Virginia Tech, Blacksburg in the national spotlight
This fall, three national magazines peered through the Blue Ridge mist, looked
at Virginia Tech, and decided they liked what they saw. U.S. News and World Report, Yahoo! Internet
Life, and Outside Magazine all praised Virginia Tech and its environs for quality
of education, prevalence of technology, and availability of outdoor adventure.
U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges 2002" survey ranked Virginia Tech 24th--up from 26th last year--among public universities offering doctoral and undergraduate degrees. Tech shares the ranking with Rutgers University, University of Delaware, and University of Iowa. Eight of the university's undergraduate engineering programs were ranked among the top 25 in the nation: aerospace (17), chemical (22), civil (11), computer (19), electrical (16), environmental (10), industrial (8), and mechanical (17). The Pamplin College of Business ranked 24th among business programs at public universities.
Yahoo! Internet Life also offered kudos, calling Virginia Tech the 14th most wired
university in the country, despite Tech's refusal to participate in the magazine's survey.
University officials cited frustration with the magazine's inconsistent rankings. Tech was ranked out
of the top 100 the first year, then moved up to 15th, down to 52nd, and up to 25th last
year. The rankings are based on technology infrastructure, student resources online,
navigability of the university's website, classroom technology, and technical support available to students.
Blacksburg found itself in the spotlight as an
Outside Magazine top-10 dream town. In its September 2001 issue, the publication called Blacksburg "a high-tech gem in the heart of
the Blue Ridge" and emphasized the balanced blend of the area's high-tech industry and
outdoor adventure. Outside Magazine, which focuses on outdoor activities, was impressed
with Blackburg's uncrowded and unpretentious setting. The Corporate Research Center, with
its focus on high-tech industry, was highlighted as the best place to look for work. The
university, which employs 5,800 in Blacksburg, was also mentioned as a possible employer.
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BOV approves Tech's strategic plan
It's been more than a year in the making, but
Virginia Tech's strategic plan is now a reality. This fall, the board
of visitors formally adopted the Virginia Tech Strategic
Plan for 2001-2006, which will set the stage for the
university's goal of becoming a top research institution. "I
am very pleased with our overall direction as well as
specific goals and tasks enumerated in the plan," says James
Turner, rector of the board. "It describes the
framework necessary for achieving top-30 ranking by the end of
the decade."
For more information about the strategic plan, go
to www.unirel.vt.edu/stratplan/.
Individuals interested in receiving a hard copy of the plan can e-mail a request to vtmag@vt.edu.
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Two professors named educators of the year
Hanif Sherali, the W. Thomas Rice Chair of
Engineering and professor of
industrial and systems engineering, received the
Pletta Award as the 2001 Virginia
Engineering Educator of the Year. Named after the
late Dan H. Pletta, a nationally renowned engineering
science and mechanics professor at Virginia Tech from
1932-1972, the award recognizes engineering educators who have demonstrated
outstanding teaching and public service. Since joining
the Virginia Tech faculty in 1979, Sherali has won several
state and university awards and directed 10
award-winning theses and dissertations.
Sam Riley, professor of communication studies, was named the 2000-01 National Educator of the Year, by the magazine division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. A nationally renowned scholar in magazine research who introduced magazine writing to the communication curriculum at Virginia Tech, he has written 10 books on the history of magazines and their editors and publishers. Riley also recently received the Virginia Tech Certificate of Teaching Excellence.
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Exemplary departments recognized by provost
Three departments received the 2001 Exemplary Department Awards from the Office of the Provost. The awards are given for excellence and innovation in departmental approach to introductory courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. The Residential Leadership Community, an interdisciplinary program designed to teach undergraduates leadership skills, was lauded for its positive influence in the lives of undergraduates. The Department of Forestry was recognized for its innovations in the area of multimedia assistance in learning for its students, such as the multimedia lab and textbook it developed. The Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the Northern Virginia Center, which was nominated for the award by its own students, was recognized for its effectiveness as an academic and clinical training program designed to train graduate students as effective family therapists. Exemplary departments recognized by provost.
