities participate.

The participants were primarily PhD Scholars from universities like IIT Delhi, IISER Tirupathi, IIT Bombay, Jadavpur University, Ashoka University and Kannur University, to name a few. The main objective of the Foundational School was to offer training in fundamental mathematical concepts to Ph.D. scholars, emerging Researchers, and educators.

The four-week intensive training commenced on May 12, 2025, in the presence of Dean-SEAS, Prof. C V Tomy; Head of the Department, Prof. Kalyan Chakraborty; faculty members and students from the Department of Mathematics. The event was also graced by the presence of resource persons and course associates like Prof. Indranath Sengupta, Professor-IIT Gandhinagar; Prof. J. K. Verma, Professor-IIT Gandhinagar; Prof. Nikita Agarwal, Professor-IISER Bhopal; Dr Senthil Rani K S, Assistant Professor-IISER Berhampur; Dr Chaitanya J Kulkarni, Postdoctoral Fellow-IISER Mohali; Prof. Kashyap Rajeevsarathy, Professor-IISER Bhopal; Dr Ramesh Kasilingam, Assistant Professor-IIT Madras; Dr Archana Morye, Assistant Professor, University of Hyderabad, among others. The Foundation School dealt with topics like Algebra II, Analysis II and Topology II.

The Annual Foundation School (AFS) II, offered a stellar opportunity for the participants to engage, learn, and understand mathematical concepts while interacting with students from diverse academic backgrounds. The event concluded on June 07, 2025, and as part of the closing of the four-week foundational school, the university leadership, departmental heads, and faculty felicitated the resource persons with mementos honouring them for their contributions during the foundation course.

The Department of Mathematics at SRM University-AP, Amaravati, successfully conducted a three-day summer programme, Chetna 2.0: Awakening Mathematical Minds, from May 26th to May 28th, 2025. The programme aimed to inspire and deepen mathematical understanding among students nationwide. A total of 84 enthusiastic participants joined from various states, including Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh.

The curriculum was thoughtfully designed to cover a broad spectrum of mathematical topics. Faculty members from the Department of Mathematics led sessions on various subjects, offering a rich and engaging learning experience that ignited a more profound passion for mathematics among the attendees.

Varadha from Kerala shared, “I was able to build on my knowledge from my BSc and learn entirely new concepts. Each faculty member brought their own unique teaching style, which helped boost our confidence, curiosity, and understanding.”

Dr Kalyan Banerjee, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, noted, “At SRM-AP, we have a thriving mathematics department. We hope that during this three-day programme, students will gain valuable insights from our faculty and be introduced to advanced concepts in higher mathematics such as geo-mathematics, applied mathematics, and data science—all trending areas in today’s mathematical landscape. We aim to highlight mathematics’s crucial role in science and technology.”

Speakers List

Prof. Kalyan Chakraborty

Dr Shilpa Garai

Dr Krishanu Roy

Dr Vijayakrishna Rowthu

Dr Animesh Bhandari

Dr Kalyan Banerjee

Dr Priyabrata Mandal

Dr Prakash Chandra

Dr Jayasree Subramanian

Conclusion:
Chetna 2.0: Awakening Mathematical Minds was a resounding success, offering students valuable knowledge and a deeper appreciation for mathematics. The blend of participants from diverse backgrounds and the expertise of the faculty created a dynamic and stimulating environment. The Department of Mathematics at SRM University-AP looks forward to hosting similar initiatives in the future to continue nurturing young mathematical talent across the nation.

The Department of Mathematics organised a guest lecture on May 07, 2025. Dr Krishnarjun Krishnamoorthy, a post-doctoral fellow at the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications delivered an insightful talk on “Large Values of Fourier Coefficients”. He discussed a modification of Soundararajan’s resonance method to produce large values of Fourier coefficients of half-integral weight Hilbert modular forms.

Around 30 participants, including faculty members and research scholars, attended the lecture. Following the talk, a vibrant question-and-answer session allowed attendees to engage deeply with the topic, showcasing their enthusiasm and curiosity.

The event was a great success, fostering academic interest and collaboration within the university. It provided a valuable opportunity for the academic community to interact with an active researcher in the field and gain deeper insights into advanced mathematical topics.

Ms Kaavya R, first-year MSc Mathematics student, has been awarded the prestigious Mitacs Globalink Research Award, a global award for international students. Under this honour, she will pursue a 12–24 week research project titled “Improved Order Computation in Class Groups of Real Quadratic Fields” at the University of Calgary, Canada, under the supervision of Prof. Michael John Jacobson. Prof. Kalyan Chakraborty, her mentor at SRM University-AP, continues to play a pivotal role in her academic journey.

This award offers a grant of $6,000 CAD (approx. ₹3,67,000) and marks Kaavya’s second major research opportunity, following her selection for the IASc-INSA-NASI Summer Research Fellowship, under which she will work at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru, with a monthly stipend of ₹12,500.

Kaavya credits her professors and department faculty for their constant support, especially Prof. Chakraborty, whose mentorship has helped shape her interests in number theory and research.

Kudos to Ms Kaavya for her remarkable achievement and continued success in exploring new mathematical horizons

Dr Surinder Kaur, Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics is making significant contributions to the mathematical community and SRMAP’s research wing, her research on understanding the group rings and addressing challenges such as the isomorphism problem for group algebra through her project has earned her a funding of ₹ 4.28 lakh from the prestigious National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM). Dr Kaur’s impressive research work has become a source of inspiration to many. Given below are some details on her project titled, “On the group rings, their unit groups and some related questions”

A Brief Description of the Project

In this project, we aim at obtaining the structure and generators of the unit group of some group rings with a focus on answering the normal complement problem for them. Our further goal is to solve the celebrated isomorphism problem for group algebras of certain classes of groups, especially the twisted version of this problem for group algebras of nilpotency class at least 3. We also plan to look into certain questions in the representation theory of association schemes that are driven by what happens for group algebras.

Explanation of Research Objectives in layperson’s terms

In the last century, the work of E. Noether, F.G. Frobenius and R. Brauer have established that group rings play a central role in the development of representation theory. Further investigations indicated that these objects also have a great influence on the study of other areas of Mathematics like algebraic number theory, algebraic K-theory and algebraic topology. Moreover, the vital role it has played in the recent development of homological algebra and algebraic coding theory is worth acknowledgement.