Ravi Shankar is CEO and chairman of Bangalore-based BrainSTARS (Brains for Science and Technology Aided Reforms in Society) Services Pvt. Ltd (estb.2004), an education solutions company offering well-researched, innovative and activity-based maths and science learning programmes for class III-XII students. With a current headcount of 25 — comprising researchers, educationists, artists, technocrats, and psychologists — BrainSTARS is focused upon arousing students’ interest in maths and science education. Its objectives were drawn — and continue to be driven — by founding board members including Anupama Prakash, Dr. Srivatsa S.K. and Sriraghavan S.M.

Newspeg. In tribute to mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan on his 125th birth anniversary last December, BrainSTARS launched its flagship NumberNagar maths lab and activity centre, and staged a four-day maths festival titled Galata 221212 in the garden city’s famous Freedom Park drawing huge student participation. A fully-equipped Number Nagar maths lab is also installed at the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation’s Rangoli Metro Art Centre sited in the MG Road boulevard, to encourage visitors to engage in a maths learning experience for a nominal fee of Rs.100.

NumberNagar, which is specially designed for classes III-VIII students and is structured to suit the syllabuses of all school examination boards, enables students to experience the joy of learning maths through creative hands-on activities — the outcome of a year’s intensive research within the Kendriya and Navodaya vidyalayas, and private K-12 schools. “A fully equipped math lab is priced at Rs.14 lakh payable in instalments over three years and 20 schools are expected to install them this year,” says Shankar.

History. Prior to signing up with BrainSTARS in 2010, Shankar acquired 13 years work experience at the Azim Premji-led IT behemoth Wipro Technologies, where he headed one of the company’s largest delivery programmes to build a mega IT platform which transformed Aircel from a regional into a national mobile services provider. Yet despite job satisfaction and achieving personal milestones, Shankar felt the need to broaden his horizons by working for larger education causes. The objective of Brain STARS is to provide financially viable and socially relevant products and programmes, he says.

Direct talk. “ICT-led maths and science education tends to limit students’ ability to learn. We felt it made more sense to promote these subjects through joyful hands-on learning with students working in groups and sharing learning and insights,” says Shankar, an engineering graduate of Mysore University, and a maths aficionado who maxed his fourth semester engineering exam.

Future plans. BrainSTARS’ growth strategy is to intensify its in-house research system and extend its activities to multiple intelligences, life and soft skills. “Following our maths lab we will be launching our fully-equipped science laboratory in November this year,” says Shankar, while adding that BrainSTARS has been invited by several African and Asian countries for installing math and science labs in schools.

Right on!

Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)