top in the placement scene.

In our Institute,
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK now this programme has been accorded the
status of the integrated dual degree, i.e., B
Tech and M Tech together. The popularity of
the programme inspired the academic ad-
ministration to double the seats for students
from the next academic session.

Research output of the Department is one of

the best in the Institute and further attempts
are being made to achieve excellence. Nu-
merous areas of pure and applied mathe-
matics are being explored. Some new hori-
zons of scientific investigations are recently
being observed. The Department, which had
had a humble beginning, possesses now
a three-story building consisting of faculty
chambers, lecture theatres, reading room,
seminar hall, research labs apart from its ad-
Prof. Sanjay Kumar Pandey ministrative unit and computer labs running
in an adjacent building. It is open round the
Mathematics is the divine language created clock. Despite all these, its expansion suffers
by none other than the Almighty Who found- from a shortage of space. But the society is
ed this amazing huge universe based on His optimistic of getting a room soon for its office
formulations in terms of mathematics. Many from the administration.
of His models have been discovered, more
are yet to be discovered but some will remain The Mathematics and Computing Society
a mesmerizing fact even after tremendous was founded to provide our students with
efforts for revelation. Mathematics without a platform to polish their skills and passions
which no one can think of any scientific con- to become great leaders for industry and re-
cept at least for quantitative measurement, search. The mission is to create a distinct iden-
cannot cry for fate. However, it is a miscon- tity for us. To begin with, we have organized
ception among the masses that mathemat- some amateur events while professionalism
ics, the queen of all sciences, is never believed is yet to be developed. Top-ranked JEE qual-
to be in the throne by the industry. ifiers join our academic programme; there is
no dearth of placement offers, and some of
The reality of life, at least in our country, is that our alumni are successful entrepreneurs. But
students are believed to be brilliant if they ex- it is just the end of the beginning. We pray
cel in mathematics but are forced to learn en- “relks ek T;ksfrxZe;” and aspire to achieve more
gineering or technology for the surety of em- and more milestones.
ployment. Even for the great Ramanujan, the
genius in him could not fetch an honourable With pleasure and pride, we bring this maid-
job. We have the tradition to award ‘Bharat en issue of the newsletter to your hands. The
Ratna” posthumously but an unfortunate number of issues to be published will depend
on the information regarding the activities
fact is that he was never considered fit for it.
and achievements we would like to highlight
Some innovative efforts led to the conception and share with the masses. Your comments
of imparting the knowledge of mathematics and criticisms will be appreciated
together with computing. It worked and fi-
nally, the industry acknowledged the crown
of the queen. The academic programme in
mathematics and computing is in great de-
mand which has consequently put it on the
EVENTS CORNER Badminton (Doubles)
Boys
Winner - Sumit and Pankaj Gautam (Ph.D. Part-III)
Runner up - Shashikant Kumar(Project) and Robin Vikram
Singh(Ph.D.Part-II)
CAREER COUNSELLING AND INTER- Girls
ACTIVE SESSION Winner - Pragya Shukla and Diksha Gupta (Ph.D. Part-II)
Runner up - Anuwedita Singh and Swati Yadav (Ph.D. Part-III)

The Mathematics and Computing Society of IIT (BHU)

organized its first event “Career Counselling and Interactive
Session” on the 4th May 2018. The batch of 2018 shared their
TALK ON ACADEMIC WRITING
experiences about different aspects of college life and guided
how to choose career options in the future.

MATHEMATIQ
MathematIQ, a maths quiz was conducted on 6th October
2018. We saw enthusiastic participation from all branches.
This competitive event was conducted exclusively for freshers.
It was held in two rounds, in which they made use of their
mathematical and problem-solving skills.

INTRA-DEPARTMENT SPORTS MEET

Taking part in sports reduces stress and enhances people’s
moods. To encourage such physical well being, and help
people socialize in the society, MACS successfully hosted an
Intra-Department Sports Tournament for cricket, badminton,
volleyball and table tennis and witnessed huge participation
from all years of Ph.D. and IDD.
The winners were:
The reader does not start by knowing what we mean. If our
words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. With this
motto, a talk by Prof. P. K. Panda, on “Significance and Process
of Academic Writing’ was conducted by Mathematics and
Computing Society. Topics like organizational principles in
writing, use of pictorial presentation and formatting were
discussed.

