Engineers’ Forum [November 2022]

Engineers’

ARE NO SMALL JOBS AT SSP”

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Autumn leaves by Kalilah Kroll

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Welcome to the November 2022 issue of Engineers’ Forum!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, our team is so excited that you have chosen to pick up a copy of our magazine! In this issue, we have a variety of articles from Engineering Sororities to Rocketry design teams. We are looking forward to everything that the rest of the fall semester has to offer and hope you enjoy reading about what has been happening thus far!

Interested in creation, development, and implementation of learner-centered institutions? Nidhi Chopdekar highlights the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Virginia Tech. It touches on what CETL does to assist faculty in their journey of teaching while also implementing research-based teaching strategies and student-centered design principles. This is a must-read for anyone interested in knowing more about how professors develop their skills at Virginia Tech!

One of our newest writers, Aine O’Reilly covers the engineering showcase in the Naomi-Lee Recreation Center in Alexandria. This article encompasses how students from Virginia Tech work with other communities to support youth in the field of engineering.

Learn more about the engineering living learning community with Zoe Miloszewski’s article about Hypatia and Galileo. This article features exclusive insights into the Galipatia community, detailing experiences a student may have. Outside of the InVenTs Studio, it touches on networking, mentorship, and professional development opportunities.

Being a woman in such a male dominated field can sometimes feel lonely. Jolene Ghosh discusses the engineering sorority at Virginia Tech, also known as Alpha Omega Epsilon (AOE). Explore opportunities to join the sisterhood that supports minorities in STEM.

For those of you who are interested in some of the design teams at Virginia Tech, Tanish Wangoo’s piece is a perfect read to learn about Rocketry at VT. This includes specifics of the SpacePort America competition which they attend annually. For students wanting to travel near White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico and gain invaluable engineering skills, this is the article for you.

Lastly, Ethan Chung expands our scope of research opportunities beyond campus. He talks about Design Thinking ImpACCt, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

We appreciate your continued support of our mission: to capture the student engineering experience at Virginia Tech. Enjoy!

Sincerely, Adeline Ghosh Editor-in-Chief

Engineers’ Forum

Editor-in-Chief Creative Director Chief Copy Editor Managing Editor Business Manager Webmaster Writers

Adeline Ghosh - Finance (‘24)

Stella Shin - Architecture (‘25)

Peyton Ludwig Computer Science (‘26)

Alexander Petsopoulos - Aerospace Engineering (Graduate ‘22)

Jolene Ghosh - Economics (‘25)

Nidhi Chopdekar - Computer Science (Graduate’23)

Adeline Ghosh - Finance (‘24)

Zoe Miloszewski - Biomedical Engineering (‘26)

Jolene Ghosh - Economics (‘25)

Nidhi Chopdekar - Computer Science (Graduate’23)

Ethan Chung Mechanical Engineering (‘25)

Tanish Wangoo - General Engineering (‘26)

Aine O’Reilly - English (‘26)

Photography Team

Nidhi Chopdekar - Computer Science (Graduate’23)

Design Team Faculty Advisors

Stella Bryant Hannah Baker Stella Shin - Architecture (‘25)

Ben Keeys - Finance (‘26)

Alex Parrish

www.vtengineersforum.com

(Background) Dragon’s Tooth by Sean Stroud

Chelsea Betts

Niki Hazuda

Virginia Tech - Engineers’ Forum@vtengineers_forum

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

CETL

Article / Nidhi Chopdekar

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Virginia Tech assists faculty with the creation, development, and implementation of learner-centered instruction. They support the faculty in enhancing their student performance by implementing research-based teaching strategies and student-centered de sign principles. One of their goals is to help faculty be recognized and celebrated for innovation and excel lence in teaching. Graduate students and postdoctoral associates also have access to professional develop ment opportunities in teaching and learning offered by CETL. Through an integrative and practical approach, Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering (COE) aims at supporting learner-centered instruction. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Virginia Tech has supported the College of Engineering with numer ous projects. Some of the major contributions include formulation of the Interdisciplinary Design Capstone curriculum approach through the center's instructional grant program and various productive work sessions for both Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Innovation Campus to develop the Project-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum for MEng in ECE and Computer Science.

