Fulfilling a Passion for Mathematics and Computer Science

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Mr Shimal Harichurn from the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science received the Vincent Maphai Scholarship which is awarded to the top-ranked master’s student in the entire University. 

Harichurn went to Northwood Boys’ High School where he played cricket and excelled in Mathematics, Physics and Information Systems in matric. It was during this time that he decided to pursue a Computer Science degree at UKZN. 

The structure of the Bachelor of Science degree allowed him to take other modules including Mathematics, which led him to switch from Computer Science to Mathematics. 

Harichurn graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. He is currently undertaking his Master’s in Computer Science and felt honoured to receive the Vincent Maphai Scholarship. 

‘UKZN has a number of talented students and to be selected for the Vincent Scholarship award fills me with a sense of pride. The scholarship also relieves a lot of financial burden and gives me the opportunity to focus on my research,’ he said. 

Harichuran’s master’s research allows him to work in an exciting new area which is an interface of Mathematics and Computer Science. 

Harichurn accredits his current research to an honour’s Algebraic Topology course, lectured by Professor Dharmanand Baboolal during his third-year studies. 

He plans to register for a PhD in Mathematics in the future, in the sub-field of topological quantum field theory which uses techniques and ideas from physics to build new tools for mathematicians to study objects called “manifolds”, which are higher-dimensional shapes and surfaces.

Additionally, as a side-line initiative, Harichurn hopes to grow his start-up, “Quantakom”, an app that focuses on providing high-quality and free school communication software to underprivileged schools. 

‘My advice to fellow and future UKZN students would be to be curious and make the most of the numerous opportunities that UKZN provides,’ he said. 

He thanked his co-supervisors, Mr Anban Pillay and Professor Sergei Gukov, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech); former UKZN lecturers, in particular Professors Dharmanand Baboolal, Bernardo Rodrigues, Paranjothi Pillay, and Rituparno Goswami as well as Drs Sergey Shindin and Shalin Singh; his parents; and friends for helping him succeed and making his University experience memorable. 

Said Mr Anban Pillay: ‘Mr Harichurn has all the characteristics to be an outstanding academic. He has the required humility and ability to learn new concepts, ideas and techniques from new and disparate fields quickly. He’s also able to operate outside his comfort zone, analyse and synthesise literature and, most importantly, has the gift for clear exposition. He has amply demonstrated this in submitting an MSc dissertation within 12 months of commencement. His work is unique in spanning a complex mathematical field (advanced topology) and machine learning. His work demonstrated that machine learning techniques can be useful to mathematicians for understanding complex abstract mathematical objects that could lead to new mathematical insights. His work is not only insightful, but also practical in that he has produced methods and tools that mathematicians will use in their research.’ 

Baboolal said: ‘I had the pleasure of teaching Shimal pure mathematics at honours level. I remember him as an exceptional student, who as a third-year student in 2018 asked permission from me to attend an algebraic topology honours class I was offering. He topped this class with a mark of 98%! In the subsequent year, when he was a bona fide honours student, I taught him two further modules for which he scored in the 90s. He also produced an outstanding honours project on an important aspect within topology. I am heartened to learn that Shimal’s master’s studies are on using machine learning techniques to study a certain kind of manifold in topology, illustrating the potential of how computer science can play a role in understanding and addressing topological questions.’ 

His parents said: ‘We as parents are ecstatic that Shimal is receiving this award and are tremendously proud of him and his achievements. Shimal has excelled at problem solving and maths. He has a passion for reading books. His perseverance in his studies has been rewarded. We would like to thank UKZN for recognising Shimal’s abilities. We are tremendously honoured for him to receive this award.’ 

Words: Leena Rajpal

Photograph: Sethu Dlamini