PROMYS India is a challenging six-week summer programme designed to encourage mathematically talented secondary school students (Standards IX - XII) to explore the creative world of mathematics.

Non-credit

Residential

Financial Aid

Final project

PROMYS India is a partnership of PROMYS with Indian Institute of Science (IISc). A challenging six-week summer programme, PROMYS India is designed to encourage mathematically talented secondary and higher secondary students to explore the creative world of mathematics. Exposed to mathematics that is both beautiful and daunting, participants learn not just as students but as scientists.

Thanks to the generosity of its sponsors, PROMYS India will be free of charge to all participants for at least the first year of the programme.

Programme Goals
PROMYS India aims to provide an environment for talented young people that will encourage curiosity and a deep personal involvement with the creative and collaborative elements of mathematics and science. It is designed to encourage habits of thought that will lead to scientific independence and creativity. At the same time, it seeks to foster interaction between the PROMYS India community and the larger community of research mathematicians and scientists currently working in academia and industry.

The emphasis at PROMYS India is on asking good and creative questions, on hard work and persistence, on clarity of thought and precision of expression, on depth of understanding, on respect for people and ideas, and on the sheer joy of acquiring mathematical insight. PROMYS India participants are asked to push themselves beyond the limits of their knowledge. They are given a richly interactive environment within which to learn, explore, and build friendships.

Multi-tiered Mathematical Community
PROMYS India creates a highly stimulating, supportive, and collaborative mathematical community comprised of talented pre-university students, undergraduate counsellors, faculty, and visiting mathematicians. Students are advised by resident counsellors: undergraduates who are embarking on their own mathematical careers at some of the finest universities. Returning students, who have spent one or more prior summers at PROMYS, are a further source of enrichment. Senior mathematicians are a regular resource providing mathematical support and encouragement to the students. First-year students, returning students, and counsellors are all housed near each other in residence halls at Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Number Theory
First-year students devote the bulk of their time to working on very carefully constructed sets of challenging Number Theory problems. Students can choose to work on these problems independently or in collaboration with others. Their efforts are supported by their individually assigned counsellors and by the whole community of counsellors, returning students, faculty, and visiting mathematicians. Students are supported, advised, instructed, encouraged, and given daily feedback on their work, but no-one at PROMYS India will ever deprive a student of the fruits of their own mathematical struggles by handing out solutions to the problems.

The daily Number Theory lectures are given by Professor Varma. They help the students to synthesise and formalise the mathematical understanding they have acquired through their intensive work on the daily problem sets. For this reason, the material in the lectures lags at least three days behind the material in the daily problem sets.

First-Year Labs
In addition to the Number Theory, first-year students may choose to undertake a First-Year Exploration Lab in which 3 or 4 students tackle an open-ended project under the guidance of a counselor and faculty. At the end of the summer, each group presents their findings to the entire community and writes up their work as a research paper.

Advanced Seminars
It is central to the success of PROMYS India that returning students and counsellors encounter as much mathematical challenge and enrichment as the first-year students. There are therefore Advanced Seminars each summer designed primarily for returning students.

Returning Student Labs
Returning students also engage in research projects mentored by professional mathematicians. Like the first-year students, returning students present their findings to the community at the end of the summer session and convert their research results into a research paper.

Guest Lectures and Minicourses
The regular programme activities are supplemented by a wide range of lectures by faculty and guests of the programme. These lectures introduce participants to related scientific fields and include discussions of a broad range of mathematical and maths-related topics. Additionally, the counsellors give lectures on topics of special interest and also organise minicourses on topics of their choosing.

The day begins with the mandatory morning Number Theory lecture which meets for an hour and a half each morning from Monday through Friday. Overall, participants spend most of their time working independently or in small groups on the problem sets distributed daily at the end of morning lecture. The problem sets will encourage students to design their own numerical experiments and to employ their own powers of observation to discover mathematical patterns, to formulate and test conjectures, and to justify their ideas by devising their own mathematical proofs.

Students continue to work on problem sets throughout the day (and frequently the evening too). Counsellors review the work of their 3 or 4 students and provide individual feedback and support. Students often choose to work in communal areas where counselors are always available

Many first-year students also meet in small groups to work on first-year labs, supervised by counsellors and faculty. Returning students will have the opportunity to work on research projects proposed by professional mathematicians.

Other Activities
During the six weeks of the programme, participants devote the bulk of their time and attention to mathematics. However, counsellors and faculty will organise some non-mathematical activities and outings. Some of these will be optional and based on demand.

In addition, students and counsellors will be able to participate in informal activities such as sports and music (students may wish to bring their musical instruments) using facilities on the IISc campus. It is not unusual for participants to enjoy playing card games or chess.

The friendships built at PROMYS are very frequently deep and long-lasting.

PROMYS India

May 07 - Jun 17

6 weeks

Residential

0 USD

Financial Aid

Full Scholarships
Every student accepted to PROMYS India, for at least the first year of the programme, will be awarded a full scholarship which will cover all participation costs: tuition, housing, meals, approved travel, and any required books.

There are no financial eligibility requirements or income cutoffs for participation in PROMYS India.

These scholarships are thanks to the generosity and vision of the programme's founding sponsors: Nick Nash and Phalgun Raju, Co-founders of Morph.org; and Avi and Sandra Nash of the Indira Foundation – and to funding from the Packard Foundation.

A number of students will be supported by Jay Pullur Fellowships.

It is central to the conception of PROMYS India that the programme remain accessible to students based on their mathematical ability and mathematical interest, not on family finances. PROMYS India is determined that, over the coming years, the cost of participation will continue to be subsidised for all students and that scholarships or financial aid (up to the full cost of participation including travel expenses) will always be available to ensure students can attend regardless of their financial background.