Outreach is a major source of inspiration and motivation at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. Without entering The University of Texas at Dallas, children from underserved communities may learn what engineering is — and why they might be good at it — through free math tutoring offered in their neighborhood taught by faculty and students. Math is no longer a source of frustration; it becomes a gateway to the American Dream.
Dr. Jung Lee (left) and Dr. Gil Lee (right), both faculty members in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, founded IntelliChoice, a math tutoring program for K-12 students that has served communities in several states for more than 20 years.
Children may learn about coding through summer camps long before they decide to study computer science in the Jonsson School. They are challenged to think well beyond the scope of the typical K-12 curriculum, as graduate student instructors plant seeds of curiosity about topics such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI).
“We know many of our students are attracted to engineering and computer science because they want to make a difference in their communities, especially students who are from underrepresented groups or who may have initially shied away from these fields due to inaccurate perceptions,” said Dr. Stephanie G. Adams, Jonsson School dean, holder of the Lars Magnus Ericsson Chair and professor of systems engineering. “Outreach programs start chipping away at these inaccuracies early enough to change the trajectory of a student’s life and support our forward momentum in the coming years of enabling people from all backgrounds, identities and abilities to feel empowered to achieve their fullest potential for maximum impact.”
As the Jonsson School is a relatively young institution without a strong legacy of official outreach programs, faculty have created programs serving K-12 students over the past two decades. Two of the most prominent have been Dr. Gil Lee, professor of electrical and computer engineering, who this year was recognized by the president of the United States for his lifetime commitment to volunteer service, and his wife Dr. Jung Lee, a professor of instruction in electrical and computer engineering; and Dr. Jey Veerasamy, professor of instruction in computer science, whose program has taught coding and other computer science topics to hundreds of children through the North Texas region. In addition to inspiring hundreds of fellow faculty, students and community volunteers, they have paved a way to create impactful University programs.
Expanding Opportunity with a 501(c)(3)
When Dr. Gil Lee remembers his childhood, he has a relatable reference — breakfast.
“The first time I ate an egg, I was in college,” Gil Lee said. “Now, I eat them every day. But when I was growing up, we never had them. I have six siblings, and eggs were too expensive.”
At the time during the Korean War, food was scarce, Lee said.
“It was worse there than it is in most places today in the United States. My mother went to her grave thinking that I just didn’t like to eat sweets. Of course I did, but I knew they cost too much.”
Nobody in Gil Lee’s family had earned a college degree at that point except for him. He was inspired to continue his own education through encounters at a church with people who went to middle school and high school, then into college.
Gil Lee ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics from Kyungpook National University in Korea. In the United States, he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a doctorate from North Carolina State University. He was initially a professor at Louisiana State University (LSU), then became a visiting scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
When he saw a group of children playing outdoors during school hours, he instantly felt a connection.
“When I saw the children, I saw the people I knew where I grew up,” Gil Lee said. “It didn’t matter that I was from a different part of the world. I remembered what it was like to be out in the middle of the day, skipping school. We went to play instead of going to class.”
Gil Lee knew he needed to do something. He and his wife Jung Lee considered adoption, but there were too many barriers. Gil and Jung Lee, who holds a PhD in mathematics from LSU, realized that by helping children and teens master one critical area — math — that they could enter professions that could provide more than enough eggs to go around.
Dr. Gil Lee (right) visits one of four classrooms at a Lewisville, Texas, church tutoring site that primarily serves refugee children from Myanmar.
Esther Han, a junior biology major at UT Dallas’ School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, works with upper elementary age students.
Annika Sawant, a senior at Hebron High School in Lewisville, Texas, works directly with an upper elementary age student. She recruits her peers as volunteer tutors.
Abhay Sawant, an IntelliChoice board member and tech entrepreneur, works with a lower elementary classroom at the MIE Baptist Chruch tutoring site.
“With adoption, you just focus on one or two,” Gil Lee said. “With math instruction, we could help a lot more people.”
Jung Lee said, “When I arrived in the U.S. 42 years ago, I attended a church- supported program that helped young international women. I thought at that time, when we return to Korea, we would do something to help foreigners in Korea, as we were helped in America. When Gil told me about his experience seeing school age kids on the street during school hours, I asked myself — why wait? Given my background, it was natural for me to think about ways to help them with mathematics. l had experience teaching mathematics to young girls at a night school to pass their GED as a volunteer. So, it was not much of stretch to set up a mathematics tutoring program.”
The couple asked among his network of Korean organizations as well as the local school district to see what programs were offered, then ultimately established an after-school tutoring program in 1993 through LSU.
