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EPSILON INDIA
A GATHERING OF CHILDREN CAPTIVATED BY MATH
2023 Report
Raising A Mathematician Foundation (RAM Foundation) is delighted to present Epsilon India!
Epsilon Camp serves promising young Mathematicians in the age group of 9 to 13 and their families through an intensive student program and parent workshop.
EPSILON INDIA 2024
Gifted Math Summer Camp
Date: April 27th to May 10th, 2024
Location: Prayoga Institute of Education Research, Bangalore.
HOW TO APPLY
WHY EPSILON?
CURRICULUM
Epsilon Camp will engage children in the age group of 9 through 12 in a challenging and intense summer camp. We are looking for evidence of Mathematical maturity and interest through teacher recommendations, performance on our qualifying pre-test and parent questionnaire. Please check 'How to Apply' section.
Just as an early start in foreign language, or musical precocity is readily encouraged, an early start in Mathematics is beneficial for the child who shows passion and ability. Epsilon Camp is for the extraordinary of such cases - children who not only are exceptionally or profoundly gifted but who also love Mathematics. The curriculum and pedagogy in most schools do not serve these outliers. Click here to read Dr. Thomas' opinion on the need for gifted Math camps for young Mathematicians.
We provide a rich environment, exposing the children to some of the most substantial Mathematical ideas of the last two thousand years. We have developed a curriculum that is both accessible and challenging to the brightest of young minds. With professional Mathematicians as our faculty, we are able to stretch any part of this material to challenge all campers. Click to read about some of the courses that will be covered.
OUR MISSION
Building the Future
Values
• Mentorship
connecting young minds with professional Mathematicians
• Collaboration
collegiality instead of competition and comparison
• Broad View
breadth and depth of the field rather than acceleration
• Contribution
willing and confident participation
• Respect
mutual appreciation of diverse abilities and efforts
Camp Life
While academics is the focus, Epsilon India Camp is also the place for these children to meet like-minded peers.
Camp Highlights
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Provide Enrichment Vs Acceleration. This will help develop the skills that are required to solve complex problems which require both perseverance and creativity.
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Exposure to Mathematical ideas that are required for working on some of the complex problems in Mathematics and any of its allied fields including Economics, Computer Science, Finance, Health care, etc.
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Interactions with professionals who are at the top of their game and who can engage with these profoundly gifted children in a meaningful way, both academically and socially.
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Opportunity to engage with other gifted children and parents thereby serving as a milieu for not only the academic growth but also the social and emotional growth of these unique and gifted children.
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Creating a community of collaborative learners and educators. We envision that this will help create the thinkers and statesman of tomorrow, who are confident, articulate and empathetic towards the problems faced by our society and who have had the opportunity to develop the skills required to solve these complex issues.
Skills Development
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Learn to analyze problems deeply and question critically.
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Develop critical analysis and reasoning skills.
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Collaborate and facilitate discussion-based problem solving skills.
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Organize and present ideas thoughtfully.
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Develop growth mindset and be willing to use various exploratory methods to approach a problem.
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Develop perseverance to work on complex problems.
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Develop Mathematical maturity and confidence to interact and collaborate with thought leaders.
Parent Program
Camp is for you too!
Epsilon India Camp tuition includes a Parent Program designed to support parents in nurturing mathematical and social growth in their exceptionally gifted children. Workshops feature a range of speakers including Epsilon India Camp faculty, giving a glimpse of camp curriculum. Other topics include educational planning options and strategies. The camp fee also includes a parent program that is curated for parents raising a gifted child. Parents can attend these sessions live online or view recorded sessions.
FACULTY & STAFF
Passionate Educators
Epsilon India is proud to have staff who are passionate about making a difference in students lives. Get to know each of our team members below.
Dr. GEORGE R. THOMAS
Founder of Epsilon USA and Academic guide and Faculty for Epsilon India
Dr. George R. Thomas is one of the most experienced in the world in organizing and running summer programs for students showing high promise in Mathematics. He founded the prestigious Canada/USA MathCamp, MathPath and Epsilon Camp. He stresses to the students that "Mathematics is the language of form". Dr. Thomas’ research has ranged over Semigroups and Extremal Graph Theory with forays in Analytical Number Theory. See Dr. Thomas' views on the need for Epsilon Camp in India.
Dr. S. MURALIDHARAN
Faculty
Dr. S Muralidharan obtained his Ph D in Mathematics from TIFR.
Dr. S Muralidharan has had the distinction of not only being at the helm of technology with his work in the private sector but has also pursued his passion for academia. He has written more than 70 articles on Mathematics in various journals. He has published 4 books, the latest one titled Combinatorics for Mathematical Olympiads was released in January 2019. He is also the Chief Examination Coordinator for the official Mathematical Olympiads in India conducted by MTA (I). He is actively involved with the Mathematics Olympiad program of AMTI for several years.
