Loh, who coached U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad teams from 2013 to 2023 and helped deliver its first championship in 21 years in 2015, followed by three more first-place finishes, said he initially thought making high-quality lessons would be enough to attract students online.

"We did that, and then we found out that most people didn’t want the lessons anyway, they just wanted to get a high score," he said at the "AI: Shaping Human-Centered Innovation" dialogue in Hanoi organized Wednesday by FPT Corporation and the New Turing Institute.

He launched in 2019 live.poshenloh, an online learning platform for students aged 10-15, where teenage tutors who are "really good at math and also nice people" teach younger students through livestreamed sessions. Each class is typically led by two high school tutors teaching around 20-30 children for an hour.

U.S. mathematician Po-Shen Loh speaks at the "AI: Shaping Human-Centered Innovation" dialogue in Hanoi organized by FPT Corporation and the New Turing Institute on May 27, 2026. Photo courtesy of FPT

The experience led him to rethink what captures students' attention. He learned that platforms popular with young people, such as YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram, looked nothing like traditional online classrooms.

So he came up with a solution: bringing professional actors into online sessions to coach tutors in real time as they taught. The actors are not there to teach mathematics, but to help tutors improve communication, body language, energy, and interaction with students. Part of the screen during lessons shows geometry diagrams or equations alongside live student chats where participants share answers and discuss problems together.

Loh said the approach made the classes far more engaging. Since the platform introduced actors into its classes in late 2021, it has attracted hundreds of students each semester. Many of its instructors are former students who later returned as tutors after participating in math competitions and building their academic credentials through the program.

The mathematics professor at Carnegie Mellon University said the idea was partly inspired by the school’s strong performing arts culture. While widely known for computer science and engineering, it is also home to one of the top drama schools in the U.S.

In addition to teaching mathematics there, he researches probability, combinatorics, algorithms, and real-world applications of mathematics. He also took acting classes himself. "If you want to learn how to make products that other people want to use, you need to look at them."

He said the model also addresses what he described as "one of the biggest problems" in U.S. education, the shortage of talented teachers willing to work with younger students. In exchange for teaching children, mathematically gifted teenagers receive acting and communication coaching.

"We tell these older kids that, if they teach the younger kids, we will hire a professional actor to watch you and teach you how to get a date," he joked.

Loh said his broader mission is no longer only about teaching mathematics, but about building "a thoughtful world" where education helps students think clearly, communicate and contribute to society.

He said education should teach not only technical skills, but also "what makes a person a person." He hoped that, through the platform, younger students would eventually become mentors themselves, creating a cycle centered on curiosity, communication and problem-solving.