Professor Chong's research interests are primarily in the areas of control, optimization, and modeling, with applications to computer/communication networks, sensor networks, and wireless systems. He received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 1995.
Professor Chong is a Fellow of IEEE. He has served as the faculty advisor and branch counselor for the Purdue University IEEE student branch. He received the Outstanding IEEE Branch Counselor and Advisor Award in 1993, and the IEEE Section Recognition Award (IEEE Central Indiana Section) in 1994. He served as Vice President, Financial Activities, IEEE Control Systems Society, 2012--2014, and then as President Elect (2016), President (2017), and Past President (2018).
Professor Chong was an inaugural Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (2009--2016). He was also previously on the editorial boards of Computer Networks, Journal of Control Science and Engineering, and IEEE Expert Now. He was the founding chairman of the IEEE Technical Committee on Discrete Event Systems (under the IEEE Control Systems Society). He has served on the IEEE Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board, and on program/organizing committees for several conferences, including the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), American Control Conference (ACC), IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC), IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (GLOBECOM), and IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC).
Professor Chong is coauthor of a best-selling book, An Introduction to Optimization, Fourth Edition, Wiley-Interscience, 2013.
For his contributions to research and education in electrical engineering, Professor Chong received the 1998 Frederick Emmons Terman Award from the ASEE, sponsored by HP (see information on the Terman Award and list of awardees). He was named a Purdue University Faculty Scholar in 1999. In 2010, he received the IEEE Control Systems Society Distinguished Member Award.
See also other awards and honors and selected activities.