Abhi Gulati has a strong background in math and computer science, combined with passion and proficiency for teaching and a desire to change the world (for the better). He has an unusual combination of technical rigor, empathy, and an ability to break down complex concepts into approachable explanations.

Early in his academic journey, Abhi demonstrated exceptional intelligence. While still in 8th grade, he achieved a 99th percentile score on the ACT math section (compared against high school students) before learning much of the material. He went on to work with Professor Laci Babai at the University of Chicago through his high school's "Mentorship" program. He learned about algorithms and algebra from Laci, then wrote a research paper about coloring that earned him recognition as an Intel STS Finalist (often called the "Junior Nobel Prize"). Laci considered Abhi to be on par with his graduate students (citation missing).

Abhi attended Caltech, on a full tuition scholarship granted for research potential, intending to become a mathematician. He was fairly successful in his math classes, but less so in his attempts at math research; by the time of graduation, he no longer felt cut out for a career as a research mathematician. One of his favorite classes in college was “CS21: Decidability and Tractability”, and one of his favorite experiences was being a TA for this course.

While at Caltech, Abhi also did a range of tutoring, both with Caltech students and community college students. He saw that his experience with math—an exploratory process full of independent thinking—stood in sharp contrast to how most other students viewed the subject.

His passion for improving education led to his selection for Caltech's "Student Experience Trip"—a university-funded visit to several elite universities to study and compare their approaches. Afterwards, the team produced a report (available here). Abhi’s focus was “Academic Philosophy and Implementation”, and his detailed report showed insight and creativity when analyzing institutional challenges and opportunities. His analysis also showed an ability to empathize with and consider the needs of a wide range of learners.

After graduating from Caltech in '09 with a math major (and no real plan of what to do with it), Abhi returned to his hometown of Bloomington. He still felt passionate about education, and learned that the local university had the nation’s largest “Math Education” department—the study and practice of how people learn and teach mathematics, combining insights from mathematics, psychology, pedagogy, and curriculum design. So, he enrolled there for a masters in math, with emphasis on math education.

His experience there was both disappointing and eye-opening. In his math classes, he encountered college undergrads who claimed to love math and had chosen it as their major, yet couldn't handle basic proofs. His math education classes were equally disheartening—the research he read merely confirmed insights he had already discovered independently about learning. Most disappointing was the culture of “math education”, where new research had to be forced into existing frameworks of thought. The field desperately needed fresh perspectives, but its primary research institutions had become so tied to previous thinking that meaningful reform (or even research) seemed impossible.

After completing his masters, Abhi pursued classroom teaching through a 3-month alternative certification program, though he faced challenges with classroom management in non-honors classes.

He then pivoted to software engineering in Austin, spending several years in web2. This work was not a good fit for his aptitudes, he never felt particularly valued or effective in environments that incentivized claiming credit over being a thoughtful and observant team player.

In late 2020, Abhi discovered cryptocurrency, drawn particularly to its unprecedented transparency and novel mechanisms for establishing truth. This interest led him to enroll in a 6-week intensive smart contract engineering course at 0xMacro, where his passion for teaching was rekindled. The course's format—live lectures accompanied by a space in Discord for discussions between students and teachers—proved to be particularly engaging.

While still maintaining his web2 position, Abhi began working as a teaching assistant at 0xMacro, dedicating significant time and energy to this role. His exceptional performance led to a full-time teaching position, where he thrived while continuously improving the curriculum and student experience. From the start, his teaching style garnered outstanding feedback, with students particularly noting his ability to empathize with their challenges and his thorough preparation for lectures. (After his first block teaching, he solicited feedback explicitly about his personal performance; those responses are available here).

He worked hard to improve the course over his 4 blocks teaching. By the end, the program consistently achieved NPS scores in the 80s and 90s on both weekly and course-end surveys. Unfortunately, despite these successes, the school closed its doors.

Since then, Abhi has been on an intense journey, both in his personal and professional life.

He made friends with the wrong people in Austin, and suffered as a result. His first tenant in his first home was a deeply unwell person, and he’s spent the last year distancing himself from past friends and starting afresh socially. In a brutal stroke of irony, he opened a Facebook post written on his birthday in '23 with an intro about how grateful he was for her moving in.

Professionally, he struggled with focus and self-esteem issues (the first tenant situation didn’t help). In July ‘23, he went to EthCC wanting to market himself as educator but having no idea where or how to start. In July ‘24, he went to EthCC in Brussels with far more confidence, largely thanks to talking openly about his past intelligence as a result of the literal gaslighting he had endured. He attended ZKHack’s meetup in Brussels and learned about their study groups, and shortly thereafter volunteered to help run a study group taught by Justin in their Discord.

He wrote an intro in ZKHack’s Discord, talking openly about his academic and teaching background for the first time in years. A few days later, he wrote this intro for Facebook, where he finally revealed his burn name, and also shared about his academic background and his reasons for being in crypto.

The Discord intro led to a very unexpected e-mail titled “ZK Education at Succinct”. Abhi wrote a blog post about Precompiles in SP1 as a take-home exercise. He went for an onsite interview, where he talked openly about his drive to better educate the public on crypto and ZK topics. Although he didn’t get a job offer, he did get a confidence boost that has led to him starting to pursue his vision of better education for all.

Abhi is a mathematician, searching and finding patterns in how to teach and how to learn math effectively. As Paul Lockhart wrote in “A Mathematician’s Lament” (a wonderful criticism of the state of education):

A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.