Queens Tech Corner: Marilyn Echeverria of InstaMath AI
Can you tell us a little about your company?
I am a first-generation student with a degree in Mathematics, and I saw firsthand how often math becomes a gatekeeper, especially at CUNY. Students can get stuck with a math problem at the worst times — late at night, on the subway, or right before a deadline or test.
In Fall 2022, about 47% of new New York City Department of Education graduates entering CUNY community colleges were placed in remedial or corequisite math or English courses. When support isn’t available at the moment, students are often left with three bad options: wait for office hours/tutoring, pay for private help (not realistic for many), or copy answers from solver apps (hurts learning + integrity). That gap is what motivated me to build Instamath AI, a tool that doesn’t just give answers, but actually helps students develop mathematical ability. InstaMath AI is focused on open-source, offline-capable, AI-guided tutoring that is free of ads, because learning support should be accessible, private, and available anytime.
How did you get your start in tech?
My start in tech was rooted in the Queens ecosystem. While earning my math degree, I interned at The Tech Incubator at Queens College and worked under the astute guidance of Dr. Ying Zhou. I helped local small businesses strengthen their online presence through marketing and technical support. That experience made technology feel real and immediate; it wasn’t abstract, it was empowering people. It also pushed me to move from theory to building. I decided to return for a Computer Science degree to bridge the gap between logic and creation, and to start building tools that can make a practical difference for students like me.
What is your latest project, and why are you excited about it?
My latest project is InstaMath AI, a camera-first math tutor that teaches, not just answers, and can run locally on your device. Students can snap a problem, have the math extracted, and receive verified, step-by-step solutions explained like a real tutor, with a focus on reasoning rather than shortcuts. It’s designed for active learning, so students can ask follow-up questions like “why?”, “hint only”, or “show me another way,” and it defaults to a study-mode experience that prioritizes guidance first. I am especially excited that it works offline, so it’s usable on the subway or in dead zones, without an account or ads. Beyond convenience, that design has a real impact: it expands access for students who can’t depend on high data usage or paid tutoring, protects privacy by keeping work on the phone rather than sending it to a server, and reduces dependence on cloud inference, which can cut ongoing compute and energy demands.
It’s Queens Tech Corner time! The Queens Tech Corner is a monthly profile where we shine a spotlight on tech entrepreneurs doing exciting things right here in Queens. This month’s featured tech entrepreneur is Marilyn Echeverria, CEO of InstaMath AI, a personal AI tutor that runs entirely in your browser. To learn more, go to https://instamath.com/.
