Art of Problem-Solving, Workshop by Ashoka University.

On 12 August, 2015, seven students of our School, namely Raaghav Mathur, Rohan Gupta, Raunaq Bhalla and Mehar Kaur of class XII and Swapnil, Mayank Wadhwani and Tanya Ahuja of class XI, accompanied by Ms.Alka Kanwar, attended a workshop on 'The Art Of Problem-Solving' at the University Of Chicago Centre, DLF Capitol Point. The workshop was hosted by Ashoka University and was conducted by Prof. Santosh S.Venkatesh, professor at University of Pennsylvania and visiting faculty at Ashoka University. More than 15 reputed schools from Delhi NCR took part in the workshop. The aim of the workshop was to enhance problem-solving skills among students. Prof.Venkatesh began by talking about George Plya, a famous Mathematician, who laid down certain general principles to be kept in mind while solving problems, like, 1) What does the problem say? 2) Devise a plan of attack. 3) Implement the plan. 4) Look back at the solution (verification) and 5) Look forward.

He emphasised 'experience', i.e. the more problems we do of the same kind, the faster and more accurate we become. This, he said, is known as analogy. Prof. Venkatesh narrated incidents from his personal life, one being his 'pet problem' that he has been working on for 36 years! He shared how he has already tried 63 ways and unfortunately, has still not been able to reach the solution! He said his each failure has served as a stepping stone for him. This gave us an important lesson of life, named Persistence. We were then divided into groups of four each in which we had to solve the problems given to us. The first problem given to us was quite interesting. We were asked to be seated such that our closest friend sat four seats apart. This activity helped us to meet new people and befriend them. Interestingly, Mr. Venkatesh did not emphasise on the 'solution' as much as he did the 'passage' to the solution. According to him, mathematics is a creative art as it lets each individual solve a problem in a creative personal manner by exploring the deep recesses of the mind. After every problem was displayed on screen, we were given 10 minutes to deliberate and then discuss it with Mr.Venkatesh, who then gave us the best possible solution. At the end of the workshop, all participants were handed certificates of participation.

Mehar Kaur, XII B