Scot Ransbottom from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who has engaged with CETL on multiple occasions, described how helpful the people at CETL have been to him:

“I’ve had the great fortune to work with the CETL team for many different situations. Kim Filer and her team plan and coordinate the WPI Project Based Learning workshop each year... The workshops provide education and guidance on how to do PBL, but Kim and her team are absolutely willing and engaged to jump in with specific groups and help identify specific approaches or tactics to implement and realize very discrete objectives. Kim helped the COE level Interdisciplinary working group to orchestrate and conduct a set of pilot courses for VT to achieve an Interdisciplinary Design Capstone course sequence with multiple engineering departments... In addition to Kim, Liesl Baum has been a dedicated and tireless partner to help ECE extend our two-semester, team-based, industry sponsored major design experience to support the Masters of Engineering program and the emerging Innovation Campus where graduates students can collaborate to solve realistic and meaningful projects. Liesl is also helping to re-envision assessment for the MDE program to employ a performance review approach while ensuring students get all the feedback they need to grow and learn from their experiences.”

One of the research-based teaching strategies that CETL supports is project-based learning, which is a method of engaging students in authentic, real-world challenges over a period of time. Due to its success in fostering learning, collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking, it is regarded as a high-impact activity. David Gray, a collegiate assistant professor in the College of Engineering who has found great help from PBL said,

“From in-depth Mid-Semester Classroom Feedback to the Principles of Effective Teaching Certificate to hosting the WPI PBL workshops, CETL has shaped and honed my teaching craft from the beginning of my career at Virginia Tech. These fundamental programs allowed me to engage with experts and with my peers to understand and practice principles of effective pedagogy in my various teaching spaces. More recently, CETL has empowered me through grants and advice to explore new methods of engage ment with my students, and new ways of providing the best education that I can for my students' success.”

CETL’s Principles of Effective Teaching Certificate offers professors the chance to engage in learning and developing practical knowledge and abilities. The program offers a community of learners and a support system for professors so they can develop as educators. The center's employees, professors, and instruc tional specialists from around the university will collaborate with the participants. In addition to providing certification services, CETL has also aided in personal development of faculty members in terms of im proving teaching effectiveness. Robin Ott from the Department of Mechanical Engineering expressed her personal experiences on the guidance she received from the center that honed her teaching skills as a new faculty member at Virginia Tech:

“... I eventually learned about the Virginia Tech CETL (it was CIDER at the time) and quickly signed up for the Principles of Effective Teaching Certificate Program. In that program, faculty met weekly for a year under the leadership of a CETL employee, learning about important factors to consider when teaching, and hearing examples and tips from colleagues. After that year I felt significantly more prepared to be a teacher. I think all new faculty should be required to take that class whether they are career academ ics or new Collegiate Faculty or Professors of Practice. Since then I’ve reached out to the CETL team often for guidance on different topics and truly appreciated their eagerness to help...”

More about CETL

Supporting experiential learning at Virginia Tech and enhancing student learning through research-based teaching strategies and student-centered design are two of CETL’s main goals. To meet the needs of the faculty, CETL provides a variety of specialized ser vices, including consulting, workshops, certificates, and annual conferences. The Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy™ presents cutting-edge peda gogical theory and research in higher education. Dis ciplinary and transdisciplinary educational practices, outcomes, and research are covered in the conference sessions. Approximately 500 faculty members and instructors in higher education who are committed to excellent teaching attend the conference each year at Virginia Tech. The conference welcomes faculty mem bers from colleges and universities both across the country and internationally to participate in seminars, practice sessions, and research sessions focused on teaching excellence.