After joining the faculty at UT Dallas in 2001, Gil Lee and Jung Lee established IntelliChoice, an after-school math tutoring program, and hosted the first program at Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Dallas. Volunteer instructors joined the effort, including faculty and students from UT Dallas as well as student chapters from local private and public schools with strong math programs. Jung Lee currently serves as an academic advisor.
“We use diagnostic tests for incoming students to determine their math level,” Jung Lee said. “I design the placement tests and select math curriculum for students to follow. Anything involved with math content, I take care of it.”
More than thirty years after the first tutoring program was offered in Louisiana and nearly twenty years since its inception in Dallas, IntelliChoice is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has continued to provide free math tutoring at locations across Dallas-Fort Worth, as well as other cities. In the spring of 2024, more than 360 tutors and 800 children participated in the North Texas area. The program has expanded as far as Los Angeles, California, and Nashville, Tennessee, where program managers have established local branches. Locations for future expansion include a Hopi reservation in Arizona.
“Most of our programs are in local, public libraries,” Gil Lee said. “Some are offered at churches, but all are close to where the students live. The main thing is that we need a strong role model at each location who is committed to the community.”
Jung Lee added, “We are fortunate at UTD to have many generous faculty and students who are looking to volunteer with their talent. Through various university organizations, we are continually recruiting volunteers.”
In honor of the work, independent government agency AmeriCorps and the Office of the U.S. President awarded Gil Lee the President’s Lifetime Achievement award for his “lifelong commitment to building a stronger nation through volunteer service,” signed by President Joe Biden. Other accolades include the Ambassador of Diversity Award from UT Dallas, the Service Award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Korea, the Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award in Informal Education given by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Community Hero Award given by Tech Titans, the largest technology trade association in Texas.
A PATHWAY TO PROSPERITY
IntelliChoice serves neighborhoods across Dallas, including suburban neighborhoods where students in need may be less obvious, as well as lower income neighborhoods and immigrant enclaves where refugees have recently resettled.
In Myanmar, officially referred to as Burma by the U.S. State Department, the majority of the population is Theraveda Buddhist. Those who are from minority religious groups in Burma have struggled with the political climate since the 1970s, and some have relocated to the United States as refugees to escape persecution.
At one of IntelliChoice’s tutoring locations, members of a Burmese Christian church sought asylum in the United States. While refugees enjoy religious freedom, they may struggle to adapt to the culture. Some live in a high-crime area. Children are not exposed consistently to education while living in refugee camps, and some have very limited resources. Lee sees that math mastery may provide a better foothold for children who are English language learners.
“One benefit of math is that you don’t have to know the language so well in order to be good at it,” Gil Lee said. “It is the same, regardless of where you come from.”
— Dr. Gil Lee
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
“One benefit of math is that you don’t have to know the language so well in order to be good at it,” Gil Lee said. “It is the same, regardless of where you come from.”
At a visit to the church located in Lewisville, Texas, Lee told community members at the church about how math education could help its members create a new life of prosperity and a legacy for their children — a middle- class American lifestyle is rich by global standards. Imagine a college graduate who can earn an annual starting salary of more than $70,000 after spending early childhood in a refugee camp with no running water, Lee said. The parents immediately enrolled nearly 70 children for the math tutoring program.During the first session of the fall 2024 semester, children were divided into four groups according to their ages and worked with tutors, about half from UT Dallas and the other half from Hebron High School in the Lewisville Independent School District. Many student tutors join the program because they intend to work with people, so majors range from software engineering to pre-medicine.
“This work aligns with my interest in teaching,” said Varsha Manellore, a senior healthcare studies major at UT Dallas who worked with children in a middle elementary classroom.
IntelliChoice board member Abhay Sawant, who currently owns a tech company in the Dallas area, volunteered with his daughter Annika in a classroom with early elementary children.
Annika Sawant serves as chapter president of IntelliChoice at Hebron High School, as well as the organization’s current webmaster. She is a multitalented singer who performed at the organization’s annual banquet held at the University’s Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center. The event raises funds for more than 60 scholarships awarded each year for K-12 tutoring participants who are accepted to 2- and 4-year institutions.
“Our tutors gain experience with operating a nonprofit organization,” Gil Lee said. “Some tutors go on to attend top tier schools. Later, they become community leaders and board members of other organizations. Our children learn what is possible.”
A SPRINGBOARD TO SCHOLARSHIP
Soliana and Tiobsta Ayele first began math tutoring in sixth grade at their local Ethiopian Orthodox church in Garland, Texas. Their parents immigrated to the United States in 1999. While their father Ewnetu Mitiku took courses in education at UT Dallas while they were children, they sought a stronger foundation in math concepts.
