Chai‘s goal in teaching is to help students gain mastery of a broad range of social science knowledge and then apply it in practical ways in their everyday lives. He is a respected scholar with a diverse interdisciplinary background and interests in the fields of social change and development, ethnic relations and rational-choice theory. His most notable contribution to the department was his transformation of an introductory sociology course to include written paper assignments and web-based discussion groups. He also serves as principal investigator of an extramural grant on modeling and simulation of cultural differences in human decision-making.