Tiffany Shoop, who is the Director of Special Pro grams at CETL, said that one of her favorite parts of working at the center is getting to meet so many faculty members from across the university, including the College of Engineering, and learning about the engaging academic experiences they provide for our students at Virginia Tech.

“Centers for teaching and learning are a critical com ponent of institutes of higher education because they impact so many key players in the faculty and student experience. Through the opportunity to engage with faculty in an effort to improve their teaching, their teaching experience, and the learning experiences of the students, the CETL has been able to refine the practice of professional development for individuals and more broadly impact the culture of teaching and learning at Virginia Tech. To see this work in action, firsthand, and to work with faculty who are so ded icated to this aspect of their work is so rewarding”, said Liesl Baum, the Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives at CETL.

One of the most recent programs at CETL is the Bridge Experience Program for undergraduate students in order to provide them various opportunities for place-based experiential learning and help them gain the skills and abilities they need to succeed in their future endeavors. In short, it is a ‘bridge’ between a student’s academic life and professional life. Furthermore, CETL provides Instructional Consultations to faculty members that are customized to their courses and instructional environment. This includes assis tance with planning a new course, building a syllabus, and designing assignments. Another service offered by CETL is called the Course Design Clinic that provides faculty with focused support to plan a new course. The objective is to mentor faculty members through rigorous instructional design that incorporates assign ment-based evaluation, active learning strategies, and inclusive course design tactics. Similarly, CETL also provides Program/Departmental Consulting for customized services like curriculum mapping, workshops, certifications, and support for new initiatives. Additionally, they also provide Mid-Semester Feedback for faculty who wish to receive structured feedback from students regarding the functionality of the class and the quality of student learning. Faculty can also request Teaching Observations, where a center staff will provide feedback and suggestions, along with a written summary for potential improvements in a fol low-up meeting. Moreover, several types of funding opportunities are available to meet the needs of faculty through the Instructional Grant Programs.

For more information about CETL and its services, visit https://teaching.vt.edu/.

CETL. Photo / Nidhi Chopdekar

An Engineering Showcase for All

Article / Aine O’Reilly

Collaboration is vital to success as an engineer; it is an aspect that is encouraged and celebrated through Virginia Tech’s advanced resources, welcoming faculty, and overall enthusiastic school spirit. Virginia Tech students are not the only avid learners that would benefit from the sense of fellowship that has been fostered, and what better way to spread the knowledge and fun than through a community event! One such opportunity that will not want to be missed will be taking place on October 29th and is being jointly hosted by the Alfred Street Baptist Church, CEED, and Virginia Tech’s College Access Collaborative. The Naomi-Lee Recreation Center in Alexandria will be the grounds for the Virginia Tech STEM & College Fair, which will feature a combination of educational and entertaining activities. Students grades K-12 will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the detailed world of engineering beyond the textbook through hands-on activities that are sure to spark an interest and new ideas for the next generation of engineers.

Parents will have their own opportunity to expand their engineering knowledge as well as their understanding of the college admission process through college prep ses sions. Heading off to a new campus, deciding on a major to pursue, and feeling confident that one’s chosen college is the right fit is certainly no small feat. A prep session with a knowledgeable faculty member with experience and your best interests in mind is without a doubt a worthwhile resource for both parents and their incoming students. Student-led panel discussions are additional methods for learning more about Virginia Tech, its engineering pro grams, and life within college without the confusion of random statistics available online or assumptions made from alternative sources. After all, the best way to make inquiries clear and receive an honest glimpse into a col lege’s various programs is to hear it from a student who is currently experiencing all that Virginia Tech has to offer.

Taken by Sumaiya Haque.

Therapy dog session with students. Taken by Meredith DePuy.

Building at Virginia Tech. Taken by Meredith DePuy.

