If you\u2019ve ever eaten a granola bar or driven a car with tinted windows, then you\u2019ve unknowingly stumbled upon the work of UConn alumnus Ken Chang (M.S. Chemical Engineering, \u201985).\u00a0<\/p>\n
This month marks Chang\u2019s 17th<\/sup> year with Toray Plastics (America), Inc.<\/span><\/a><\/span>, where he started as a Senior Product Development Engineer, then moved up the ranks to the role of Research and Development manager for his site \u201cseveral years later.\u201d Today, he serves as Director of Film Research and Development.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you open up a potato chip bag or corn chip bag and you see the shiny metallic film inside, probably about 80% of the time, that film is a product that [Toray Plastics] has made,\u201d says Chang. \u201cWe make those foil-like looking films that you see in the packaging of granola bars, candy bars, and snack foods.\u201d<\/p>\n Chang is also involved with Toray\u2019s production of tinted windows, more specifically the tinted polyester films applied to windows to create such an effect, which are commonly utilized by car companies and office buildings. These \u201csolar-control films\u201d are designed to block out ultraviolet (UV) rays as well as infrared radiation, so that they keep buildings and cars cooler while reducing glare. According to Chang, food packaging and tinted windows are Toray\u2019s two main applications, but the company is also involved in the development of \u201ca whole host of other types of films.\u201d<\/p>\n Chang notes that throughout his 17 years with Toray Plastics, he\u2019s noticed a shift in consumer attitudes \u2013 Americans are starting to look for products made with renewable materials while moving away from petroleum-based materials. Plastic has historically derived from petroleum, but recent scientific developments have made plastics from renewable sources like corn and sugar cane. Another option, according to Chang, is simply to \u201cdownsize\u201d packaging \u2013 use the same packaging materials as before, just less of it, to do \u201cthe same job that thicker or more massive packaging has done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, redeveloping an otherwise functional packaging system for the environment\u2019s sake doesn\u2019t come without problems. Chang mentions a 2010 marketing campaign by a large national snack food producer in which their chip products were packaged in new biodegradable packaging developed in part by Toray Plastics, with Chang as a member of the project\u2019s development team. From an engineering and environmental standpoint, the bags were an award-winning success<\/span><\/a><\/span>. Consumers, however, had a big issue with the bags: they couldn\u2019t be opened without emitting a lot of noise<\/span><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a big supplier to this food company and they challenged us to develop packaging based on polylactic acid, or PLA, a polymer made from corn starch,\u201d says Chang. \u201cFrom a textbook viewpoint, it was a complete success. Everything about the packaging\u2019s development was sustainable, it had the properties to maintain product freshness, and it was compostable. But, the bag is made out of much stiffer materials, and, as it turns out, consumers were put off by the noise level of the bag. In a way, it\u2019s real shame \u2013 it was a huge technical achievement to get this bag\u2019s technology commercialized and put on the market on such a large scale. I\u2019m a little disappointed, but an important lesson was learned \u2013 the consumers\u2019 convenience always has to be kept in mind.\u201d Chang notes that he could see this project becoming a great case study in business school.\u00a0<\/p>\n Toray Plastics puts out a large number of patent applications for novel technologies each year, many of which are granted. When asked how many of these technological developments Chang has been involved in, he replies modestly, saying that he doesn\u2019t keep count, but \u201cif [he] had to guess, maybe 20 or so patents and patents-pending right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked about his UConn experience, Chang is quick to mention what he misses most about our Storrs Campus: \u201cSome of those fall days were really gorgeous. I have great memories of walking around Mirror Lake as the leaves were changing color.\u201d Chang also reflects on the closeness he felt with his fellow graduate students in the lab. \u201cYou cook meals together, you eat together, you work together, you suffer together,\u201d Chang jokes. \u201cWe became a very tight-knit group. We\u2019d have departmental softball games \u2013 Chemical Engineering vs. Material Sciences.\u201d<\/p>\n As someone who has been both an interview candidate and an interviewer, Chang has a lot of tips for students for their future job interviews. \u201cFirst impressions are really important. You might want to say, \u2018hey, first impressions aren\u2019t that important, you don\u2019t know the real me,\u2019 but unfortunately the first ten or fifteen minutes of an interview is going to establish a lot in the minds of your interview panel, so your demeanor during and preparation for interviews should be taken very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Chang also stressed the importance of gathering some background information before an interview. \u201cResearch the company ahead of time,\u201d he says, \u201cThere\u2019s no excuse not to. You should know what the company does and what they\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t like something about your resume, like your GPA is lower than you\u2019d like it to be \u2013 be upfront about it,\u201d Chang says. \u201cThey will appreciate honestly more than they\u2019ll appreciate excuses. I remember one person that came in to be interviewed and she was very ashamed about getting a D in one of her courses. When we asked her about it, she was very upfront. She said, \u2018you know what, I was really unfocused that [semester.] I was doing too much social stuff and trying too hard to get into a sorority, and I learned a big lesson from that.\u2019 It was clear on her transcript that after that semester, she did much better in school. That kind of answer really impressed me. No excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n Chang credits his persistence for getting him where he is today. \u201cIt\u2019s like what Woody Allen said,\u201d remarked Chang, \u201cthat \u2018the hardest part of a job is showing up every day…\u2019 and that\u2019s true!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’ve ever eaten a granola bar or driven a car with tinted windows, then you’ve unknowingly stumbled upon the work of UConn alumnus Ken Chang (M.S. Chemical Engineering, ’85). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":224358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2110],"class_list":["post-203682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 12:29:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224370,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203682\/revisions\/224370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/224358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203682"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=203682"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=203682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"chang1\"](\"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/chang1.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cI\u2019m now responsible for running a team of people who are developing new products, both with polypropylene and polyester-based films for a variety of industrial and packaging applications,\u201d Chang says. About half of Toray\u2019s researchers and product developers report to him.<\/p>\n