At TCS he worked on Algorithms and Data Science and headed the Decision Sciences and Algorithms Lab and retired on 30th Oct 2019. Dr. S Muralidharan has a keen desire to spread the use of technology in the teaching of Mathematics at school level and is looking forward to bringing his expertise in Mathematics and Technology to the students at Epsilon.
VINAY NAIR
Executive Director
Vinay is passionate about gifted and K-12 Mathematics Education. He enjoys working with students from all across the country through his online and offline sessions where he focuses on building reasoning skills, creativity and inquiry through Mathematical thinking. As the co-founder of Raising a Mathematician foundation, Vinay has had the pleasure of mentoring both profoundly gifted students and students with a strong dislike for Mathematics. He is equally thrilled to see his students pursue careers in serious Mathematics in institutions such as the Chennai Mathematical Institute or take the skills learnt from studying Mathematics and apply it productively to other areas of life. Vinay is also the founder of Vichar Vatika, an organization that aims at focusing on the long term goals of Mathematics Education and has worked on areas of curriculum development, inquiry-oriented education and working towards understanding causes of math phobia with NCERT. Vinay has a deep interest about history of Mathematics and the place of India in the history of Mathematics. He founded School of Vedic Maths to spread the knowledge about history of Indian Mathematics and use of Vedic Mathematics as a tool to create a love for numbers. He has authored two books and an online course on Vedic Mathematics for Chinmaya International Foundation. Vinay has given two TEDx talks on two of his main interests, 'Goals of Mathematics Education' and 'History of Mathematics'.
R. HARIHARAN
Academic Advisor
Hari Ramasubramanian is Assistant Professor of Managerial Accounting at Frankfurt School. He holds a PhD in Accounting (2021) from Michigan State University. From 2019 to 2021 he was a Deloitte doctoral fellow. Hari holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Accounting from the University of Mumbai, India and has been an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) since 2010 and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) since April 2017. He achieved the highest score on the CMA exam in February 2017 and was also an All India Rank Holder in CAPE-I (May 2004) and CAPE-II (November 2005).
Before joining the PhD program in 2016, Hari worked at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and co-founded the Raising a Mathematician Foundation (RAMF) where he led academic affairs. He has also been an instructor for students pursuing Chartered Accountancy (CA) degrees in India. He has extensive experience in the education field and has taught preparatory courses from Bachelor to Master. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) recognized his achievements in education in 2015.
His research focuses on how organizations can use a variety of control tools to improve organizational and employee outcomes. His research topics include in particular cost management, performance measurement and anti-fraud mechanisms.
He has spoken at numerous international conferences and published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Issues in Accounting Education, and the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Past speakers and faculty
Dr. Manjul Bhargava
Fields Medalist and Padma Bhushan
Prof. Rajeeva L. Karandikar
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee and former director of Chennai Mathematical Institute
Prof. Prithwijit De
Asst. Prof. at TIFR, National Coordinator for Mathematical Olympiad
Dr. Aditya Karnataki
Asst. Prof. at Chennai Mathematical Institute and Associate Director of PROMYS India
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Dr. Reshma Menon
Preceptor, Harvard University
Prof. K V Subrahmanyam
Dr. Pradeep Sreenivasaih
Dr. Rajiv Gandhi
Dr. Hariom Jani
Swami Anukoolananda
The Dean of studies at
Chennai Mathematical Institute
Computational Systems Biologist currently working as an AI Researcher Technical Program Manager at Google
Rutgers University-Camden,
Founder of PACT
Post Doc researcher at Oxford University
Director of Chinmaya International Residential School and monk at Chinmaya Mission
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Dr. Sunitha Shanker
Ramya Modukuri
Prof. Anup Dixit
Dr. Shivkumar
Dr. M. D. Srinivas
Clinical Psychologist
College & Career Counsellor
Assistant Professor at Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
PhD from Electronics and Communications Engineering Department in IISc
Founder Chairman of Centre for Policy studies and a world-renowned historian in science and technological studies from Indian traditions.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHO IS SERVED BY EPSILON CAMP ?
Epsilon Camp is designed to meet the abilities and needs of children from 9 to 13 years who are at the highest levels of quantitative reasoning and Mathematical learning ability. The goal is to introduce concepts, opportunities, mentors, teachers, and fellow students who are comparably gifted in all things Mathematical.
HOW DO I REALLY KNOW IF MY CHILD IS SHOWING HIGH PROMISE IN MATH?