Table tennis (Singles) PYTHON WORKSHOP

Winner - Keshav Seksaria(IDD Part-II)
Runner up - Umesh Kumar(Ph.D. Part-I)

Table tennis (Doubles)

Winner - Keshav Seksaria and Omansh Mathur (IDD Part-II)
Runner up - Umesh Kumar(Ph.D. Part-I) and Manish Chaurasia
(Ph.D. Part-I)

Volleyball
Winner - IDD Part-II
Keshav Seksaria, Vipul Gupta, Rituraj Singh RS (Captain), Rohit
Jhanwar, Yash Gupta, Jogi Miglani, Vishal Teotia, Swapnil
Dhiman, Omansh Mathur
Runner up - IDD Part-III
Swapnil Kaurav, Vaibhav Dikit, Abhishek Sharma, Yadav
Amit Bhupendra Singh, Ashutosh Palania, Anshuman Singh,
Nishant Kumar, Pranshu Prakash, Paladugula Sai Praneetha

Cricket A workshop on Introduction to Python programming was

Winner - Ph. D. Part-I
Amit Kumar Debnath , Umesh Kumar, Yashveer Kumar,
Sandeep Kumar (WK), Siddharth Singh (Captain), Bhagwan
Singh, Robin Vikram Singh (Ph. D. Part-II), Kush Kumar
Mishra, Manish Chaurasia, Jay Singh Maurya (Ph. D. Part-II),
Kunal Verma, Mohd Sartaj, Sunny Singh, Vishal Agrawal, Md
Arzoo Jamal, Pradeep
Runner up - IDD Part-IV
Phanideep, Hitesh, Hitesh, Khushal, Mahesh, Paras, Praveen,
Shubham, Tushar, Navdeep, Ashish, Vishal, Anubhav, Basit
organized by Mathematics and Computing society. The
workshop was held in the Department of Mathematical
Sciences and saw enormous participation. This interactive
workshop was taken by Gaurav Somani and Sourabh Garg,
both experienced in python programming. It started by
giving an introduction about the programming language,
the convenience it offers in solving complex problems and its
use in the emerging field of Machine Learning. It was followed
with the description of various python libraries like numpy,
pandas and sympy that offers a wide range of functionality.
INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES
RUCHIKA MODI HIMANK AIRON
(BATCH OF 2018) (BATCH OF 2018)
(PLACED IN MICROSOFT (PLACED IN ORACLE)
REDMOND) 1. What kind of responsibilities did you
face as TPR head?
1. Taking the decision about accepting/
rejecting PPO always comes with a lot
Being the overall Incharge(TPR head)
of thinking & risk, How did you take that decision? How did
my responsibilities included smooth conduction of all the
you prepare yourself for Redmonds?
Internship and Placement processes throughout the year by
leading a team of more than 80 TPRs. I along with my team
After I received the PPO, I consulted my college alumni who
took a tough stance against malpractices in Online/Written
were in a similar position once and they suggested me to
Tests etc. and other disciplinary actions, which turned out to
accept this offer. Having done an internship at Microsoft, I was
be a major responsibility for me.
very well aware of the company culture, its work ethics and
to start out as a fresher at one of the biggest multinational
2. Placement and internship results of MnC were amazing
technology companies was a great opportunity. My decision of
this year. What were the roles of TPRs in this?
accepting the PPO was also highly motivated by the prospect
to sit for the Redmond round.
I think the students of our branch should be given major
For my preparation, I aimed at learning algorithms, computer
credit here. With increasing coding culture in our campus
science fundamentals and getting in-depth knowledge of the
and guidance by seniors, the students are well prepared in
various data structures. Apart from that, I focused on building
advance for Placements and Internships which led to amazing
a strong resume, maintained a good GPA and prepared
Internships and Placements for our branch. The only credit
thoroughly from previous interview experiences.
that can be given to TPRs was opening of new companies(like
Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, Societe Generale), which enabled
2. What all academic activities were you involved in? What
more opportunities and higher chances of selection.
kind of projects did you do? How were they helpful?

