Since I am part of the visible minority, through my lived experiences, I have understood the importance of role models, visibility, and the availability of opportunities during school and further education. That is why I have contributed to outreach and diversity promotion activities since the beginning of my undergraduate studies. Below, I have listed four key avenues through which I was involved.

The Fields Institute & the Fields Academy

The Fields Institute is one key organization in Canada that supports mathematical research and education. Since the beginning of my postdoctoral work at the University of Toronto (UofT), I have contributed to the Math Circles at the Fields Institute. It is an extracurricular high school mathematics club open to all students who desire to learn mathematics beyond the school curriculum.

Currently, I am collaborating with Pamela Brittain at The Fields Academy to develop Fields Elementary Educator Courses to help elementary teachers improve their math skills, and also, I am contributing to the Ask a Mathematician program there. The latter brings mathematicians into school classrooms virtually with the hope of inspiring school students to perceive and approach math positively.

The Outreach Office & Math+, Department of Mathematics, UofT

The Math Outreach Office at the UofT was established to popularize mathematics in Canada by initiating education programs for school students, parents, teachers, and the general public. During the last four years, I contributed to outreach programmes organized by the Outreach Office including the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC).

In particular, I designed and conducted the Canada Math Camp during the summer of 2021. It is a program organized in association with the Canadian Mathematical Society and with the invited participation of grade 8 – 10 students who performed well in the COMC. It is an intensive week of problem-solving sessions with expository talks by graduate students and research mathematicians about interesting mathematical concepts beyond problem-solving.

I was also involved in the Fall Math Club Series organized by the Outreach Office. In 2021, I designed and ran the Fall Math Contest Preparation Club for school students. Further, I was a speaker at the seminar series organized by Mathematics Union Toronto to introduce research-level mathematics to undergraduates, a co-trainer in the Putnam competition training sessions for undergraduates, and a co-trainer for the COMC grader training sessions, which were organized in association with the Department of Mathematics, UofT.)

The SLOMF & the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka

The Sri Lanka Olympiad Mathematics Foundation (SLOMF) is a non-profit organization initiated in 2004 by several academics with the vision of creating a culture within Sri Lanka that appreciates mathematics and produces world-class mathematicians. It also works closely with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education (MoE) to deploy programs related to mathematics education.

From 2009 to 2014, during my undergraduate studies, I was a key facilitator at the SLOMF and the Mathematics Branch of the MoE. I was involved in every aspect of the Sri Lankan Mathematical Olympiad (SLMO) from organizing it to setting the SLMO exam papers and training the Sri Lankan students for competitions. Further, I contributed to school teacher training programs organized in collaboration with the MoE.

The SLOMF and its flagship competition SLMO have contributed substantially to popularizing mathematics among Sri Lankan school students during the last two decades. I am happy that I was able to be a part of it as one key contributor for almost five years when it relied entirely on volunteers who were passionate about mathematics.

After moving abroad, I have continued my outreach work in Sri Lanka through alternative means. In particular, I organized undergraduate minicourses in Sri Lanka, guided undergraduates in their Ph.D. application process, and recently, started using YouTube videos in Sinhalese to introduce mathematical ideas and their applications to a general audience in Sri Lanka.

Youtube Podcast Series for Sri Lankans

Social media is an effective tool for outreach activities. Since I am passionate about popularizing higher mathematics and improving mathematics education in Sri Lanka, I welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with two Sri Lankan YouTube content creators Fadil Iqbal of IQ Labs and Ashan Ariyawansa of NC Astronomy.

The collaboration with Fadil is ongoing, and we plan to create more videos on many more math topics in the future. The discussions are in Sinhalese (a language native to Sri Lanka) and in the form of a casual chat to ensure they are accessible to a broader audience.