Virginia Tech would not function as an institution without the diligent work and tireless dedication of its faculty members, characteristics that are clear within the array of engineering professors and teaching assistants. An engineering showcase would certainly not be complete if the faculty was absent, so rest as sured that a departmental fair will be taking place as part of the event. Their experienced perception of the world of engineering and the ins and outs of a Virginia Tech education will be only a question away, and you are sure to be met with a more than willing individual.

Hypatia & Galileo

Article / Zoe Miloszewski

Introduction

There is only one place on the Virginia Tech campus where students can 3D print in the same building where they sleep, study, and do laundry. That place is Hoge Hall, home to the Living Learning Programs Hypa tia and Galileo. It features the second floor InVenTs Studio, an innovative design lab that is only one of the many resources provided to the first-year engineering students who call Hoge home. Often called Galipatia by the plethora of undergraduate student leaders, graduate student leaders, and mentors who work to make this community stronger, this Living Learning Program is one of Virginia Tech’s largest. In addition to the InVenTs Studio, Galipatia provides students with countless support such as networking opportunities, mentorship, and professional development opportunities to name a few.

The purpose of the Alexandria Engineering Showcase lies in the undeniable importance of supporting youth in their search for academic and career success while satisfying their curiosity to learn about the world around them. The showcase will undoubtedly connect a new generation of students with Virginia Tech as both an institution and a resource. As younger students get to meet and ask current students and teach ers questions, they simultaneously have the opportunity to put a face to a potential instructor, peer, and perhaps even a mentor. Most importantly, the Engineering Showcase creates an opportunity for students to step beyond the classroom and into their futures.

Radford Engineering Showcase 2022. Taken by Adeline Ghosh.

Hoge Hall. Taken by Stella Bryant.

History of Galipatia

Named after the prominent ancient Egyptian mathematician, Hypatia was created in 2001 as a community to bring together women in a field where they are typically very underrepresented. The number of women enrolled grew each year as the program gained traction, and in 2004 Galileo joined as the brother program, forming the Galipatia LLP we know today. It was this same year that Dr. Watford, head of CEED, VT alum, and founder of Hypatia, implemented the committees of upperclassmen women who continue to give back to Hypatia and support young women following in their footsteps. In 2010, after Galileo and Hypatia merged under one unified roof in Hoge Hall, the mentorship program was created. Now, with this support program and shared space, stu dents had access to the guidance of their upperclassman peer mentor 24/7 if needed. After starting with around 40 women, Hypatia is currently a strong community of over 300 women in engineering who offer support and friendship to each other. Hypatia can be a safe place for women to collaborate on coursework and meet others who share their interests, especially since many of the classes they take will have an imbalanced ratio of men to women. The years of hard work put into building this program have undoubtedly paid off, considering that the number of women enrolling grows each year and students in Galipatia have a higher graduation percentage than the rest of Virginia Tech’s engineering students.

Galipatia Today

All Galipatia students are required to take a 2-credit class as a part of the Living Learning Program. The as signments in this course are intended to develop students professionally, academically, and personally as they transition from high school to college as an engineering major. These are not just meaningless assignments that will be completed and not looked at again. Students are required to create Google Calendars for organiza tion, construct resumes and cover letters that can be used in years to come, and network with industry pro fessionals in their intended field. In addition, the course has social, professional development, mental health, academic, and service requirements that help students to grow and be successful in all areas of life. Galipatia community members can receive tutoring on some of the most challenging first year courses right in Hoge Hall during academic hours. Afterwards, they can unwind at a social event by making origami or playing games. Every Friday, the Hoge lounge hosts Slush Rush, an event where students sip slushies and talk with Virginia Tech professors from a range of engineering depart ments. This low-stakes environment is a fun way to practice talking to professionals about your interest in engineering.