I tried to perform well in my academics and maintain a good

3. Head TPR Title comes with lots of responsibility, How did
GPA throughout my coursework. I have also held the position
you manage between its work and placement process?
of Lab Assistant and Teacher’s Assistant for various courses in
the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Department
To be real frank, that semester was the most stressful time of
of Computer Science. For the last 18 months, I have been
life till now. Most of the time used to go in handling Placement/
working with Dr. Lavanya Selvaganesh, Assistant Professor,
Internship either onsite or remotely (via WhatsApp or calls).
Department of Mathematical Sciences, on Social Network
Being a non-coder it was a hefty task for me to learn everything,
Analysis and developing a publication for the same. Apart
give exams almost daily along with the responsibility of Head
from that, on an individual front, I have worked in the field of
TPR. But with the help of my amazing branch mates and
Machine Learning, Android App Development etc. All these
friends who constantly motivated and tutored me and also
activities have helped me in exploring different fields and
my amazing TPR team which supported my stances and
broadening my horizon to the concepts of computer science
decisions, I was able to get a decent job.
and applied mathematics.
4. How do you see the upcoming placement session for
3. How does it feel to get the highest paid and the most
MnC and institute level?
sought after job in college?
With increasing technology industry in India, I think for
Microsoft Redmond has been my dream offer and it feels
coming few years, I expect to see a steady increase in the
amazing to secure it from campus placements. But to speak
Placements and Internships of our branch. For institute level
fairly and frankly, the offer that has been made to me is an
placements/Internships, the ranking of the institute matters a
overseas one and is the minimum compensation that needs to
lot, but seeing the increase in ranking, the overall Internships
be paid to the international hires. Quoting the compensation
and Placements are also expected to increase with a lot of
after converting it in Indian Currency is inappropriate and
new companies and global giants to be coming in near future.
also the amount quoted is CTC which stands for the Cost to
Company which includes the base salary, bonuses, allowances
and the company shares.
DEBRUP ROY
4. How was your interview experience? Which field related
questions were asked?
CHOWDHURY
(BATCH OF 2019)
The interview for Redmond was a complete package. The
questions ranged from algorithms, data structures, DBMS,
(PLACED IN UBER
operating systems and system design to my hobbies, INTERNATIONAL)
strengths, and weaknesses. I was also asked questions about
my academic and co-curricular activities. As far as I could You interviewed for 4 companies at a time and managed
gauge, the interviewer was very much interested in evaluating to get offers from all of them. How was your experience?
how clear my basics were and how well could I comprehend a
problem and give its solution. I never expected that I would be selected for all four of the
companies I had opted for. So, I focused on them one at a
time.
The main challenge students face in such situations is to
prioritize their options and go for the interviews in that order.
However, in my case, circumstances were a bit easier. Google
had already conducted 4 rounds in Bangalore. So, I had to
attend just one more coding round and an HR round. Uber
started its interviews a couple of hours earlier than other
companies. So, all I had to do in the prime slot was to schedule
Nutanix and Codenation.
I never thought about the results that night and simply enjoyed
solving the problems I was given. Google was the shortest and
smoothest of all with some problems on hashing and tries. I
faced a few challenges in the system design round of Uber.
I asked the interviewer about the exact requirements of the
design and clearly stated the assumptions I was making. The
discussion proved to be really helpful. Nutanix made me write
a long code on paper. The problem was pure implementation
based but the code went on for pages. Codenation had a
broader ended design problem. I had to design a lip reading
software for mute people. From data collection to classification
and error measurement, I had to cover it all.
When the results were declared, I couldn’t believe I had
topped the lists in all 4 companies. Overwhelmed with joy
and spoiled for choice, I contacted my family and my seniors
who finally helped me arrive at the conclusion of accepting
the Uber San Francisco offer.
What are your thoughts about World Finals?
Well, it seems IIT BHU will have to keep waiting for a slot in
the World Finals. TooLazyToPropagate missed by a rank both
in 2017 and in 2018. Like Fort Minor’s “Remember the Name”,
we had the skill, will, pleasure and pain but missed the 10%
luck. We weren’t at our best in the regionals but Codechef
was. So, it remains the dream that never came true. I enjoyed
the journey though, coding with the two best competitive
programmers of our college. From rigorous day-long
Codeforces gym sessions to late night cheese maggi at the
Limbdi canteen, it has been one hell of an experience.
Would you like to share any experience from your college
life?
While I was the Secretary of the Club of Programmers, I
was involved in forming the Competitive Programming
Group. The inspiration came from our seniors and the idea
was implemented by us. Other than workshops with large
audiences, we started conducting sessions for a small group
comprising the best budding competitive programmers in
the college. Our juniors did an excellent job running the group
