Microsoft summer school on algorithms, complexity

Bangalore, May 18: To trigger new ideas among undergraduates to take up post graduate courses, Microsoft Research India in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, will hold a three-week summer school focusing on algorithms, complexity and cryptography.

The school, to be held at the IISc campus here from May 22 had attracted 80 participants, including students, faculty members and research scholars and was the first of its kind in the country, Microsoft Research India Managing Director P Anandan told newspersons here today.

He said that though the capability of undergraduates in the country was recognised world over, the number of post graduates emerging in the country was relatively small and the three-week school aimed at triggering the passion for research among top notch students in the country.

The summer school, which would become annual affair, would introduce students and young researchers to important new areas and results in the cryptography field that was not available in text books or covered in acadcemic institutions' regular syllabi, Prof Ramarathnam Venkatesan of Microsoft Research India said.

The participants would learn from leading international experts and network with the global research community, he added.

The lectures would cover various topics, including signal processing for applications with a security twist, authentication, hasing and water marking, pair-based cryptosystems, a cryptographer's view of system security and recent problems in Linear Algebra.

World leaders in their respective fields would share their expertise at the school.

The IISc Maths Initiative, which had been set up to foster interdisciplinary collaborations between faculty members of the Institute with mathematics as the common theme, was the Co-organiser.

Prof G Rangarajan of Department of Mathematics said the current period was a golden era for mathematics as several inquiries were pouring in every week from the corporate sector seeking post graduates in the subject. Hardly 30 PGs in Mathematics emerged annually from good institutions across the country. The school aimed at creating enthusiasm among students to pursue mathematics at the PG level.

To a question, he said there was shortage of faculty in mathematics.

UNI