9th Mile, Khanapara, Ri Bhoi, December 28, 2023: A three-day long national level training camp for Indian National Mathematics Olympiad (INMO) aspirants was organized in the Department of Mathematics, USTM from 25th to 27th December, 2023 in which 14 participants from various parts of Assam participated. These participants have already cleared two national level competitions viz IOQM (Indian Olympiad Qualifier in Mathematics) held in August 2023 and RMO (Regional Mathematics Olympiad) held in October 2023, which were conducted by HBCSE (Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education) under NBHM (National Board for Higher Mathematics), DAE (Department of Atomic Energy), Government of India.
Under their selection in RMO, they are now eligible to appear in INMO to be held on 21st January 2024. In this context, it may be mentioned that those qualifying in INMO will get a direct selection to study in IITs, ISIs, IISc, and CMI depending on their score marks. Also, a six-member Indian team for IMO is selected from INMO qualifiers after a month-long training camp called IMOTC (International Mathematics Olympiad Training Camp) at HBCSE, Mumbai.
The training camp at USTM was conducted by Dr. Prabin Das, the Regional Coordinator for Assam Region on behalf of HBCSE in collaboration of the Department of Mathematics, USTM where Prof. Anupam Saikia from the Department of Mathematics, IITG, Mr. Alok Kumar from New Delhi, Mr. Pankaj Agarwal from FITJEE, Delhi, Dr. Debashish Sarma from G. C. College, Silchar and Ayan Nath a BS student from CMI (Chennai Mathematical Institute) attended the sessions as resource persons.
Altogether 12 sessions were conducted on the first day. The first two sessions were conducted online by Mr. Alok Kumar from New Delhi who was an observer for the IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad) team from India held in Hong Kong in 2016 and he mainly deliberated on problem-solving techniques in ‘Inequalities’. The afternoon session was done by Sri Ayan Nath, who qualified INMO twice from Assam and ranked second at the national level. Sri Ayan Nath described his experience of the Mathematics Olympiad journey and gave a very motivating speech to the participants. The last session was conducted by Mr. Pankaj Agarwal, a regular Olympiad trainer in Mathematics and he discussed a few important problems on ‘Polynomials’.
The first two sessions on 26th December were conducted by Prof. Anupam Saikia who was the first and only wrangler of Cambridge University from Assam and he deliberated on some interesting problems in Number Theory. The last two sessions were shared by Mr. Pankaj Agarwal and Dr. Debashish Sarma on ‘Geometry’ and ‘Combinatorics’ respectively. Dr Debashish Sarma is also the Coordinator of AMO (Assam Mathematics Olympiad) organised by AAM (Assam Academy of Mathematics).
All four sessions on 27th December, the concluding day of the camp were conducted by Dr. Debashish Sarma and Mr. Pankaj Agarwal again on ‘Combinatorics’ and ‘Geometry’ respectively. The Training Camp concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Prabin Das. All the guests and participants were very happy to see the accommodations and the teaching-learning environment as well as the scenic beauty of the university.