IIT Madras targets one million school and college students through course on ‘Out of the Box Thinking’

To foster innovative thinking, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras will establish a course on 'Out of the Box Thinking' using Mathematics. This course, which is a first-of-its-kind effort in the country, is aimed at as many as one million school and college students, as well as working professionals and researchers.

The course will be available in an online format for free through IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, a Section 8 company of IIT Madras that will also award Grade Certification to students who take the tests for a charge. The final examination will be proctored and administered at locations across India. The course is being made available in an online format, free of charge, to everyone in India and around the world. Students, professionals and researchers will have easy access to the four graded independent levels of the courses.

The first cohort of students will begin the course on July 1, 2022. The deadline for registration is June 24, 2022. Those interested should visit https://www.pravartak.org.in/out-of-box-thinking.html to register.

Sadagopan Rajesh, Mathematics Educator and Founder-Director of Aryabhatta Institute of Mathematical Sciences, will teach the courses. He has been encouraging pupils with a variety of creative courses for the past 30 years among a diverse spectrum of students, both school and college, starting at the age of ten. He has also been running nurture programmes for students from elementary to high school, instilling a love of problem-solving in them and leading to Mathematical and other Olympiads.

"If we approach mathematics with discipline and passion, not necessarily in a formal fashion, but rather by realising the subject with more logical and analytical reasoning, we may widen our thinking," Rajesh said of the effort. The development of abilities that are required to integrate into and contribute effectively in a quickly changing technological world is a significant outcome." 

Explaining the need for such courses, Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “This course is a first of its kind in India and will make a major impact in the days to come. We will see the benefits of this course in the next few years. The course is being offered free of cost. This course will greatly benefit the school and college students, especially those residing in rural India.” Further, Prof Kamakoti said, “‘Out of the box’ thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic. In this unique course, such thinking is emphasised through rediscovering the known and unknown facts of mathematics logically with an interesting broader perception of the manner of doing it.”

The course will cover a variety of problem-solving techniques, dispelling the misconception that problem-solving is reserved for a chosen few. It will explain new strategies in a straightforward manner, preparing users to tackle real-world projects with confidence and simplicity. Because logic runs through the study of Mathematics, it is critical to cultivate broader thinking through its applications in the ever-changing world of technology. The logic of working is far more significant than the arithmetic involved in any task, from finishing a fun Sudoku puzzle to completing an important scheduled assignment. This necessitates innovative thinking and a larger perspective, which is commonly referred to as "out of the box" thinking.