Arvind Saibaba, Associate Professor, wrote an article for SIAM News on his outreach activities.

In 2019, Dr. Arvind Saibaba received the prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award, which supports early-career faculty with the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. Through this grant, Dr. Saibaba collaborated with high school teachers to develop six innovative teaching modules aimed at making advanced mathematical concepts accessible to high school students.

The modules, freely available online [link: https://asaibab.math.ncsu.edu/outreach/], cover various engaging topics including ranking methods, image processing, X-ray imaging, social networks, disease spread modeling, and cryptography. Each module includes lesson plans, ideas for implementation, and alignment with North Carolina educational standards. Dr. Saibaba led two-week summer workshops over five years, working with eight teachers from diverse schools across six counties in North Carolina. These collaborations helped ensure that the materials were not only mathematically rigorous but also pedagogically effective.

The impact of the project extended beyond high school classrooms. Dr. Saibaba adapted elements of the teaching modules for his own courses at NC State, improving learning outcomes and his students’ classroom experiences.

In a recent SIAM article [https://www.siam.org/publications/siam-news/articles/the-outreach-component-of-my-nsf-career-award/], Dr. Saibaba offers valuable insights into the CAREER award application process, sharing his experiences and advice for future applicants. The development of these educational resources was supported by the National Science Foundation (DMS-1845406).