Justin Skycak (pr: Sky-zack)
Developing all the quantitative software behind mathacademy.com, including the novel algorithms that make us fully automated, fully personalized, and 4x more efficient than a traditional math class.
- I loved self-studying math and applying it to research projects while growing up. But I hated how ineffective, inefficient, and inconvenient most formal math classes were. And today more than ever, with falling standards and extreme grade inflation, the state of math education is an ever-expanding train wreck.
- At the same time, math education is also the launchpad for the greatest educational life hack: learning advanced math (and coding) rigorously at a young age and benefitting wildly from the resulting skills and opportunities. This life hack can rocket students into some of the most interesting, meaningful, and lucrative careers, and yet it remains unknown to most students who have the potential to capitalize on it.
- My goal is to steer people away from the train wreck and onto the rocket ship, at scale. The rocket ship is mathacademy.com.
Previously: Physics research ➔ data science ➔ math/CS education. Degrees in math and [the mathy side of] computer science. LinkedIn
- Improved data transmission within Fermilab and CERN particle detectors; finalist in the 2013 International Science & Engineering Fair. more
- Full-ride academic scholarship (Lilly Scholarship) to the University of Notre Dame; spent a summer in Los Alamos working on a LANL computational neuroscience project and then 2 years working full-time as a data scientist at a nearby analytics company (Aunalytics) while simultaneously an undergraduate. Master's in Computer Science (Machine Learning) from Georgia Tech. more
- Developed what was, during its operation from 2020-23, the most advanced high school math/CS sequence in the USA. It culminated in high school students doing masters/PhD-level coursework (reproducing academic research papers in artificial intelligence, building everything from scratch in Python). more
Hobbies: Math, calisthenics, and (previously) music, tutoring, and hockey.
- Self-studied most of undergraduate math during high school; self-published 4 math textbooks (over 1000 pages total) shortly after college; popular answerer on math educators stack exchange. more
- Trained calisthenics (e.g. no-legged pushups, 1-arm pullups, various gymnastic ring holds) since 2021. Currently attempting to approach the world record for back lever (halfway there). more
- Spent a couple years producing music during college -- orchestral, EDM, freestyle guitar. more