and made it more mainstream. It gives me utter satisfaction
to be a part of this small change and thereby contribute to the
competitive programming community of IIT BHU.
In general, I have had an awesome experience in college. I
have met the most cooperative department faculty and staff.
I have received guidance from a bunch of talented seniors.
I have seen juniors form groups and societies I wish I had in
my earlier years. The hostel staff and the mess workers have
rendered unconditional service. Perhaps, I saved the best for
the last. Five years of college life have given me the greatest of
friends to cherish for a lifetime.
VIKHYAT CHADHA
(BATCH OF 2019)
(PLACED IN
TOWER RESEARCH)
Please share your placement
experience:
There are quite a few things that I
would like to share:
First of all, the placement experience is a very humble
experience. Everyone stands on level ground once the
placement tests start and it doesn’t matter who you are or
what you’ve done before in college life because at that point
anyone who can crack the test will be selected for the interview
irrespective of whether he’s done Competitive Programming
earlier or not.
One important thing though is everyone gets placed because
we are in Mathematics and Computing branch in an IIT. Hence,
placements are like a safe bet. But, the reward of the chance
depends on your motivation, determination, perseverance,
and luck as well but you will be lucky only if you have worked
hard. So, it all boils down to hard work.
“Never Target a Company”: I have been there, and I know
what happens when you are so determined to get in that
particular company you always wanted to work for, and then
you succumb under pressure and start doing all the wrong
things. You should set goals, and there should be companies
you’re looking at but targetting a single company is a bit too
much. Moreover, when things don’t go as you wanted them to
be, then it affects your performance in other tests as well. So,
just set goals and do not target a single company.
I want to applaud the efforts of our Training and Placement
Cell. It is so nice to see students selflessly working to help other
students achieve their dreams — a salute to the Placement
Cell.
What all fields have you explored and what were your
contributions?
At the end of the first year in college, I started to learn how
to code. I remember that for the first month of the summer
break, I started solving problems on Codechef. I worked hard
the whole summer trying to understand just the basic things
required to code problems efficiently, also read blogs and
articles, anything I could find related to CP.
For the next year, I was wholly dedicated to CP and formed a
team for ACM ICPC( The World Cup of CP) and managed to
secure the 24th rank in India Finals in the third year.
In the summer after the second year, I got an opportunity to
take part in World Quant Summer Training which was also a
competition. I was among the top 20 in the country to reach
the gold level, and hence, I was awarded the opportunity to
become a research consultant for World Quant. Since then, I
had been working with World Quant as a Research Consultant.
That was when I realized that I was more interested and
inclined towards this field of Quant Finance. Since then, I have
advised and motivated many of my juniors and fellow mates
to delve in this field and explore the unbounded scopes of this
field.
Finally, I’d like to say that whatever you chose or do, you will
do justice to it only if you passionate about it. So, choose a
field you are passionate about and work hard, work with a
will, work with reason, and the idea should be to improve your
skills and knowledge. Lastly, always focus on the learning part
rather than the destination or goal part.
A line is very apt for this “Kaabil Bano, Success Jhak Maarte
Peeche Aayegi.”
 NEWS CORNER
ABEL PRIZE
On March 19, 2019, Dr. Karen Uhlenbeck won the Abel Prize
(widely referred to as the Nobel Prize of mathematics) —
creating history in the process by becoming the first ever
woman to win it since its inception in 2003.
She received the award for her pioneering achievements in
geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory, and
integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her
work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics over
the last 40 years.
The $700,000 prize awarded by the Norwegian Academy of
Science and Letters will be presented by King Harald V in Oslo
on May 21.
Uhlenbeck is Visiting Senior Research Scholar at Princeton
University as well as Visiting Associate at the Institute for
Advanced Study (IAS). She is one of the founders of the Park
City Mathematics Institute (PCMI) at IAS. She is also the co-
founder of the Institute’s Women and Mathematics program
(WAM) created in 1993.
About the Abel Prize
The Abel Prize recognizes contributions to the field of
mathematics that are of extraordinary depth and influence.
It is presented annually in Oslo by His Majesty King Harald V,
and is administered by the Norwegian Academy of Science
and Letters on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Education
and Research.
The prize amount is NOK 6 million. The choice of laureate
is based on the recommendations of the Abel Committee,
which is composed of five internationally recognized
mathematicians. The Abel Prize was established in 2002 on
the 200th anniversary of Niels Henrik Abel’s birth, and it has
been awarded to 19 laureates.
FIELDS MEDAL
Akshay Venkatesh, a renowned Indian-Australian
mathematician, was recently awarded the Fields Medal,
which is awarded once every four years and to people who
have made ‘Profound Contributions’ in Mathematics prior to
becoming 40 years old!
The Fields Medal Committee recognized Venkatesh “for his
synthesis of analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics,