“The math tutoring was held on Saturday mornings,” Soliana Ayele said. “We enjoyed, of course, meeting our friends each week, but we also enjoyed meeting with our tutors. They would always show up with a positive attitude and made studying feel like fun.”
The Ayele siblings continued tutoring throughout middle school and gained confidence as they developed math skills.
“There are a lot of benefits that we gained from this program, but one of the main benefits was a strong foundation in algebra and geometry,” Tiobsta Ayele said. “These years gave us a lot of problem-solving knowledge and critical thinking skills that helped us solve math problems that were ahead of our grade level.”
Soliana Ayele added, “Another benefit that we gained from IntelliChoice math tutoring was confidence. One of our tutors always said that we could do great things in the future. She always believed in us, and she is part of the reason why we are at Northwestern today.”
In 2022, the sisters graduated from North Garland High School, then both won full scholarships of $80,000 per year, per student to attend Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
“We are both majoring in biomedical engineering,” Tiobsta Ayele said. “We love the idea of designing and building things that could help people feel better.”
“There are a lot of benefits that we gained from this program, but one of the main benefits was a strong foundation in algebra and geometry. These years gave us a lot of problem-solving knowledge and critical thinking skills that helped us solve math problems that were ahead of our grade level.”
— Tiobsta Ayele
Double the success! Soliana and Tiobsta Ayele visit the Plinth, a popular gathering spot at UT Dallas. After participating in IntelliChoice math tutoring beginning in middle school, the twin siblings earned full scholarships at Northwestern University toward their studies
INNOVATION THROUGH COMPUTER SCIENCE OUTREACH
Veerasamy, from the Department of Computer Science, started a career in industry, but he soon decided to return to the classroom thanks to one important mentor — his father.
My father was a teacher in India,” Veerasamy said. “I grew up around his work, so I always respected the profession. I still think of myself primarily as a teacher.”
While Veerasamy enjoyed working in his field of computer science, he was most passionate about sharing it with others.
“I started my career in industry, but I wanted something different,” Veerasamy recalled. “I began teaching a few courses at another nearby university in the evening. UT Dallas had a few teaching positions open, so I became a professor of instruction.”
After transitioning to the University, Veerasamy noticed a need for students to have earlier exposure to computer science. He observed gaps between program offerings at local K-12 public schools and college-level courses, so he began to envision an outreach program. However, with teaching responsibilities, Veerasamy needed to work around the academic calendar.
Dr. Jey Veerasamy flashes a smile at Engineering and Computer Science South, home of UT Dallas’ Department of Computer Science and primary location for youth coding camps during the summer.
“We looked at school breaks,” Veerasamy said. “Dr. Ivor Page, another computer science professor, had set up a camp. At the beginning, we did not have a clear framework, so we had to create one. Every year we did a little bit more.”
Veerasamy focused on hosting camps at the UT Dallas campus throughout the summer months when campus was generally quiet and workshops during school breaks. By 2014, the camps were at full capacity with more than 100 camps hosted each summer. At its peak, the summer program hosted more than 1,000 K-12 students at the University each summer. Coding clubs and after school camps were also added to schools across Dallas, particularly to reach students in underserved communities.
Hosting the programs involved trial and error, Veerasamy recalled. Graduate students were enlisted to teach the courses where they gained a crash course in classroom management for younger students. Veerasamy’s colleague John Cole, professor of instruction in computer science, joined the effort and continues teaching summer outreach courses today. Still, scheduling was a challenge.
“At the beginning, I was still teaching many of the courses,” Veerasamy said. “I still jump in from time to time.”
Veerasamy attracted philanthropic support for the coding camps too, from State Farm to entrepreneur Mark Cuban who also serves as an honorary member of the Jonsson School’s executive council. Cuban donated $50,000 to defray participation costs for more than 2,500 students in 2017.
SEIZING THE MOMENT
In 2020, Veerasamy pivoted quickly. Since the schools were closed due to COVID, instead of canceling the camps, Veerasamy and his team switched to virtual instruction and discovered a new way to offer future camps primarily for middle and high school students.
Veerasamy, who previously rented a van and drove a team of instructors to provide coding camps in Austin and Houston within Texas and as far away as Fort Collins, Colorado, embraced the possibilities of the remote teaching. With an internet connection, more students could participate in a camp.
“Many parents don’t want to drive each day,” Veerasamy said. “Sometimes students prefer to visit campus one or two days a week. With hybrid options, we could invite people from across the United States without having to get up and go there.”
Additionally, Veerasamy said, the camps are now more tailored to student interests and abilities. For elementary age students, they focus on free workshops.
