1999 Sporn Award for Teaching Undergraduate Engineering Subjects

Roger Chang

When Ed Henneke, head of the department of engineering science and mechanics (ESM), first asked his teaching assistant Roger Chang to instruct some of the department's undergraduate courses, the Taiwan native hesitated. "As an international student, I was reluctant," Chang remembered. "But I tried it and realized that teaching is something I love to do."

Chang has performed so well teaching ESM's undergraduate courses in statics and mechanics of deformable bodies that he was selected by the General Assembly of the Student Engineers' Council to receive the College of Engineering Sporn Award for excellence in undergraduate instruction.

Henneke encouraged Chang to become an instructor in 1995 because "he was one of the most outstanding teaching assistants I've ever had. Even in his first semester of teaching, the students reacted positively to him. He met every expectation I had for him."

After earning his B.S. in civil engineering at the National Taiwan University in 1985, Chang came to Virginia Tech and began graduate study in the same field. He chose Virginia Tech, he said, because the university has an excellent civil-engineering program. "And, knowing something about earthquakes," he remarked, smiling, "I didn't want to live on the West Coast."

In 1989, Chang switched his studies to ESM, where he has been conducting research in the dynamic response of structures to earthquakes. Working with Professor Mahendra Singh, Chang is trying to improve the design equations in current building codes so that equipment and secondary structures can be built to more effectively withstand earthquakes.

In 1997 and 1998, Chang received the Manuel Stein Endowed Fellowship, a grant presented by ESM in memory of a former professor to graduate students who have excelled in teaching and research.

Jennifer Amaral, a civil-engineering student who has taken Chang's ESM classes, described him as "a teacher who exhibits an unsurpassed respect and genuine concern for his students. He works tirelessly to help students not only succeed, but understand what they are doing."

If Ed Henneke hadn't given him the opportunity to try teaching, Chang remarked, he would probably have gone to work in the private sector. "I'm lucky to be a teacher," said Chang, who hopes to complete his Ph.D. in 2000 and continue teaching at Virginia Tech or another university. "I especially enjoy it when students come to class not knowing anything about the subject and at the end of the semester they are confident they can solve problems using what they've learned," he said.

"I put myself in the students' shoes," he said when asked about his approach to teaching. "I think about how I would want a teacher to explain the material to me. I very much want my students to do well and really understand the material. I'm especially proud to receive the Sporn Award as an international instructor," Chang said.

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