IIT-Madras’ new ‘thinking’ course targets one million students

IIT Madras on Monday launched a first of its kind course--Out of the Box Thinking--to encourage innovative thinking among students.
IIT-Madras (File photo| Sunish P Surendran, EPS)
IIT-Madras (File photo| Sunish P Surendran, EPS)

CHENNAI: IIT Madras on Monday launched a first of its kind course--Out of the Box Thinking--to encourage innovative thinking among students. It will present multiple approaches to problem-solving, introduce new techniques in an easy-to-understand fashion, and prepare users to face real-life projects with confidence and ease and all this will be done through mathematics.

V Kamakoti
V Kamakoti

“With logic being the undercurrent in the study of mathematics, it is essential to develop broader thinking, through its applications in the expanding world of technology. From solving a fun Sudoku puzzle to completing an important scheduled project, the logic of working is much more important than the arithmetic involved.

This requires creative thinking and a broader perception that is often known as out-of-the-box thinking,” said IIT Madras director V Kamakoti. He said teaching is not just through blackboards but using traditional games such as Pallanghuzi, a traditional ancient game played in South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala, that imbibe mathematical insights and manipulations.

He added that the institute is targeting as many as one million school and college students, besides working professionals and researchers to enrol in this course. The online course will be offered free of cost through IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, which will also issue the grade certification for students who take the examinations at a nominal fee. The final examination will be a proctored one conducted at centres in select cities across India.

The first batch of the course is scheduled to commence on July 1 and registrations will close on June 24. Those interested can register through https://www.pravartak.org.in/out-of-box-thinking.html.

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