Shape of Ideas

About Shape of Ideas

Welcome to Shape of Ideas by the Mathematics Club of IIT Madras!

Get exposure to foundational areas in mathematics, spanning over Number Theory, Projective Geometry, Combinatorics, Graph Theory and Neural Networks in an engaging two-week Summer School!

Explore both theory and application through conceptually grounded lectures, and assignments which comprise of foundational and thought-provoking questions.

Session I : Projective Geometry (9 July 2025)

The sessions introduced projective geometry, covering its axioms, duality, homogeneous coordinates, projective plane (affine plane + line at infinity), transformations, cross ratio, and applications in graphics, vision, architecture, and art.

Resources :
  • Geometry Revisited
  • Introduction to Geometry
  • Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry: Development and History
  • Hartshorne: Algebraic Geometry — best read alongside:
    • Shafarevich’s Basic Algebraic Geometry
    • Mumford’s Complex Projective Varieties
    • Harris’s Algebraic Geometry: A First Course

Presented by Bhavi and Smitali

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Session II : Number Theory (11 July 2025)

The session introduces number theory, covering the Well Ordering Principle, induction, divisibility, Euclidean algorithm, modular arithmetic (including CRT and Fermat’s Little Theorem), continued fractions, Pell’s equation, totient and Möbius functions, and cryptographic applications like RSA encryption.

Resource :
  • Elementary Number Theory by David M. Burton

Presented By Arjun Arunachalam and Swaminath Shiju

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Session III : Combinatorics (16 July 2025)

This is based on combinatorics. Permutations, combinations, counting with repetitions, inclusion-exclusion principle, pigeon hole principle and a questions based on them.

Resource

Presented By Ayaan Nawaz

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