Ajit Diwan Memorial Workshop
On Geometry, Graph and Combinatorics
January 19–21, 2026 (Ends 1:00 pm, January 21)
Department of Computer Science
Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute
Belur Math, West Bengal 711202, India
January 19–21, 2026 (Ends 1:00 pm, January 21)
Department of Computer Science
Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute
Belur Math, West Bengal 711202, India
Ajit Arvind Diwan (1962–2025)
Ajit Arvind Diwan, who was a professor of Computer Science at IIT Bombay, suddenly passed away on 19th January, 2025. Prof. Diwan, a towering figure in Theoretical Computer Science and Discrete Mathematics, is widely respected by his students, colleagues and collaborators in India and abroad for his excellent teaching and seminal research contributions to Algorithms, Discrete Geometry, Graph Theory and Combinatorics.
On his first death anniversary, we would like to organize the "Ajit Diwan Memorial Workshop on Geometry, Graph and Combinatorics" at Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, Belur during January 19–21, 2026 (ending on January 21 at 1:00 pm). We expect the participation of approximately 25 faculty members and 40 research students from across the country.
The objectives of the workshop are:
We hope that Prof. Diwan’s legacy will inspire the next generation of researchers.
IIT Bombay
IIT Kharagpur
IIT Bhubaneswar
TIFR Mumbai
IIT Kanpur
IIT Ropar
RKMVERI
IIT Madras
IAI, TCG CREST
IAI, TCG CREST
IIT Bombay
IIT Guwahati
University of Kerala
RKMVERI
RKMVERI
| Session | Time | Program / Speaker | Title and Abstract | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 January 2026 | ||||
| Evening | 6:30 – 8:00 PM | Registration & Welcome Dinner | -- | |
| 19 January 2026 | ||||
| Morning Session | 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Breakfast | -- | |
| 9:00 – 9:30 AM | Registration | -- | ||
| 9:30 – 9:45 AM | Welcome Address | -- | ||
| 9:45 – 10:35 AM | Rishikesh K. Joshi, IIT Bombay | Constructing Abstract Behavioural Models with Petri Nets |
||
| 10:35 – 11:25 AM | Swami Sarvottamananda, RKMVERI | Single-round Two-player Geodesic Voronoi Games |
||
| 11:25 – 11:55 AM | Tea Break | -- | ||
| 11:55 – 01:30 PM | Remembering Ajit Diwan Session | -- | ||
| Lunch | 01:30 – 2:30 PM | Lunch Break | -- | |
| Afternoon Session | 2:30 – 3:20 PM | Apurva Mudgal, IIT Ropar | Epsilon Nets and VC-Dimension |
|
| 3:20 – 4:10 PM | Amitava Bhattacharya, TIFR Mumbai | Interacting particles in a convex body |
||
| 4:10 – 4:40 PM | Tea Break | -- | ||
| 4:40 – 5:30 PM | Manoj Changat, University of Kerala | Geodesic and related betweenness in graphs using transit functions |
||
| Evening Session | 5:30 – 7:00 PM | Young Research Forum (YRF) | -- | |
| Dinner | 7:00 – 8:00 PM | Dinner | -- | |
| 20 January 2026 | ||||
| Morning Session | 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Breakfast | -- | |
| 9:15 – 10:05 AM | Joydeep Mukherjee, RKMVERI | Online Stochastic Matching – Prophet inequalities and how to beat them |
||
| 10:05 – 10:55 AM | Bodhayan Roy, IIT Kharagpur | Drawing polygons on points |
||
| 10:55 – 11:25 AM | Tea Break | -- | ||
| 11:25 – 12:15 PM | C. R. Subramanian, IIT Bhubaneswar | Inductive graph invariants and its algorithmic applications |
||
| 12:15 – 1:30 PM | Nishad Kothari, IIT Madras | Extremal minimal bipartite matching covered graphs |
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| Lunch | 01:30 – 02:30 PM | Lunch Break | -- | |
| Afternoon Session | 2:30 – 3:20 PM | Niranjan Balachandran, IIT Bombay | Representing graphs by paths and a related extremal problem. |
|
| 3:20 – 4:10 PM | Anupam Mondal, IAI TCG CREST | Preliminaries and some computational aspects of discrete Morse theory |
||
| 4:10 – 7:00 PM | Tea Break & Visit to Belur Math | -- | ||
| Dinner | 7:00 – 8:00 PM | Dinner | -- | |
| 21 January 2026 | ||||
| Morning Session | 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Breakfast | -- | |
| 9:15 – 10:05 AM | Gautam K. Das, IIT Guwahati | Approximation Algorithms for Dispersion Problems in Euclidean and Metric Spaces |
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| 10:05 – 10:55 AM | Sumit Ganguly, IIT Kanpur | Introduction to Data Stream Processing |
||
| 10:55 – 11:25 AM | Tea Break | -- | ||
| 11:25 – 12:15 PM | Avijit Dutta, IAI TCG CREST | Counting Number of Solutions to a Bi-Variate System of Equations |
||
| 12:15 – 1:05 PM | Subir Kumar Ghosh, RKMVERI | On High Connectivity Triangulation of Planar Point Sets |
||
| 01:05 - 01:30 PM | Valedictory | -- | ||
| Lunch | 1:30 – 2:30 PM | Lunch & Departure | -- | |
This session was dedicated to remembering the life, academic journey, and enduring contributions of Prof. Ajit Diwan. Speakers shared personal reflections, professional insights, and inspiring moments that highlighted his influence as a teacher, researcher, and mentor.
There is no registration fee for the school. Arrangements will be made for all speakers and 30 selected outstation participants to stay at RKMVERI, and they will be provided with boarding and lodging free of cost. Sleeper class train fare (non-ac 3-tier) will be provided for selected participants, subject to availability of funds. Online registration for students and faculty members (local and outstation) will start on October 15, 2025.
Last date for registration: November 10, 2025.
Venue: Saradananda Seminar Hall, Prajna Bhavan, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research institute, Belur.
Organizers:
Sponsors:
January 19, 2026
Young Researchers' Forum (YRF) is a unique opportunity as an open discussion session for ambitious young researchers to present a problem they are attempting to solve in the workshop theme and to receive feedback from participating peers and eminent researchers. YRF provides a friendly environment for young researchers to foster research. An interactive session of this kind enables students, researchers, and teachers to engage in the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and research methods that benefit all participants.
All young selected participants of the workshop are expected to do a
short presentation for 5 minutes followed by a Question & Answer session for 2
minutes.
Certificates and prize money will be awarded to the three students for the best presentations.
Joydeep Mukherjee, RKMVERI
Email: joydeep.m@gm.rkmvu.ac.in