Liang Chang

Liang Chang

Is a S.C.M.P. Graduate Fellow in the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center and doctoral student in the Urban and Regional Science program at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Prior joining Texas A&M University, he worked on several research projects of typhoon risk analysis and structural health monitoring of high-rise buildings as a research assistant at the City University of Hong Kong. He received his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Chongqing Jianzhu University(former Chongqing Institute of Architecture & Engineering), Chongqing, China and his master degree in Engineering Mechanics from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. He will continue his PhD study in the Civil Engineering Program at Universtiy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from fall 2006. His research is focused on civil systems, engineering risk analysis, probabilistic and statistics methods, geographic information system (GIS), remote sesing (RS), structural health monitoring, structural reliability, natural hazards risk analysis and loss estimation, disaster socio-economic consequences analysis.

Liang Chang's Response to the Five Questions:

1. What topics do you have some expertise in and would you be willing to help others learn them?

I have a background of both civil engineering and urban planning. In general, my research interests lie in complex civil infrastructure systems, engineering risk analysis, disaster risk assessment and management, and probabilistic and statistical methods. I would be happy to share my knowledge in civil engineering, risk analysis, and urban planning and learn from other participants.

2. What do you want to learn at the CSSS?

Since I would like to extend my research in the field of system reliability and civil infrastructure systems under the impact of natural disasters, I wish to gain knowledge of complex systems — especially the performance and reliability of the complex systems, such as the reliability of power system and water pipeline system — to extend my research through the study of complex systems at the summer school. This will contribute to my ability to better understand the complex civil infrastructure systems and thus further my research in the field of risk assessment for critical civil infrastructure systems.

3. Do you have any projects or research interests that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach?

I am interested in system reliability of civil infrastructures under the impact of natural disasters. Although I have a background in civil engineering and urban planning and I am familiar with engineering risk analysis and reliability, I lack the necessary training in the systems theory and civil infrastructures systems (power line systems, water pipelines, communications networks, and transportation networks, etc.). Currently I am involved in a research project of system reliability of civil infrastructure systems under the impact of natural disasters such as hurricane and earthquakes. Therefore an interdisciplinary approach would be essential for my research.

4. Do you have any ideas for what sort of project you would like to do this summer?

I would like to conduct research to understand the basic concepts of civil infrastructure systems and apply the theories of complex systems learned at CSSS for my future dissertation, that is, the reliability of civil infrastructure systems.

5. Suppose you could travel one-hundred years in the future and ask researchers any three questions. What would those questions be?

The three questions I would ask are: (1) what kind of method you are using to find out the system reliability of the complex civil infrastructure systems? (2) how do you forecast the catastrophic disasters such as a major earthquake in a mega city like Los Angeles in California? and (3) how do you keep the cities from the impact of natural disasters?