“We originally hosted elementary camps onsite because this was convenient for parents, but we discovered that younger children benefited from a shorter timeframe, possibly an hour and a half or so,” Veerasamy said. “Much more than that was too much time for them to be at a computer.”
Middle and high school students can explore advanced content depending on their level of interest. There are now more than 600 students working within research labs and 1,500 total students who participate each summer.
“Summer research provides more value to high school students,” Veerasamy said. “This is more like how a college course will be, but without serious grading. It could be the only thing they do during the summer, or it could be one of ten things. The flexibility and accessibility are most important.”
A graduate instructor leads a popular AI workshop alongside other student instructors. The workshop provides a low-pressure environment for both K-12 students and graduate students who are honing their teaching skills.
High school students participate in a summer workshop focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI), extending their knowledge beyond typical high school course offerings.
FOCUSING ON THE PUBLIC GOOD
While other universities have created similar programs to generate revenue, Veerasamy believes that outreach from public institutions should be treated as a public service.
“We provide one of the nation’s large computer science outreach programs that is not run by a third party.” Veerasamy said. “Others charge a higher fee to have the college brand recognition, especially for research-based experiences. We really try to keep the public in mind, though. We don’t want finances to get in the way, so we offer a 50% discount immediately for low-income families.”
Other University groups expressed interest in creating similar programs, so they are now able to use Veerasamy’s program as a model for K-12 outreach.
“University processes can take time,” Veerasamy said. “We have laid the groundwork, and now the University has the PACE program to show how to run outreach programs designed for minors.”
One additional benefit for the K-12 students is that they work directly with graduate student instructors. International graduate students may have more limited options for internships during summer months, so the coding camps provide a good source of income and means for practicing their teaching skills.
“We provide one of the nation’s largest computer science outreach programs that is not run by a third party.”
— Dr. Jey Veerasamy
Professor of Instruction in Computer Science
During the summer of 2024, Vlad Birsan, a PhD student in software engineering, worked with Riya Patel and Avaneesh Ramaseshan, both MS in computer science students, to teach an AI workshop. The camp was a popular option among high school students, attracting more than 100 in-person attendees. The instructors took turns leading the course and appreciated that it was more relaxed than other University courses.
“I actually want to become a professor,” Birsan said. “This is my first hands-on teaching experience, and we get a chance to do some exercises in the classroom.”
Patel and Ramaseshan, also international students, enjoyed improving their teaching skills in a lower stress environment with motivated K-12 students.
“They are setting our level really high,” Patel said. “My communication skills are increasing. Our concepts are improving because they are asking questions.”
Ramaseshan added, “I was a little worried, but honestly, this method works better. We have more students to compare more ideas. We’re able to adapt to the students.”
OUTREACH AS A STRATEGIC COMMITMENT
As Lee and Veersamy work to build programs and inspire hundreds of supporters both within and outside of the Jonsson School, others have been motivated to start similar nonprofit organizations or build upon these programs through the University’s PACE program for minors. This momentum dovetails with the overarching vision the Jonsson School is embracing over the coming years — strategically and intentionally working to identify and build relationships with community leaders and partners to make an impact beyond the borders of the UTD campus.
To this end, the School recently hired its first director of outreach and recruitment to create and implement outreach, recruitment and engagement for all undergraduate student programs. And on the volunteer side, campus student organizations including Young Women in Science and Engineering (YWISE) have a regular outreach programs, and professional organizations such as the UT Dallas chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) include external outreach as a key component. Donors for the University’s annual Comets Giving Day support programs so that they can ensure that their contributions will meet specific needs.
“Making a difference can be accomplished through official University programs, such as those that our new director will lead, or initiatives driven organically through a different avenue of passion and purpose,” Adams said. “Outreach can mean hosting a weekend coding camp. It can mean supporting — or even starting — a nonprofit organization. Our faculty leverage their teaching experience to fill gaps and meet needs at a community level.”
That willingness to share expertise beyond the classroom will help foster additional opportunities for partnership, civic engagement and experiential learning, while also potentially growing the pool of available, interested future Comets. What’s more, the dedication to outreach has a ripple effect on the climate of the Jonsson School, bonding its faculty and staff through a shared sense of mission, and creating a new perspective on opportunities available across the school.
“As dean, one of my first strategic initiatives has been supporting peer mentorship and student organizations, giving our more than forty student organizations the support they need to create robust programs for our students, including outreach programs,” Adams said. “I continue to advocate for these professional and outreach-focused programs, because this is often where I observe the most growth for all involved, from our current students, staff and faculty to K-12 children in our community who are our future Comets.”