In addition to the weekly Galileo and Hypatia classes, there is also a weekly seminar for both groups that addresses social challenges college students may face. These seminars educate Galipatia students on topics like communication skills, diversity and inclusion, sexism, relationship violence, identity, and culture. There are also informational workshops about study abroad programs, as well as an end of year social for all the stu dents. Galipatia covers every aspect of what students need to grow in their identity as young adults, spanning from academic and cultural education to fun social events. Perhaps the most enriching element of Galipatia is the peer mentorship program. Each freshman in the program is assigned an upperclassman mentor who leads them through a ten-week series of meetings and provides advice on study skills, how to manage Galipa tia events, and just life in general. Students will be part of a mentor group including other first years with the same mentor. Together, they discuss the good and the bad aspects of their weeks and share tips for success as an engineering student. The groups get an extra chance to bond with several group meals, fully funded by Galipatia and held at each groups’ choice of restaurant in downtown Blacksburg.

It’s impossible to list all the opportuni ties Galipatia provides for its students. The endless resources and possibilities are what keep students coming back year after year and what draws even great er numbers of freshmen each fall. This program that began 21 years ago as a small group of women in Slusher Hall has blossomed into a powerful commu nity where women and other underrep resented groups can support each other through the trials and successes that come with studying engineering. Galileo and Hypatia are sure to evolve even more in the years to come, and their impact on Virginia Tech engineering is sure to grow even larger.

Students on the drill field. Taken by Stella Bryant.

Alpha Omega Epsilon Engineering Sorori ty

Article / Jolene Ghosh

What is Alpha Omega Epsilon?

Alpha Omega Epsilon (AOE) is an engineering sorority at Virginia Tech. It is part of the Rho Chapter and works to empow er female engineers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The sorority follows the values of profession alism, service, and sisterhood and exemplifies them in everything they do. The sisterhood allows women in STEM to feel supported and explore their interests with each other. The sorority works hard to make sure that female engineers are able to build meaningful connections with one another at Virginia Tech.

The Recruitment Process

In order to be eligible to join the sorority, you need to be majoring in an engineering discipline or tech nical sciences. This allows them to remain an engineering sorority and be focused on enhancing students' expe rience in STEM at Virginia Tech. They also have a grade point average (GPA) requirement that you must at least have a 2.5 GPA in order to be eligible to join. Their events start during the fall of 2022. Their first set of recruit ment events are on September 28th, October 24th, and November 28th from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. Each of their events have different themes, such as tailgating, Halloween, and holidays. Tailgating events usually take place before Virginia Tech’s beloved football games and are a great way to hang out with family and friends prior to the game starting. The sorority's fall events are informal but can help students to get a better idea of what life in the sorority would be like and the level of commitment that they would have if they are interested in joining it. Attending the events is also a great way to start building connections with the sorority’s members. Alpha Omega Epsilon’s formal recruitment events start in the Spring of 2023. Their first formal recruitment event, Sisterhood Night, is on Tuesday, January 18th, in the Squires Student Center followed by two more events on January 19th and January 22nd.

Sunset on the Drillfield. Picture by: Jolene Ghosh

Virginia Tech Football Game. Picture by: Alessandra Klier

Why join?

Alpha Omega Epsilon is a great way for fe male engineering students at Virginia Tech to find ways to get more involved on campus and establish meaningful relationships with other students. It also allows students to explore Blacksburg as a whole and all it has to offer such as its farmer’s markets, hiking trails, breathtaking sunsets, and abundance of nature. It is important to prioritize physical, mental, and social well-being, especially with the difficult coursework that engineering entails, and having a support system you can count on significantly helps.

The sorority provides students with the opportuni ty to network with like-minded individuals and gain priceless connections. Being a part of the sorority is a great way to boost your resume and engagement activity on campus. Fraternity and Sorority Life at Vir ginia Tech is a welcoming community that hosts many events throughout the school year. Finding new ways to be involved on campus can be difficult, but many members of the sorority are part of various clubs and organizations at Virginia Tech and can help you get connected with them.

