Lilavati

A playful math learning app that turns abstract concepts into interactive, real-world experiences—helping students discover, visualize, and understand mathematics through games and simulations.

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Inspiration

Lilavati was an accumulation of my years in corporate consulting, teaching chess, and my current masters in math education. I also use cultural knowledge of prior mathematicians like Bhaskara II. He introduced math in a playful manner, using nature and systems to describe math in the world around him. I wanted to modernize that philosophy and apply it to high school math concepts. Let students experience math first, discover its patterns, and then connect those experiences to abstract math notation and formulas.

What it does

Its an iOS math learning app that takes real world concepts in nature and society, and applies or reveals a mathematical concept underneath it. I want the gameplay to reflect the concept itself, rather than simply placing equations/formulas inside the game. For example in the Polar coordinates level, users experience position through radius and angle, allowing a polar bear to correctly find fish to eat. Each concept has different mechanics but philosophy is consistent: Experience → Explore → Recognize → Abstract

How we built it

Lilavati is built as a native iOS application in Xcode. During OpenAI Build Week, I used GPT-5.6 with Codex to rapidly expand the project with new mathematical experiences. I would first think of a math concept taught in high school classrooms, then I would conceptualize a game that uses that concept in playful, engaging manner, prioritizing that this scenario exists in the real world already. Then, I would prompt GPT 5.6 to create the building blocks of the level and refine the game mechanics until it felt natural and visually pleasing.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was maintaining a design language that was consistent throughout the levels. It was important to me that the levels did not look blocky or disconnected, as to give the user a seamless experience. That led me to research and learn game design, via ChatGPT

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am most proud that as an educator, I can relay the pedagogy and classroom teaching techniques into an digital platform that my students will hopefully use one day. I am really excited to see how it plays out in the classroom. I never thought I had the technical skill to make a project of this size, but codex made everything easier and intuitive.

What we learned

I learned how powerful an AI tool can be with the right guidance and intention. There are so many math concepts and variations of games I could implement, so it feels like i just scratched the surface. Codex helped me better understand game mechanics and the psychology of a student when interacting with a concept.

What's next for Lilavati

I want to test it out in the classrooms that I teach or from other teachers. It is an exciting landscape to see math education revitalized in a way I personally haven't seen in my school years. I hope to inspire other educators to use tools like codex and GPT 5.6 to fully realize their content area concept, and make it an engaging reality for the students. I'd also like to expand the number of levels I include, and perhaps create a separate project for other grade levels, not just high school.

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