There are several aspects which collectively identify such a child.
a. Excited about Math.
b. Greater mastery of content and skills relative to peers.
c. Finds Math classwork too easy and even boring.
d. Rapid comprehension. That is, the child learns not only in Math but also in other fields at faster pace and greater depth than same-age peers.
e. Long pre-occupation in difficult efforts like a chess champion in a long game.
WHERE IS THE CAMP GOING TO BE HELD?
The sessions will be conducted at Prayoga Institute of Education Research, Bangalore.
We urge you to go to the "How to Apply" section of the website and download and start on the qualifying tests. These tests will take time to complete, and you should give the student enough time to work on it.
What will be the food and accommodation facility?
The stay will be on a twin/triple sharing basis with self-contained bathrooms at Suvarnamukhi Samskriti Dhama which is located about 3 kms close to Prayoga. The food facilities at the camp exclusively serve vegetarian food.
HOW TO APPLY FOR THE CAMP?
I HAVE SOME MORE QUESTIONS. HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU?
Please send us an email at epsiloncampindia@gmail.com
WHO WILL BE WORKING WITH THE STUDENTS?
The students will be taught by professional Mathematicians, Scientists, Computer Scientists and Statisticians from academia as well as the industry. Participants will also have access to Teaching Assistants to help them with homework and other academic questions. There will be counselors to take care of the students' socio-emotional needs.
MY CHILD IS GOOD AT MATH BUT NOT EXCITED ABOUT MATH. WILL THIS CAMP TRAIN MY CHILD?
The camp is meant for children who love Math and are excited by Math. It is not a training/coaching camp. The child's interest in doing the exploratory pre-test, is a good indication of the interest and ability of the child.
WHAT IS THE COST OF THE PROGRAM?
See Camp Donation
We do rolling admissions so apply early! Please take the qualifying test and complete the application process. Look at "How to Apply" section.
YOU SAY EPSILON IS AN ENRICHMENT PROGRAM. CAN YOU EXPLAIN?
[This section on Enrichment Program was written by Dr. George R. Thomas, founder of Epsilon Camp, who has worked for over a quarter century with precocious students]. [1]
Math enrichment means richer learning in Math. It might take a long essay to explain what this means for students showing high promise in Math. It is easier to list the things that are not enrichment.
a. Enrichment is not rote learning (Rote learning means, learning facts and acquiring skill through repetition). Rote learning, however, does have its place, especially in practicing to put to memory a procedure or information that will be needed often, an example being multiplication table. But repeated tasks involving either the application or clarification of a concept is the rote learning that is not enrichment; an example is the use of quadratic formula.
b. Enrichment is not acceleration or compaction.
Acceleration means taking a higher-level course. Compaction means compacting or reducing the time allowed to master a course. In acceleration as well as compaction, the course proceeds in a shallow way. Both of these are easily made available in any school setting and are the easy go-to, but they are not sufficient due to lack of depth.
c. Enrichment is not math competitions.
This is what teachers and parents' resort to for a child who is highly gifted in Math. This is appropriate and fun for precocious children, but it is not enrichment.
"These competitions are fun, interesting, and educationally effective for the people who are successful in them. But they also have a downside. The competitions reinforce the notion that either you ‘have good math genes’, or you do not. They put an emphasis on being quick at the expense of being deep and thoughtful. They emphasize questions which are puzzles with some hidden trick, rather than more realistic problems where a systematic and persistent approach is important. This discourages many people who are not as quick or as practiced but might be good at working through problems when they have the time to think through them. Some of the best performers on the contests do become good mathematicians, but there are also many top mathematicians who were not so good on contest math. Quickness is helpful in mathematics, but it is only one of the qualities which is helpful" [2].
So, what is Math enrichment for the precocious? A model proposed is for enrichment to allow "quicker students to work through the material in greater depth and to take excursions into related topics, before racing ahead of their age group" [2]. But this is not possible in a general classroom setting even if the teacher possesses a bedrock of conceptual understanding, for not all students in the class in most schools are at the same level of precocity unlike those in a summer program for the precocious.
In an enrichment program for students showing high promise, topics must have depth and rigor and lead to confidence and capacity for the student. When the very source of a concept is seen, one can begin to appreciate it in a fundamental way and also see the connections with other areas. An enrichment program of this kind needs two parties: students showing high promise and mathematicians who are excited about mentoring the future mathematicians and who have taken particular care to be non-assertive mediators. This is the practice goal of Epsilon Camp.
Mission of Epsilon Camp: Epsilon Camp connects precocious children to professional mathematics and builds a supportive community with peers and families.
[1] George R. Thomas, “Why Mathpath," https://epsiloncamp.org/math-education
[2] William P. Thurston, “Mathematical Education,” Notices of AMS, 37(1990)844-850