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Butterflies at Bald Knob Trail Picture by: Alessandra Klier

For these Hokies, the Sky is not the limit

Article / Tanish Wangoo

Background

First, I had to get the fundamentals out of the way. I learned that the primary event the teams compete in is a 10,000-foot altitude test for the rocket. As the name sug gests, your rocket must be able to reach exactly 10,000 feet and drop off the payload – not higher or lower. The rocket must be designed from scratch and should have a payload with an ‘educational or scientific’ importance. Most importantly, it should pass technical demonstration, meaning it functions perfectly fine.

Rocketry @ Virginia Tech is a design team which focuses on conceptualizing, designing, building, and testing rockets to be presented at SpacePort America, an annual competition held near White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico where teams from all around the world come to compete in various rocketry-related events. I was very interested in their work after coming across their website. So, I sat down with Carmen White and Hannah Kruse to get to know more about this team.

Sub Teams - Where the work gets done

I asked Hannah, the captain of the team, to provide more insight about how the team goes about this business: “We have two recurrent meetings, one is a general updates session we have every two weeks where we review deadlines, discuss submission guidelines, upcoming test launches, etc. The sub-teams meet every week to review the progress they have made [until] then.”

We started talking in depth about the sub-teams that are part of the core group. There are a lot of sub-teams, a list would make things clearer:

Aerostructures = the team in charge of designing the airframe (outer shell) of the rocket. All other sub teams maintain direct contact with them for integrating the components in the rocket.

Avionics = They work on the “fancy” stuff required for a successful rocket launch. This includes the Custom Te lemetry system to locate the rocket in air, and an Active Drag System to maneuver the rocket if it is over or undershooting its target altitude.

Business = Carmen had a lot of exciting stuff to talk about her team: the business wing works on attracting sponsors for the team, maintaining an active social media presence, hosting outreach events, and looking over the club finances.

Payload = The “meat” of the rocket – the stuff that’s meant to stay in orbit. For this year’s competition, the team is working on a CubeSat with various sensors to send data back after launch.

Propulsion = Actually launching the rocket is very important of course, and the propulsion team has been work ing on a new Hybrid Motor for the past two years, which Hannah expects will be ready to present at next year’s compe tition. They are also incidentally the only club at Tech that does propulsion development.

There are also many other teams focusing on develop ing critical software for the rocket, creating parachute systems to let the rocket safely land back. I was hon estly shocked at the amount of diversification a rocket required.

Hannah fully agreed with my sentiment: “During classes, freshman engineers are shown representations of how things would look like if they were built by only a single type of engineer. For example, structural engineers mak ing an airplane out of wood because that’s the struc turally sound thing to do. They really give you the right perspective.”

Spaceport America Cup, picture taken by Rocketry @ VT

Homecoming Alumni Tailgate. Picture by Rocketry @ VT.

Engineering drawing of rocket. By Rocketry @VT.

Greatest and Hardest aspects of the team

I continued the topic of sub-teams by asking both Hannah and Carmen about how they manage so many different teams with separate tasks and deadlines. They both agreed that communication is certainly the hardest part of their work, “You’d sometimes have a guy from the Payloads team wishing he knew more about what the Aerostructure team is doing and vice-versa.” There are apparently 60+ people working on the project and according to Carmen, bringing everyone on the same page can get tedious.

Things turned exciting when we started talking about their best moments while working with the team. For Carmen, being at the competition and getting to know about other teams’ projects is the most fun time. Apparently, everyone’s favorite time of the year is spring when the design phase of the project finishes and they start constructing the rocket and performing the test launches. I would recommend everyone to check out their website for some delightful photos.

Hannah’s journey as a freshman

The subject of the club’s relevance was brought up, which got me interested in Hannah’s experiences while starting out as a freshman on the team, “It’s like drinking from a fire hose in the beginning.” Hannah used to spend countless hours in the aerostructure watching the team, trying to figure things out one day at a time, “Very few people join this team know ing what they are doing but by the time they graduate they are better prepared for their industry than they would have been otherwise.”

