This is a lecture series that has been going on for the last two years or so. The main enthusiast behind the scheme is Prof. S. Arumugam, from the Department of Mathematics at the University, and he has been actively encouraged and supported by Prof. B. D. Acharya from the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The scheme is funded by the DST. The modest aim of the scheme is to expose college teachers to research topics and serious researchers. The hope is that such an exposure will influence their teaching and hence make learning mathematics more interesting at the college level.
The lecture series is targeted at research scholars and college teachers in the area. So far it has focussed primarily on graph theory and graph algorithms (though there were a couple of introductory lectures on data structures and logic). The plans are on to widen the scope. Seminars are organised on the second Saturday of every month. Speakers are invited from colleges / universities / research institutes in the region. Arvind and I have given talks from IMSc as part of this series. (Tirunelveli is a little over an overnight train journey away from Chennai.). We saw an overwhelming response from the participants. A large number of participants, from Tirunelveli and neighbouring towns, have been coming for these seminars on a regular basis (the participants are paid T.A). Apart from achieving its initial goal, the scheme is serving several purposes. It gives an opportunity for the college teachers to keep their research interests alive and to meet often and exchange views/papers/problems/solutions. Thus the seminar series helps to build a coherent and cohesive regional research group. Some of the participants have taken up part-time PhD research thanks to the seminar series. Some of the participants who have not done some of these courses in their study (like logic or data structures, for example) find it very useful when they give lectures.
Similar series concentrating on various aspects of computing, will help considerably in promoting the IARCS objectives. Given the sorry state of understanding of what constitutes computer science (leave alone theoretical computer science) among colleges, and the rapid decline of students interested in doing higher studies in computer science, I think, the need for such a seminar series is much more in computer science. As IARCS is supposed to represent academic computer scientists in this country, there is no better forum than IARCS which can conduct this seris. If the scheme is conducted and managed regionally (as in the above instance), the costs and organizational duties will be minimum. To start with, the scheme can concentrate on cities where there are quite a number of colleges and sufficient number of resource persons (to conduct the seminars). The success of Prof. Arumugam's experiment can be an inspiration to all of us.