20 November 2020 saw tears and toil of the 11th and 12th graders of National Public School, Indiranagar come to fruition as the school’s first ever online fest, Mathtrix 2020, was successfully hosted. Due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, the school had to conduct their student-run, Mathematics Fest completely online leading to new challenges and obstacles for the team of Mathtrix 2020. The fest began without a hitch with a pre-recorded opening ceremony that even included the ceremonious ‘lighting of the lamp’! The lead organisers of Mathtrix 2020 - Anirudh Sathiya Narayanan and Aadyot Bhardwaj- spoke about the inspiration behind this fest and their hope that this event would encourage everyone to indulge in the fascinating subject - Mathematics. The first guest speaker of the day was Mr Shan Kadavil, the CEO and Founder of FreshToHome, an E-Commerce venture. Mr Shan Kadavil was extremely generous with his kind words and appreciated the creativity and originality that went behind the creation of Mathtrix 2020. Mr Shan also spoke about the importance of understanding the subject so that one would be able to apply and communicate his knowledge efficiently. He also touched upon hope and its essential nature in dark times like the ones we find ourselves in currently. Entrepreneurship and its close linkage to failure but not giving up was another key component of Mr Shan’s speech. The opening ceremony was concluded by the lead organisers who gave the necessary announcements and words of encouragement to the participants.

The students had come up with five brand-new, innovative events for Mathtrix 2020 to truly showcase Mathematics in its true form and allow each individual to participate and appreciate the beauty of Math. ‘Seg-Fault’ was the first event that tested participants’ understanding of Math and their ability to apply it in Computer Science to innovate real world solutions in a COVID-era hackathon. ‘Rhythm-X’ wss a truly ingenious event that combined the eccentricities of Mathematics and music into a delightful fusion. The fest’s Math-art event, ‘Abstraction’ focused on out-of-the-box thinking and artistic skill to allow participants to generate their own masterpieces. ‘Maximus’ was an event that brought in the commercial aspect of Mathematics and sought to challenge participants to utilize, optimize and adapt to their resources. A completely original event, ‘Desolate Planet’ required biological and Mathematical skills and tested participants’ decision making skills and strategizing ability to create new life on an alien planet.

Mathtrix 2020 came to a conclusion with the organisers and participants logging into zoom to find out the much anticipated results. National Public School, HSR Layout emerged as the overall winners of Mathtrix 2020. The closing ceremony also saw the second guest speaker of the day - Rohan Kapoor, an alumnus of National Public School, Indiranagar. His speech focussed on anecdotes from various parts of the world relating to Mathematics. He spoke about how training and all the ‘drama’ associated with mathematicians was not actually required for solving problems - all one needed was a passion for Math and a genuine interest and fascination for the subject. Coming up with, and executing a good idea was the key component for solving mathematical problems. Mathematicians should be open to accepting solutions from everywhere - an aspect the students tried to highlight in the fest. The fest concluded with the national anthem. Mathtrix 2020 was a fest none of the students involved could ever forget. It was an excellent event conducted with much professionalism and maturity. Mathtrix 2020 definitely reached the mark and provided what is said it would, in its tagline - ‘Explore. Excite. Equate.