bangalore mathematics long relegated to being the back room boy of science is making a comeback on the wings of the changing equations in modern science teaching jobs are no longer the only choice available to mathematics professionals a whole world is opening up at the interface between mathematics and other sciences promising higher incomes than it jobs communication networks the financial markets coding theory genetic engineering designer drugs cryptography data mining computational neuroscience image compression population dynamics and mathematical physics are just some of the areas beckoning mathematics expertise across developed countries efforts are on to create a greater pool of people with mathematics knowledge to meet the needs of the changing timesin india finding professionals with the necessary mathematics domain knowledge is naturally a difficult task given the backseat mathematics has been relegated to in education a mathematics initiative that has germinated at the indian institute of science here is now trying to bridge the gap that exists between mathematics and other science disciplines its aim to kickstart research in cutting areas of science and technology where mathematics plays an important role the scene has dramatically changed in india over the last three to four years earlier mathematics was thought fit only for academic research many companies are now realising they need people who have a very sophisticated mathematics background says themes govindan rangarajan head of the mathematics department iisc and convener of the iisc mathematics initiativethe initiative is just a starting point we are involving people from all over the country especially research students engineers scientists from national labs and industry personnel says rangarajan with funding of a little over rs 50 lakh from the national board for higher mathematics and the defence research development organisation the iisc mathematics initiative has arrived at a plan to declare a cutting edge mathematics theme for each year and to conduct workshops compact courses seminars and conferences around these themesthe workshops and courses are conducted by either indian or foreign faculty for instance a french scientist is now conducting a course based on the first years theme scientific computation numerical analysis and applications this is of great value to scientists from indias defence and space labs for the second year the mathematics initiative has zeroed in on coding theory and cryptography which has applications in areas like communication networks and defence stochastic processes and applications is the theme for the third year and holds out value for financial institutions neuroscientists defence and communication network companies those at the helm of the initiative admit that there is a lag between opportunities opening up for mathematics professionals and the number of people taking up mathematics industry has realised they need mathematics professionals but the general public has not realised mathematics can provide good jobs it will take some time says prof rangarajan