CyMath-MLSP: (Cy)Math for Machine Learning and Signal Processing Lab

Director: Prof. Namrata Vaswani

 

CyMath MLSP Lab

1.      Learn by Tutoring Math – CyMath K-12 Math Tutoring and Support

a.       CyMath Program website

b.      Currently this is only an outreach and teaching initiative

(no IRB approval yet)

2.      Statistical MLSP foundations and medical imaging applications

a.       Distributed and federated learning

b.      Low Rank Matrix and Tensor Recovery Problems

c.       Two and Multi-Block Alternating GD and Minimization (AltGDmin)

d.      Applications in Dynamic MRI reconstruction

3.      Teaching

a.       EE 5900 I: Special Topics course on “Learn by Tutoring Math”

b.      EE 6230 / Math 6230

c.       EE 4250/5250:

d.      EE 322 / Stat 322

4.      CyMath-MLSP Seminar Series: started Fall 2025

a.       Goal: CyMath K-12 program tutors or former tutors discuss their research contributions and how tutoring helped them

 

CyMath ML-SP and EE 5900I Seminar Series Schedule for Fall 2025

1.      Silpa Babu, Ph.D. defense Sept 26, 2025

2.      Dr Mohamed Selim, October 24, 2025

3.      Seounghun Son, October 31, 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Partial History of the CyMath K-12 Math Program

CyMath 1.0: Fall 2020 to Spring 2022, ran for Moulton Elementary within Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS), remotely

o   3rd and 4th grade students from Moulton Elementary of DMPS (Des Moines Public Schools)

o   Tutors are grad student volunteers from Math, EE or CprE

o   10-12 tutors, 35 kids in 2021-22 year

o   5 tutors, 14 kids in 2020-21 year

-          To support all Math learners, CyMath focuses on both

o   Math-help and

o   Math-challenge: provide extra and more challenging work to students for whom the regular school work is not challenging enough

-          Quotes from 3rd grade Moulton kids and tutors:

https://hs.iastate.edu/more/isu-4u/supporting-activities/cymath/

 

Coordinated by:

-          Prof. Namrata Vaswani (Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering)

-          Prof Christa Jackson (School of Education) in 2020-21, but she moved

-          Prof. Mollie Appelgate (School of Education), in 2021-22

-          Shari Miller (ISU 4U Promise)

Volunteer Tutors for 2023-24

1.      Yingchao Zhou (Stat Ph.D. student)

2.      Seounghun (Hun) Son (ECE Ph.D. student)

3.      Yan-Han Chen (Stat Ph.D. student)

4.      Ruoyu Meng (ECE Ph.D. student)

5.      Sarah McCarty (Math Ph.D. student)

6.      Silpa Babu (ECE Ph.D. student)

7.      Shana Moothedath (ECE professor)

8.      Xuan Hien Nguyen (Math professor)

9.      Chevonne McInnis (AeroE Ph.D. student)

 

Volunteer Tutors for all or part of 2020-22

1.      Dr. Payas Awadhutkar (former ECE Ph.D. student)

2.      Abby Martin (Math Ph.D. student)

3.      Zac Brennan (Math Ph.D. student)

4.      Anindya Das (ECE Ph.D. student – now graduated)

5.      Seounghun (Hun) Son (ECE Ph.D. student)

6.      Ronak Tali (ECE Ph.D. student)

7.      Kostas (ECE Ph.D. student – now graduated)

8.      Dr. Li Tang (former ECE Ph.D. student)

9.      Anayse Miller (Math postbac student – now graduated)

10.  Sarah McCarty (Math Ph.D. student)

11.  Aditya Ramamoorthy (ECE professor)

12.  Pavan Aduri (CS professor)

13.  Adithya Kulkarni (CS Ph.D. student)

14.  Soumya Indela (ECE postdoc – now teaching professors at ASU)

15.  Praneeth Narayanamurthy (ECE Ph.D. student – now graduated)

16.  Abigail Burnett (Math Postbac student – now graduated)

 

 

More Details

 

CyMath was started in Fall 2020 as a Math tutoring project for grade-school students. Prof. Namrata Vaswani of ECpE started/runs it with help from School of Education colleagues (Prof. Christa Jackson who now moved out of ISU, Prof. Mollie Appelgate, and Shari Miller). Its eventual goal is to significantly improve the diversity of the student population in computing-based majors, most of which require a solid grasp of Mathematics concepts. Graduate student volunteers from Engineering and Mathematics provide school-year-long virtual small-group Mathematics support and challenge (extension) to a subset of students from under-resourced schools. Currently, this serves about 35 students from 3rd and 4th grade students from one Des Moines school, Moulton Elementary. The overall longer-term goal is to keep mentoring the same group of students until they graduate from high school, while also expanding the group of students that is served.