Project summary

During the Cold War the technological advancement between Russia and America was a proxy war for supremacy. As the United States advanced their ability to manufacture computers the calculator became widely adopted both as a status symbol and mental/pen and paper methods of quick calculation became obsolete within a few years. Those pre-calculator methods, and the practice required to be proficient with those methods, gave students the initial scaffolding for algebra, number theory, and algorithms.

My project is an attempt to reverse the loss of those techniques and the knowledge they impart; what is old is new again.

I am writing the software (C/C++ & Raylib) to teach mental arithmetic techniques and create the ideal practice environment for students to pick up these techniques, with initial pilots in local middle schools.

A small personal demo was made for number memorization: https://github.com/Astramentis/TerminalCommands/tree/demo-branch

This is not an AI project, and there will be no language model integration in this software. This software must be able to run on the worst computers, with no internet connection, and be able to be adopted by any school.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

If this project does not achieve math gains that eclipse desegregation I'm going to be disappointed.

Math education is currently not preparing students:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/9/3/new-math-intro-course/
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/15/uc-san-diego-a-giant-in-science-is-struggling-with-freshman-who-cant-do-basic-math/

My focus is on developing software for an ideal practice environment and running quick pilots (2 weeks each) to see how students respond, how much instruction they need, what causes confusion, what demonstrations and video content should be produced, etc.

I am already writing the software, and will teaching the initial pilot courses, and working through the adoption with schools to make this as easy to adopt as possible. The goal is a cohesive package of educational software that isn't a web application and comes with all the learning material with it to minimize overhead on teachers and staff.

The goal is to be beginning pilots after the 2026 PISA results reach the public and COVID is no longer an excuse.

How will this funding be used?

Funding the remaining development, hiring researchers to monitor progress and collect data, pay my advisor with decades of educational reform experience with literacy, funding for adoption and pilot programs and renting space for lectures.

Personal salary is 75k/yr.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Wesley Hudgens (CEO/Primary developer) - ex-gamedev, went to an "AI" startup in Silicon Valley in product operations, moved onto starting this project after self teaching mathematics to return to university and seeing an obvious blind spot in math education.

Dr. Mark Schneider (Advisory Board) - Dr. Schneider was the director of the Institute of Education Sciences from 2018 to 2024, a vice president and institute fellow at the American Institutes for Research, and the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The initial goal is adoption by private, and then public schools. Should adoption be difficult, but the product valid, pivot to homeschool market and direct to consumer software. The primary analogy against this is the Whole Language/Reading Wars where a failing and unsupported method of teaching children how to read won against phonics. It is primarily a lack of strategy around messaging to parents the importance of phonics, but people are starting to notice that kids cannot do math and public trust in education has fallen to the point that they will try radical solutions.

The only realistic failure state is mental math having no impact on a students ability to do math, which seems prima fascie absurd. While the word of a largely unknown person doesn't mean much, it has transformed me from someone who couldn't pass trig in highschool to a proficient mathematician (beyond the mental arithmetic).

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

None from outside sources. Grant processes have been frozen, state grants are miniscule and come with handcuffs.