Grasshopper

Hopper Ed

Welcome to the land of
misfit mathematicians!

Do you ever feel like math just isn't for you? Maybe multiplying fractions feels impossible—or maybe it feels so boring you'd rather practice blowing spit bubbles. In the land of misfit mathematicians, every problem is chosen to fit your learning style—whether you need to practice fractions once a day, once a week, or once in a lifetime. Ready to see math your way? Let's play!

Let's play! Stories

Why we're here

I have two kids, ages 11 and 8, and I've been excited to work with them on math over the past few years. As an engineer working on AI hardware, it was important to me that both kids loved math -- and over my dead body would my daughter give up on math. Together, we tried every math app that we could find, and I was surprised by the limitations in the apps:

  • Problem recommendations based only on diagnostic tests
  • Lack of adaptability leading to kids either being bored or without a solid foundation
  • Lack of review of prior concepts that were forgotten
  • Patterns of problems so that kids learn patterns vs understand the math
  • Long and tedious calculations over in-depth understanding

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all use machine learning to maximize engagement; it's time we bring the same rigor to making education fun and engaging.

We will leverage user data and machine learning to improve education personalization, ensuring that kids are appropriately challenged but not overwhelmed.

Math scores for US students are at all-time lows, with the pandemic exacerbating the trend. Math will be critical in a world where AI is changing the job landscape.

We can build a profitable business with consistent revenue streams while also making a difference in the world.

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Who We Are

Hi, I'm Alyssa. I am a middle-aged mom, and also an engineer. I live in the Washington DC area with my kids (12 and 9 years old), husband, psycho dog and crazy cat. A long time ago, I went to Carnegie Mellon University and got a PhD in electrical and computer engineering. I spent almost 20 years working in corporate America doing AI and machine learning for semiconductors, where my job was very similar to Dilbert (if you're a kid, that's a cartoon that old people like me used to read). I left corporate America in February 2023 because I saw a need for a product to do a better job helping kids practice math, and I had ideas of how to build it. Creating this game is my way of sharing my love of math while also being an introvert who wants to spend all day by myself.

Alyssa - Founder of Hopper Ed
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What We Do

Adaptive Math
+
Machine Learning
+
Video Games

Goal: Use advances in machine learning make math education accessible and fun.

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How does Hopper Ed fit into math education?

Not Curriculum Not Teaching
At School At Home
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How does Hopper Ed work?

An experienced math teacher will map out the curriculum space and capture relationships between topics. For now, we're following the common core curriculum. For example, there are 5 pillars in the Common Core math for grades 6, 7, and 8.

Curriculum Mapping

Every topic in the curriculum is translated to one or more sets of problems. Each problem is entered into a database with as much randomness as possible. In the database, we track all sorts of information about how users have done on the problem.

Example 1 Example 2 Example 3

In the initial rollout, the problem generation is algorithmic because we don't have sufficient user data to create models for machine learning. Our algorithm addresses limitations with other products on the market and quickly moves the user level up or down in order to target 85% of problems correct. Different kids have different tolerances for mistakes, so as we get more data for a user, we adjust the target correctness up or down.

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Where are the video games?

We have an experienced video game designer ready to join our team, but like many people, he needs to support his family and cannot work for free. For now, the gaming element is very, very basic, but with time, we plan to expand to an entire virtual world!

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Goals

Right now, this is only available as a slightly buggy website and is free! Long term, we will create an app where the math problems are integrated with gaming elements and the math progression is guided by both machine learning and an understanding of curriculum, and charge a small monthly fee.

Short term goals (I know, I'm working on it!)

  • Extend math curriculum to higher grades
  • Parkour style video game with math problems
  • Leader boards for the games and math problems
  • Ability to play games with friends
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Stories

Many of the thinkers who changed the world through mathematics once felt like they didn't quite fit in. But their unique ways of seeing things led to powerful discoveries. Read their stories to see how being different can be a strength—and imagine what you might do to change the world. Then let's solve some math problems chosen at exactly the right level for you to get you along your way to becoming a mathematician!

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