About the Mathematics Department

The Department of Mathematics was established in the year 1994. Initially, it was offering Engineering Mathematics courses for the Undergraduate (B.Tech) Programs. Over a period of time, when various Engineering Departments started offering Post-graduate Programs [M.Tech., MCA, M.Sc.(SE)], the Department started offering courses on Mathematics for such Programs.

Later, from 2003 onwards, when the institution obtained the University status, the Department also started offering elective courses for undergraduate, postgraduate programs and advanced courses for Ph.D. programs. Besides, it also started handling specialized courses like Pattern Recognition, CAD for VLSI Circuits etc offered by Engineering Departments. From 2004, the Department started offering Ph.D. program and the faculty members of the Department of Mathematics of various campuses of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham are allowed to register. Right now, two faculty members are guiding two candidates each. In addition, the faculty members also guide the students of M.Tech and B.Tech for their project works. Many of the Ph.D. degree holders are extending their services as doctoral committee members of the Ph.D. candidates of various departments.

As one of the best practices, the department attracts retired professors from premier institutes, irrespective of their age, with a view to make use of their rich experience in developing the department. Also, as and when highly qualified individuals with good academic records apply for a faculty position they are absorbed, even when there is no vacancy based on workload requirements.
All the doctorates are actively engaged in their research work and they keep publishing their research papers in refereed International and National Journals / Conferences. Some of the faculty members are also engaged in collaborative research work with faculties of reputed institutes. A senior faculty member, a well-known textbook author, has written nearly 10 books on various topics of engineering mathematics during 2002-2007.

Faculty members have taken up funded projects from ISRO and DRDO. The university itself funded a project carried out by a faculty member. Several projects also have been proposed for funding from different agencies like DST.

The department organized an International Conference on Discrete Mathematics and its Applications during 9-11, December 2004, which was attended by more than 100 participants, including foreign delegates. Right now, the department has proposed an International Conference on Graph Theory and its Applications to be held during December 2008.

The faculty members are encouraged to participate in seminars, workshops, FDP, STTP and Conferences both at National and International level. For such activities, special casual leave is sanctioned and all the expenses like TA & DA and registration fee etc are reimbursed.
Most of our faculty members, by virtue of their expertise, are invited by other institutions to deliver invited lectures / key-note addresses, to be resource persons for FDP or STTP and to chair technical sessions in conferences and seminars

To promote research activities, the department organizes weekly seminars where the faculty members deliver lectures on a topic of their choice. The constructive discussions held during such presentations make the faculty members to keep themselves updated of the latest developments. These seminars also enable the junior faculty members to develop their teaching skills. The department also invites experts from premier institutes to deliver lectures and to interact with faculty members to promote collaborative research.

When a new course is offered or a new book is introduced, the department conducts special workshops and the faculty members of the Mathematics Department of all the three campuses are invited to attend

Our best practice is to ensure very high standard syllabus, for which while framing the syllabus for various courses offered all the faculty members of the department are involved and the final draft is prepared after due consultations with respective Engineering Departments and Mathematics Departments of other campuses. Feedback reports from passed out students doing their higher studies abroad are also taken into consideration for further improvement.

To enable students to face the challenges at the international level, much care is taken to prescribe standard text and reference books of international repute. Very high standards are maintained in the periodical and end semester question papers. Assignment and Tutorial questions are set in such a way to invoke the creativity of the students and to trigger them to learn more than what is taught in the class room.
To help the academically weak students, in case they fail, the department offers supplementary examinations within a very short duration and offers summer and winter courses as well as personal coaching.

To give a platform to the students to manifest their Mathematical talents and to kindle their Mathematical quest, the Department has a student forum by name “ANANTHAM”, which organizes workshops, quiz programs and puzzle corners etc for student members. It also organizes intercollegiate competitions. Recently, the forum conducted an International on-line Quiz Contest “Amrita Mathematics Olympiad” which was well received all over the world.

To foster team spirit, the administrative work of the department is carried out by various internal committees formed.
The faculty members actively participate in all the university level programs and support the organizers. They also extend their services in NSS etc. They voluntarily participate in the Extension Services of the Ashram like Tsunami and Earthquake Relief Activities.
The Department has got a library with a good number of standard text and reference books. It has a good number of computer systems with internet facilities. Several Mathematical and Statistical Software Packages, e-books and research articles are also available in the archives.
The Department has proposed to offer M.Sc. Applied Mathematics.