His research interest hinges on the intersections between computation and design. With the rise of smartphones and other internet-connected devices, design choices become increasingly data-driven and dependent on information's credibility in the construction of the human habitat. Chang's research focuses on human habitat's design, environmental impact, and information's credibility in the big-data age. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include computational social science, digital humanities, and urban informatics.
The Big Data he uses have helped him in the scientific measurement and causal identification of several social science and humanistic fields by drawing on data from a wide range of sources, including geospatial, textual, network, and visual information. His first book project, “Technologies Affecting Information Exchange in Contemporary China: Green Leap Forward?” examines how the physical environment of cities shapes political communication. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include computational social science, digital humanities, and urban informatics.

Chang has a B.A. in geography from Beijing Normal University, and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in environmental studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he served as the 2016-2017 postdoctoral fellow in Chinese studies at Stanford University and the 2018-2019 postdoctoral associate in Asian studies at Yale University.