Making Math Make Sense

AMSC Ph.D. candidate Mengting Chao’s step-by-step teaching method and commitment to student success earned her recognition from both students and faculty.

When Mengting Chao started her Ph.D. in applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation (AMSC) at the University of Maryland in 2020, she never imagined she would win three major campus-level teaching awards in the next five years—or that teaching would become so central to her academic identity. 

“It was the first year of the pandemic, and I felt a lot of anxiety about my future and what it would look like,” Chao recalled. “I felt very disconnected from my instructors and my peers, and there was a great deal of uncertainty at the time. I wasn’t sure how things would work out.” 

Since that rough beginning, Chao accomplished more than she ever expected. In her second year, Chao received a serendipitous email from Bruce Golden, a professor of management science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and an AMSC faculty member. Golden was recruiting new students for his research, and Chao quickly connected with him over their shared interest in operations research and joined his team.

Today, Chao is in the final stretch of her Ph.D. program, completing a dissertation on last-mile delivery logistics—the last leg and most crucial step in the shipping process, which involves moving a package from a local hub (like a distribution center) directly to the customer's doorstep. Chao says her work at UMD helped her find her niche in mathematics, and one of her research projects earned the 2025 Best Student Paper Award from the Decision Sciences Institute. Her research experience also led to internships with Amazon and RouteSmart Technologies (now part of FedEx), where she worked on optimizing logistics and transportation processes. 

“Being able to come to UMD physically helped me feel more connected with the community here and have a better idea of what I wanted to do,” Chao said. “I also realized that I could do more with my math skills than I originally thought.”

While Chao conducted research with Golden’s group, she also began teaching courses like MATH 141: Calculus II and STAT 400: Applied Probability and Statistics. There, she discovered a deep passion for education and especially for helping students succeed. 

“The first semester teaching was difficult, especially as English is my second language, but I really enjoyed it and actually received many positive teaching evaluations from my students. I also took their valuable feedback to heart and adjusted my teaching style accordingly,” Chao explained. “The experience made me think, ‘Oh, maybe I’m good at this!’ and I developed confidence in teaching, so I continued to do it.” 

Chao’s students agreed. At the 2025 College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) employee awards ceremony, Chao received the collegewide Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. More than 60 undergraduates nominated Chao, sharing stories about how Chao’s patience and step-by-step approaches to complex concepts made math easier for them. Chao also received the Department of Mathematics’ 2022 Aziz/Osborn Gold Medal in Teaching Excellence and UMD’s Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award, which placed her among the top 2% of more than 4,000 graduate assistants across campus.

“Being recognized for my efforts by this community helped me realize how meaningful I find interacting with and supporting others through teaching and mentorship,” Chao said. “I never would have imagined this for myself before.”

A foundation in patience and perspective

Chao’s talent for teaching mathematics didn’t emerge overnight. Beginning in her sophomore year at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, she worked as a tutor at the university’s Quantitative Reasoning Center. There, she guided students at various levels in mathematics, computer science and economics—three fields in which she eventually received bachelor’s degrees.

But Chao believes that her personal affinity for teaching and math goes back even farther than that.

“Growing up, I was always comfortable with numbers and enjoyed working with math,” she said. “I took Math Olympiad training classes for younger children while I attended primary school. And then, one day, I simply could not figure out a way to solve the problems—they’re not as simple as ‘one plus one equals two’ types of questions.”

With guidance from her grandfather, an accountant, Chao learned creative approaches that helped her solve problems in mathematics, and her interest in math blossomed. 

“My grandfather really introduced me to the beauty of mathematics. In addition to helping me develop the skills to solve math problems, he also gave me the chance to see a problem from a different perspective,” she said. “When I saw how a problem could be solved in different ways, it really shaped how I saw math and how other people can approach it. Without that experience, I probably would have lost interest in math entirely and my path would look very different.” 

Those childhood memories laid the foundation for the teaching principles Chao uses today and the approaches that help her connect with students in the classroom. 

“I try to be completely transparent with content, creating detailed lecture notes, and uploading materials immediately. Everything is easily accessible and written out step-by-step so students can follow my thought processes,” Chao said. 

Chao also tries to tailor her teaching approach to her students’ experiences and backgrounds.  She often provides quick recaps to make sure everyone in the classroom is on the same page and draws on her interdisciplinary background to help students connect with the content.

“Keeping students engaged is a challenge, but a very important thing to keep in mind. If students feel discouraged, just like I was as a kid getting stuck, they sometimes just lose all confidence and don’t have any motivation to learn anymore,” she said. “I review things that they might have forgotten, even when more advanced students say it’s not needed, and try to provide real-world examples of more abstract concepts.”

For Chao, having great teachers was life-changing, and she hopes to make the same kind of difference for her own students, helping them achieve their future goals. 

“My goal is to give students all the tools they need to succeed,” she said. “My philosophy is to always provide patience and perspective to students. They can feel it when you lack these things, and it can really make a difference.”