Liking for Math brings student laurels

CHENNAI: A keen interest in Maths has served Ananth Shankar well; first, by getting him a seat at the Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI), and, second, bagging him a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (July 10-22) in Germany earlier this year. After registering for his B.Sc (hons) degree in Maths and Computer Science at the CMI on Thursday, the youngster said he had been working out Math exercises for about 15 minutes a day since he was a child because he enjoyed it. This increased subsequently as he grew up.
"I would have already learnt what was being taught in school since I would go through the portions in advance and seek my father's help to clear doubts. I cleared the Indian National Maths Olympiad two years ago and attended a month-long training camp conducted by the National Board for Higher Mathematics at Mumbai. Though I didn't make it to the international team of six person then, I received postal coaching from professors at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and got selected this year," he said.
His mother N Usha Rani is a computer scientist, his father Shiva Shankar a professor at the CMI and brother Arul Shankar is pursuing his Ph.D in Maths at Princeton University. Ananth said his brother had missed out on qualifying for the international Olympiad team by one point. Though teachers at his school, KV CLRI, were encouraging, Ananth said it was important to know how to apply concepts learnt at school to solve an Olympiad problem. Sunday classes held by the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India (AMTI) and the Aryabhatta Institute could help in this regard, he added.
According to M Mahadevan, general secretary of AMTI which conducts the first selection exam for the Olympiad, there is a need for school teachers to identify talent in students and develop potential. "Since they [teachers] are struggling to cope with the syllabus, genuine talent is totally neglected in the present system. The lethargy in schools and the practice of being bogged down by routine needs to be shaken," he said. India placed 28th at the IMO this year while China came first, Turkey came eighth, Belarus tenth and Serbia 22nd. Conceding that the country's performance was not great, Ananth remained confident that it would get better. "We will definitely get a couple of gold medals next year since three of us can repeat participation then. Our ranking has improved over the last couple of years and I'm sure it will only get better," he said.
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