She told me an interesting story about an aerospace student who was tasked with working on electronics on a hybrid motor, something he had never done be fore. Watching other people brainstorm and come up with solutions helped him along the way. The final components he built are used by the team till date: “A lot of our alumni who have attained high positions in the industry swear by their words when they say the rocketry team was the most important experience they had in college.” Hannah likes to call their proj ect the ‘closest thing to an internship’ on campus be cause of how well it exposes you to the work you are expected to do in the industry.

Expectations from interested students

As a final note, we started discussing about the kind of students the team hopes to attract this semester and both Carmen and Hannah were quite adamant about di versifying their core team this year, “We desperately need non-Aerospace students. I know about the stereotype of a rocketry team only caring about aerospace students but that couldn’t be further from the truth.” The team is looking forward to welcoming more material science en gineers, a lot of electrical engineers, and film students as well as graphic designers for their social media. Even though the general applications are closed right now, Hannah has asked anyone interested to reach out to them and they’ll accommodate you as best as they can.

“We need people who are genuinely interested in what we are building here. There are no hard technical or GPA re quirements – just be passionate and willing to put in the hours!” That is the message Hannah has for the readers of the magazine.

Resources

Instagram- @rocketryatvirginiatech

Facebook- Rocketry at Virginia Tech

LinkedIn- Rocketry at Virginia Tech

Email- rocketry.vt@gmail.com

Website- rocketryatvirginiatech.org

Group picture. Taken by Rocketry @ VT.

Spaceport America Cup 2021. Taken by Rocketry @ VT.

The team’s Recovery Lead successfully received his L3 high-powered rocketry certification, becoming the first in the team’s history! Taken by Rocketry @ VT.

Spaceport America Cup 2022. Taken by Rocketry @ VT.

Thinking Outside the Box

Article / Ethan Chung

Design Thinking ImpACCt

Design Thinking ImpACCt is an interinstitutional, interdisciplinary design team across the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) region. The one semester program is a collaboration of students of all disciplines between Virginia Tech (VT), Clemson University (Clemson), North Carolina State University (NC State), and Boston College (BC). This is the second year that Virginia Tech is partaking in this program under the guid ance of Collegiate Assistant Professor, David Gray, and it has proved to be exciting to work with students from other universities to build something that can contribute to making an impact on a real world problem today. As a student who is on this year’s team, it has been an innovative opportunity working with students of other disciplines from different universities. This year, students from Virginia Tech had the opportunity to kick off the project at Clemson University, and will have the honor of hosting the other universities the weekend of the 21st. The program will conclude before Thanksgiving with a final presentation of what the teams have learned and prototyped at a final presentation at Boston College. So, beyond the opportunity to talk about your most recent research endeavors, it is a great way to understand and learn the process of working with peers and seeing how students of different backgrounds and disciplines can create something beyond your imagination.

Beyond the Scope of Blacksburg?

Virginia Tech holds its ranking as a top institution for its diverse selection of disciplines and learning opportunities. On campus, there are many research opportunities, part time jobs, career fairs, and overall avail ability of services to propel students' learning curve at a rate comparable to top universities. Extending beyond the campus of Virginia Tech, there are also many opportunities beyond what is available to students on campus.

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

While Virginia Tech’s Biomedical Engineering major is relatively new, the Innovative campuses under the Fraling Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke and Washington DC have been ever expand ing since 2010. Recently, there have been many breakthroughs about the rapid growth and development of knowledge from the campus in Roanoke, the main institute for the Fralin Biomedical Research. The research conducted there is oriented around the causes and effects of diseases that induce death or suffering in the United States, including brain disorders, heart disease, and cancer. Over the past couple of years, there has been unprecedented growth in the research faculty and facilities. Virginia Tech has begun to expand its push for research to the Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. area. One of the most notable investments that the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute is looking into is the expansion of brand new laboratories on the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus in Washington D.C.

Students on campus. Taken by Stella Bryant.

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

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