We chose shopping malls as the research focus because they are both familiar everyday spaces for students and complex enough to support deep interdisciplinary inquiry—perfectly aligning with our teaching goal of extending learning from academics to real-world problem solving.
A large shopping mall is like a miniature society: the flow of people, store layouts, signage designs, and customer dwell times all conceal mathematical logic, and students' everyday experiences become the "material" for research.
More importantly, this scenario naturally lends itself to interdisciplinary learning.
The research involves not only mathematical modeling and data analysis, but also the integration of knowledge across multiple disciplines.
This is precisely the “integration of knowledge” we hope our students will achieve. In such real-world scenarios, they are not only solving problems—they are learning how to use mathematical thinking to influence the world.