Shanthanu S. Rai

I am a 5th year Integrated PhD student in the School of Technology and Computer Science at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), advised by Mrinal Kumar. I am supported by TCS Research Scholar Program.

Here is a link to my CV.

Email: shanthanu.rai@tifr.res.in

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in Algebra and Computation, Computational Complexity, Algebraic Complexity and Error Correcting Codes. My current work is focused on algebraic and number theoretic questions in these areas.

Publications

• Explicit Nonlinear Functions beyond the Fourier bound
  with Swastik Kopparty and Rishabh Kothary
  Manuscript
  [arXiv | ECCC | ePrint]
• Deterministic Algorithms for Low Individual Degree Factors of Sparse Polynomials
  with Somnath Bhattacharjee, Rishabh Kothary and Shubhangi Saraf
  Manuscript
  [arXiv | ECCC]
• Constant-depth Circuits for Polynomial GCD over any Characteristic
  with Somnath Bhattacharjee, Mrinal Kumar, Varun Ramanathan, Ramprasad Saptharishi and Shubhangi Saraf
  CCC 2026
  [arXiv | ECCC | CCC]
• Closure under Factorization from a Result of Furstenberg
  with Somnath Bhattacharjee, Mrinal Kumar, Varun Ramanathan, Ramprasad Saptharishi and Shubhangi Saraf
  STOC 2026
  [arXiv | ECCC | STOC]
• Pseudo-Deterministic Construction of Irreducible Polynomials over Finite Fields
  FSTTCS 2024
  [arXiv | ECCC | FSTTCS]

Science Outreach

I have volunteered for various science outreach activities at TIFR. Namely, I have volunteered in Frontiers of Scince and National Science Day programs. These programs aim to inspire students to pursue pure science as a vocation and showcases recent scientific advances to the general public.

Here are some games/demos I made for outreach (using help from LLMs):

• Door Puzzle
• Grid Game