The Lab is open from 9AM to 9PM everyday except Sunday for all registered users. Other than regular use by the users, the lab is also used for instructional workshops on various computational software in the world of Mathematics. The past and upcoming activities can be found from the Activities tab. One may contact to b.lab.iiser@gmail.com for arranging an instruction.

Origin

The lab is built by the joint support from IISER-P and FIST(Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure) program of DST Govt. of India (SR/FST/MSI-105). The fund is meant for universities and higher education institutions to strengthen their facilities and infrastructure, thereby enhancing science and technology education in the country. All the computational facility is funded by the FIST grant whereas the rest is provided by IISER. Bhaskara Lab, located at Room 408 on top floor of the Main Academic Building, was inaugurated on 10th of May, 2017 by Prof KN Ganesh (past Director, IISER Pune).

Nomenclature

The name "Bhaskara Lab" is made after the ancient Indian mathematician Bhaskara. In fact there were two different scholars with the same name Bhāskara. Here is a short biography of both of them.

Bhāskara-I

Bhāskara-I, born near Saurashtra, Gujarat, was a 7th-century astronomer and mathematician who helped to disseminate the mathematical work of Āryabhaṭa, an earliest Indian mathematician and astronomer. Bhāskara-I is considered the most important scholar of Āryabhaṭa's astronomical school. He and Brahmagupta are the most renowned Indian mathematicians who made considerable contributions to the study of fractions.

The most important mathematical contribution of Bhāskara-I concerns the representation of numbers in a positional system. He was the first to write numbers in the Hindu decimal system with a circle for the zero. Bhāskara-I wrote the Āryabhaṭaīyabhāṣya in AD 629, which is a commentary on Āryabhaṭa's work. He commented only on the those 33 verses of Āryabhaṭa's work which are about mathematical astronomy and discusses the problems of the first degree of indeterminate equations and trigonometric formula. His work Mahābhāskarīya divides into eight chapters about mathematical astronomy. This is place where he gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function. Moreover, relations between sine and cosine, as well as between the sine of an angle are given. Parts of Mahābhāskarīya were later translated into Arabic.

Bhāskara-II

Bhāskara-II, also known as Bhāskarāchārya, was a 12-th century Indian mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Bījāpur in Karnāṭaka, India.

Bhāskara-II made the significant discovery of the principles of differential calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations centuries before European mathematicians like Newton and Leibniz made similar discoveries. It is believed that Bhāskara-II was the first to conceive the differential coefficient and differential calculus. he not only used the decimal system but also compiled problems from Brahmagupta and others. He filled many of the gaps in Brahmagupta’s work, especially in obtaining a general solution to the Pell equation and in giving many particular solutions. His major work Siddhānta Śiromaṇi is divided into four parts called Lilāvatī, Bījagaṇita, Grahagaṇita and Golādhyāya. These four sections deal with arithmetic, algebra, mathematics of the planets, and spheres respectively. Bhāskara-II was also well-known for his in-depth knowledge of trigonometry. Discoveries first found in his works include computation of sines of angles of 18 and 36 degrees.