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Anandakrishnan offers a formula to 'control engg. education chaos'

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI JULY 29. The chaos in engineering education can be controlled, using a formula to determine an appropriate fee structure, reliability of admission, and the number of colleges and students.

Presenting a mathematical approach to `Coping with chaos: case of engineering education', M.Anandakrishnan, president, Tamil Nadu Academy of Sciences, and former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, today presented a formula which could be used "to decide up to what extent growth conditions can be allowed to determine non-chaotic conditions".

He was delivering the first of the Popular Lecture Series organised by Science City to propagate a scientific temper among the people. Dr.Anandakrishnan used a mathematical expression - X(i+1) = LXi (1-Xi) - to represent chaos, described as "a property of some non-linear dynamic systems, which exhibit sensitive dependence on initial conditions". Large values of `L' and `X' would lead to uncontrollable chaotic conditions, but at smaller values, the chaos would stabilise after a stage.

Stating that `L' could represent learning conditions, the number of colleges and the number of students, and `X' could represent knowledge levels, reliability of admissions and level of fees, Dr. Anandakrishnan explained how a rise in the number of colleges and the resultant increase in entrance examinations could result in a chaos.

Inaugurating the lecture, the Chairman, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, M.S.Swaminathan, said the purpose of the lecture series was to deliver science to the people. The lectures would be delivered in a mix of Tamil and English for the audience to understand the concepts.

He urged the audience — mostly students of the Dr. Dharmambal Government Polytechnic for Women, where the talk was arranged — to follow Nehru's call for a human approach to science, so that it could be utilised for the benefit of the common man. Scientific spirit should be allowed to grow so that "we can get rid of non-scientific beliefs", Dr. Swaminathan said.

Other speakers listed for the lecture series this year include the Chairperson of Cancer Institute, V.Shantha, the Director of IGCAR, S.B.Bhoje, the Director of CLRI, T.Ramasami, and the Honorary Director of CPR Environmental Centre, Nanditha C.Krishna.

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