Two young girls smile and laugh as they work on a small, robotic "robocraft" together while seated at a table.

Inspiring thousands of K-12 students to invent (VT Engineer Magazine)

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Crafts and tools line the walls inside brightly painted rooms at the end of the first floor hall in Virginia Tech’s Falls Church campus in the National Capital Region. It’s here in the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab at Virginia Tech that, since 2016, more than 5,000 students and teachers, primarily from underserved and underrepresented communities in the D.C. area, have wired, …

Two young girls sit on the floor with a robot they created that moves across the room.

More than 4,000 in National Capital Region inspired to invent at the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab (VT News, College of Engineering)

Erica Corder Photo, Video, Writing Leave a Comment

Crafts and tools line the walls inside brightly painted rooms at the end of the first floor hall in Virginia Tech’s Falls Church campus in the National Capital Region. It’s here in the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab at Virginia Tech that, since 2016, more than 4,000 students and teachers, primarily from underserved and underrepresented communities in the D.C. area, have wired, …

In the photo, a young woman speaks with a representative from General Motors.

Record-breaking Engineering Expo fueled by alumni, spurs charitable giving to the college (VT News, College of Engineering)

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When Andrew Merewitz comes back to visit Virginia Tech, the 2012 computer engineering grad always hopes to bring some Hokies back to New York City with him. Now working as a software team lead at Bloomberg, Merewitz regularly attends the Engineering Exposition as a recruiter for his company. “One of the reasons we keep coming back to Virginia Tech is …

Seven students pose with a Hyperloop pod.

Virginia Tech Hyperloop team ventures to SpaceX for global competition (VT News, College of Engineering)

Erica Corder Photo, Video, Writing Leave a Comment

Eleven Virginia Tech undergraduate engineering students ventured to SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, for the innovative aerospace company’s Hyperloop Pod Competition II, the second round of the international competition. After landing in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, the Hyperloop at Virginia Tech team spent the week modifying and integrating the systems on their pod, called the V17, and completing safety tests. …

An image of water droplets jumping off of a surface.

New research could make dew droplets so small, they’re invisible (VT News)

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By better understanding the behavior of water in its smallest form, a Virginia Tech professor and his undergraduate student could be improving the efficiency of removing condensation in a major way. Jonathan Boreyko, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, has been studying “jumping” dew droplets since he discovered the phenomenon in …

Two side-by-side photos of a chemical reaction experiment setup.

Research demonstrates novel method of producing optimized polyester (VT News)

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Polyester is inescapable: used in everyday items like clothes, water bottles, food packaging, and even biomedical devices, the polymer is an increasingly common choice for manufacturing. Despite its popularity, customizing the physicochemical properties of polyester has been somewhat limited. Two Virginia Tech researchers are changing that through research recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Rong Tong, assistant professor …

Image of an aluminum slab set up in a lab space with chunks of melting frost dripping off.

Forget defrosting your car at a glacial pace: new research speeds process up tenfold (VT News)

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Jonathan Boreyko turned on the defroster in his car one cold winter morning and waited for the ice on the windshield to melt. And kept waiting. Boreyko, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the College of Engineering, knew there had to be a more efficient, quicker way to melt the frost. So he developed …

A portrait of Fred Lee in his office, in front of full bookshelves.

World-renowned power electronics expert Fred Lee retires after 40-year career (VT News)

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Fred Lee, a University Distinguished Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founder and director of the internationally known Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), will retire from Virginia Tech in September 2017. After 40 years at the university, Lee, who is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, has made immeasurable contributions …

A man stands in the front of a room giving a speech to a group.

In memoriam: Thomas J. Grizzard Jr., professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering and urban water cycle expert (VT News)

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Thomas J. Grizzard, Jr., professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and former director of the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory, died unexpectedly on June 24. He was 70. “Our hearts are heavy with the news of Tom’s passing,” said G. Don Taylor, the Charles O. Gordon Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and interim dean of …