A Data-Informatics-Oriented CNN-Based Intelligent Model for Handwritten Mathematical Symbol Recognition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59461/ijdiic.v5i1.261Keywords:
Deep learning, Image classification, Pattern recognition, Data informatics, Computer visionAbstract
Handwritten mathematical symbol recognition remains a challenging problem due to variations in writing styles, stroke structures, and visual similarities among symbols, which often reduce classification accuracy. This study proposes a data-informatics-oriented convolutional neural network (CNN) model for robust recognition of handwritten mathematical symbols. The research adopts a supervised experimental design using a balanced dataset consisting of six mathematical symbol classes. A systematic preprocessing pipeline including image resizing, normalization, and structured dataset partitioning is implemented to ensure data consistency and improve feature learning. The CNN model is implemented in MATLAB and optimized using stochastic gradient descent with momentum. Model performance is evaluated using confusion matrix–based metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score, along with computational time analysis. Experimental results demonstrate stable performance across multiple experimental runs, achieving an average accuracy of 97.08%, precision of 97.10%, recall of 97.08%, and F1-score of 97.07%. Confusion matrix analysis indicates that most handwritten symbols are correctly classified, with only minor misclassifications occurring among visually similar operators. These results confirm the effectiveness of integrating data informatics principles with CNN-based feature learning for handwritten mathematical symbol recognition. The proposed framework provides a reliable foundation for intelligent systems supporting digital education, automated assessment, and mathematical document digitization.
Downloads
References
T. Ghosh, S. Sen, S. M. Obaidullah, K. C. Santosh, K. Roy, and U. Pal, “Advances in online handwritten recognition in the last decades,” Computer Science Review, vol. 46, p. 100515, Nov. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosrev.2022.100515.
M. Silfverberg, “Historical Overview of Consumer Text Entry Technologies,” in Text Entry Systems, Elsevier, 2007, pp. 3–25.
P. Gervais, A. Fadeeva, and A. Maksai, “MathWriting: A Dataset For Handwritten Mathematical Expression Recognition,” in Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining V.2, Aug. 2025, pp. 5459–5469, https://doi.org/10.1145/3711896.3737436.
M. Athoillah and R. K. Putri, “Handwritten Arabic Numeral Character Recognition Using Multi Kernel Support Vector Machine,” Kinetik: Game Technology, Information System, Computer Network, Computing, Electronics, and Control, pp. 99–106, Mar. 2019, https://doi.org/10.22219/kinetik.v4i2.724.
R. Dixit, R. Kushwah, and S. Pashine, “Handwritten Digit Recognition using Machine and Deep Learning Algorithms,” International Journal of Computer Applications, vol. 176, no. 42, pp. 27–33, Jul. 2020, https://doi.org/10.5120/ijca2020920550.
N. Khan et al., “Systematic Literature Review of Machine Learning Models and Applications for Text Recognition,” IEEE Access, vol. 13, pp. 177647–177670, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3618109.
Y. Chajri and B. Bouikhalene, “Handwritten mathematical symbols dataset,” Data in Brief, vol. 7, pp. 432–436, Jun. 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2016.02.060.
B. N. Van and V. T. Hoang, “A Short Review for Handwritten Math Expression Recognition Techniques,” Procedia Computer Science, vol. 235, pp. 231–239, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2024.04.025.
J. Seitz, T. Lengfeld, and R. Timofte, “The Return of Structural Handwritten Mathematical Expression Recognition,” Aug. 2025.
X.-X. Niu and C. Y. Suen, “A novel hybrid CNN–SVM classifier for recognizing handwritten digits,” Pattern Recognition, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 1318–1325, Apr. 2012, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2011.09.021.
S. Ahlawat and A. Choudhary, “Hybrid CNN-SVM Classifier for Handwritten Digit Recognition,” Procedia Computer Science, vol. 167, pp. 2554–2560, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2020.03.309.
Sakshi and V. Kukreja, “A retrospective study on handwritten mathematical symbols and expressions: Classification and recognition,” Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 103, p. 104292, Aug. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2021.104292.
W. AlKendi, F. Gechter, L. Heyberger, and C. Guyeux, “Advancements and Challenges in Handwritten Text Recognition: A Comprehensive Survey,” Journal of Imaging, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 18, Jan. 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging10010018.
Q. Miao and F.-Y. Wang, “AI for Mathematics,” Artificial Intelligence for Science (AI4S): Frontiers and Perspectives Based on Parallel Intelligence, pp. 21–39, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-67419-8_2
T.-N. Truong, C. T. Nguyen, R. Zanibbi, H. Mouchère, and M. Nakagawa, “A survey on handwritten mathematical expression recognition: The rise of encoder-decoder and GNN models,” Pattern Recognition, vol. 153, p. 110531, Sep. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2024.110531.
N. Bhatt, N. Bhatt, P. Prajapati, V. Sorathiya, S. Alshathri, and W. El-Shafai, “A Data-Centric Approach to improve performance of deep learning models,” Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, p. 22329, Sep. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-73643-x.
N. Saqib, K. F. Haque, V. P. Yanambaka, and A. Abdelgawad, “Convolutional-Neural-Network-Based Handwritten Character Recognition: An Approach with Massive Multisource Data,” Algorithms, vol. 15, no. 4, p. 129, Apr. 2022, https://doi.org/10.3390/a15040129.
B. Zhong, X. Xing, P. Love, X. Wang, and H. Luo, “Convolutional neural network: Deep learning-based classification of building quality problems,” Advanced Engineering Informatics, vol. 40, pp. 46–57, Apr. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.009.
T. Paranayapa, P. Ranasinghe, D. Ranmal, D. Meedeniya, and C. Perera, “A Comparative Study of Preprocessing and Model Compression Techniques in Deep Learning for Forest Sound Classification,” Sensors, vol. 24, no. 4, p. 1149, Feb. 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/s24041149.
L. Hickman, S. Thapa, L. Tay, M. Cao, and P. Srinivasan, “Text Preprocessing for Text Mining in Organizational Research: Review and Recommendations,” Organizational Research Methods, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 114–146, Jan. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428120971683.
M. Athoillah, “K-Nearest Neighbor for Recognize Handwritten Arabic Character,” Jurnal Matematika “MANTIK,” vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 83–89, Oct. 2019, https://doi.org/10.15642/mantik.2019.5.2.83-89.
R. K. Putri and M. Athoillah, “Enhancing handwritten numeric string recognition through incremental support vector machines,” Journal of AppliedMath, vol. 2, no. 1, Jan. 2024, https://doi.org/10.59400/jam.v2i1.373.
I. H. Sarker, “Deep Learning: A Comprehensive Overview on Techniques, Taxonomy, Applications and Research Directions,” SN Computer Science, vol. 2, no. 6, p. 420, Nov. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-021-00815-1.
Y. Deng and J. Ma, “SDGMNet: Statistic-Based Dynamic Gradient Modulation for Local Descriptor Learning,” Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 1510–1518, Mar. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v38i2.27916.
G. Naidu, T. Zuva, and E. M. Sibanda, “A Review of Evaluation Metrics in Machine Learning Algorithms,” 2023, pp. 15–25.
B. Juba and H. S. Le, “Precision-Recall versus Accuracy and the Role of Large Data Sets,” Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, vol. 33, no. 01, pp. 4039–4048, Jul. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v33i01.33014039.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Athoillah, Rani Kurnia Putri, Fenny Fitriani, Prayogo

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