topology, and representation theory, which has resolved
long-standing problems in areas such as the equidistribution
of arithmetic objects.”
His research has been recognized with many awards,
including the Ostrowski Prize, the Infosys Prize, the Salem
Prize, and Sastra Ramanujan Prize.
The other three winners of Fields Medal are Caucher Birkar,
a Cambridge University professor of Iranian Kurdish origin;
Germany’s Peter Scholze, who teaches at the University of
Bonn and Alessio Figalli, an Italian mathematician at ETH
Zurich.
Akshay Venkatesh is an Australian mathematician and was a
professor at Stanford University. He is a professor at (since 2018)
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA. His research
interests are in the fields of counting, equidistribution
problems in automorphic forms and number theory.
About the Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as the “International medals
for outstanding discoveries in mathematics” is the highest
scientific award for mathematicians, and is presented every
four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians
by the International Mathematical Union to one or more
outstanding researchers under 40 years of age, together with
a prize of 15,000 Canadian dollars.
The first Fields Medal was awarded in 1936 at the World
Congress in Oslo. The Fields Medal is made of gold and shows
the head of Archimedes (287-212 BC) together with a quotation
attributed to him: “Transire suum pectus mundoque potiri”
(“Rise above oneself and grasp the world”). The reverse side
bears the inscription: “Congregati ex toto orbe mathematici
ob scripta insignia tribuere” (“the mathematicians assembled
here from all over the world pay tribute for outstanding
work”).
 ARTICLE CORNER
SUM-OF-THREE-CUBES PROBLEMSOLVED
FOR ‘STUBBORN’ NUMBER 33
A NUMBER THEORIST WITH PROGRAMMING PROWESS HAS FOUND A SOLUTION
TO 33 = X³ + Y³ + Z³, A MUCH-STUDIED EQUATION THAT WENT UNSOLVED FOR
64 YEARS.
Mathematicians long wondered whether it’s
possible to express the number 33 as the sum of
three cubes — that is, whether the equation 33 =
x³+ y³+ z³ has a solution. They knew that 29 could
be written as 3³ + 1³ + 1³, for instance, whereas 32 is
not expressible as the sum of three integers each
raised to the third power. But the case of 33 went
unsolved for 64 years.
Now, Andrew Booker, a mathematician at
the University of Bristol, has finally cracked it:
He discovered that (8,866,128,975,287,528)³ +
(–8,778,405,442,862,239)³ + (–2,736,111,468,807,040)³
= 33.
Booker found this odd trio of 16-digit integers by
devising a new search algorithm to sift them out of
quadrillions of possibilities. The algorithm ran on a
university supercomputer for three weeks straight.
(He says he thought it would take six months,
but a solution “popped out before I expected it.”)
When the news of his solution hit the internet
earlier this month, fellow number theorists and
math enthusiasts were feverish with excitement.
According to a Numberphile video about the
discovery, Booker himself literally jumped for joy
in his office when he found out.
Why such elation? Part of it is the sheer
difficulty of finding such a solution. Since 1955,
mathematicians have used the most powerful
computers they can get their hands on to search
the number line for trios of integers that satisfy
the “sum of three cubes” equation k = x³ + y³ + z³,
where k is a whole number. Sometimes solutions
are easy, as with k = 29; other times, a solution is
known not to exist, as with all whole numbers that
leave behind a remainder of 4 or 5 when divided
by 9, such as the number 32.
But usually, solutions are “nontrivial.” In these cases,
the trio of cubed integers — like (114,844,365)³ +
https://www.quantamagazine.org/sum-of-three-cubes-problem-solved-for-stubborn-number-33-20190326/
(110,902,301)³ + (–142,254,840)³, which equals 26
— looks more like a lottery ticket than anything
with predictable structure. For now, the only way
for number theorists to discover such solutions is
to play the mathematical “lottery” over and over,
using the brute force of computer-assisted search
to try different combinations of cubed integers,
and hope for a “win.”
But even with increasingly powerful computers
and more efficient algorithms thrown at the
problem, some whole numbers have stubbornly
refused to yield any winning tickets. And 33 was
an especially stubborn case: Until Booker found
his solution, it was one of only two integers left
below 100 (excluding the ones for which solutions
definitely don’t exist) that still couldn’t be
expressed as a sum of three cubes. With 33 out of
the way, the only one left is 42.
The reason it took so long to find a solution for 33
is that searching far enough up the number line
— all the way to 1016, or ten quadrillion, and just as
far down into the negative integers — for the right
numerical trio was computationally impractical
until Booker devised his algorithm. “He has not just
run this thing on a bigger computer compared
to the computers 10 years ago — he has found
a genuinely more efficient way of locating the
solutions,” said Tim Browning, a number theorist
at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.
Previous algorithms “didn’t know what they
were looking for,” Booker explained; they could
efficiently search a given range of integers for
solutions to k = x³ + y³ + z³ for any whole number
k, but they weren’t able to target a specific one,
like k = 33. Booker’s algorithm could, and thus it
works “maybe 20 times faster, in practical terms,”
he said, than algorithms that take an untargeted
approach.
Article by - John Pavlus
 STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY
CURRENT EXECUTIVE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE SESSION (2018-19) ARE:

PATRON : Prof. TANMOY SOM

(HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES)

Core Team
President : Prof. Sanjay Kumar Pandey
Treasurer : Dr. Rajesh Kumar Pandey
Vice President : Mohammad Basit (IDD Part 4)
General Secretary : Manushi Gupta (Ph.D.)
Joint General Secretary : Vaibhav Dixit (IDD Part 3)

Events Team Resource & Development Team

Faculty Supervisor : Dr. Vineet Kumar Singh Faculty Supervisor : Prof. Santwana Mukhopadhyay
Secretary : Akash Aggarwal (IDD Part 4) Secretary : Anuwedita Singh (Ph.D.)
Jt. Secretary : Srijita Tiwari (IDD Part 4) Jt. Secretary : Shubham Gautam (IDD Part 4)

Publications and Alumni Team

Faculty Supervisor v: Dr. Lavanya Selvaganesh
Secretary : Deeksha Kaurav (IDD Part 4)
Jt. Secretary : Apoorv Bansal (IDD Part 3)

EDITORIAL BOARD
Faculty Editor Dr. Lavanya Selvaganesh

Student Editors Deeksha Kaurav, Apoorv Bansal

Design credits Ayush Shukla(Bio-Chemical Part-3)
Amit Meena (Electrical Engg. Part 2)
Team
Yash Patel, Vipul Gupta, Shreya Munshi, Mitisha Pandey, Aryan Patel,
Shourrya Srivastava