Solved a 2000 Year old Problem with Raw Intelligence

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - The 2,000-Year-Old Prime Number Riddle
04:45 - The "Impossible" Problem: Primality Testing Explained
10:15 - The Breakthrough: How the AKS Algorithm Works
13:40 - August 2002: The Math World in Shock
16:10 - Beyond Primes: Algebraic Complexity & P vs NP
19:25 - Building the Future: The Wadhwani School of AI

For centuries, the greatest minds in history—from the ancient Greeks to Gauss—hunted for a fast, perfect way to determine if a number is prime. In the summer of 2002, three researchers at IIT Kanpur did what the world thought was impossible.

We dive into the life of Nitin Saxena, a quiet student from Prayagraj who preferred symbols over words. You'll see how a simple idea involving polynomials led to the AKS algorithm, the first to be general, deterministic, and polynomial-time. Beyond the discovery, we follow Nitin’s journey through Computational Complexity and his current mission leading the Wadhwani School of AI.

This story isn't just about math; it's about the power of the "undergraduate mind" and having the courage to ignore the experts who say a problem can't be solved

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