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New center opens in Richmond
This fall, students and professionals in the Richmond area began taking classes at Virginia Tech's newly completed Richmond Center, which focuses mostly on graduate programs and degrees. The Virginia Tech Richmond Center will use in-person instruction, the Internet, and video conferencing to provide its students with a leading-edge education accessible from anywhere, according to Joseph Merola, acting dean of the Graduate School. The center offers master's degrees in public administration, business administration, career and technical education, and information technology; a doctorate of education in educational leadership; a Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program; teacher re-licensure programs; and continuing education short courses, seminars, and workshops.
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Technology business accelerator launched
Virginia Tech launched VT KnowledgeWorks, a
major strategic initiative designed to
promote the rapid commercialization of Tech's
intellectual property by creating start-up companies and
providing them with mentoring and support services so they
can become functional at an accelerated pace. The
accelerator will allow Southwest Virginia's emerging
companies and entrepreneurs to become operational within six to
12 months by helping prepare business models, draft
business plans, find senior management personnel, and form
strategic partnerships with other entities. Formed by
the Virginia Tech Foundation and affiliated Tech corporations
in conjunction with three of the country's premier
company creators--eIncubator, LaunchFuel, and
Redleaf--the accelerator will also help fledgling companies
attract financial support, from initial seed funding through the
first round of institutional funding.
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Bates named provost at Washington State
Robert C. Bates, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and microbology professor at Virginia Tech, has accepted the position of provost and academic vice president at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, Wash. As WSU's chief academic leader, beginning in January 2002, Bates will be responsible for all academic issues at the university. He has been at Virginia Tech since 1972 and dean of the university's largest college since 1994. Bates is a native of Portland, Ore., and received his master's degree at WSU.
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Dining programs shine in competition
Virginia Tech's dining programs brought home three awards from the 43rd National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) National Conference in July. Jud C. Flynn, executive chef for Residential and Dining Programs, won the gold medal in the first annual Culinary Challenge competition, during which contestants were given 40 minutes to produce four portions of an original hot entrée. Jeremy Weaver (accounting '01), was named Student Employee of the Year. Weaver, an assistant manager at Owens Food Court, is working on his master's degree in accounting. And Personal Touch Catering was awarded second place in the Catering and Special Events category during the 28th annual Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Contest. Its entry, "Interviewing over Dinner: Rare, Medium, or Well Done?" is a program designed to teach students appropriate dinner etiquette as it applies to a professional interviewing situation.
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Bioinformatics project receives funding
A multidisciplinary team of bioinformatics
researchers from Virginia Tech will receive $600,000 from
the National Science Foundation Next Generation
Software Program. The award supports the further design
and implementation of Expresso, a sophisticated
computational system for microarray bioinformatics.
Microarrays (sometimes called DNA chips) are an approach
to studying simultaneously the expression of hundreds
or thousands of genes in a given organism.
The grant project will be a
multidisciplinary collaboration between
computer scientists, who will perform the computer-science
research part of the project and will develop the software,
and biologists, who will use the software to conduct
their investigations. Expresso's design automates many of
the tedious methodological aspects of conducting microarray experiments
and analyzing the data yielded.
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Race and Social Policy Research Center opens
This fall, Virginia Tech broadened the scope of
its research agenda by opening the Race and Social
Policy Research Center (RSP). The center, which offers a graduate
level concentration, will design and execute
research projects to study public policy as it relates to various ethnic groups.
Its first project is designed to generate promising
strategies to improve recruitment and retention of minority
students at community colleges. Susan Gooden, assistant professor
in the Center for Public Administration and Policy, will direct the center.
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Solving bubble trouble
The work of civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. candidate
Paolo Scardina in researching air bubbles in drinking water
may someday help prevent outbreaks of water-borne diseases. Scardina, who
began his research as an undergraduate at Tech, recently won
a highly competitive grant worth $150,000 from the American Water
Works Association Research Foundation to continue his efforts to
determine the effects of air bubbles in water. The
release of air bubbles during the water treatment process can
allow pathogens and other particles to escape into water
that people drink. Scardina's work is being used by engineers
with the California Department of Health Services to
identify problems at two of its water treatment facilities, and he
is working with plant engineers around the country to
study the conditions that can cause the bubbles.
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Two new schools to help advance Virginia Tech's research goal
This fall, Virginia Tech announced its participation
in the creation and operation of two new colleges that
will move Tech further toward its goal of becoming a
top research university.
Virginia Tech plans to team up with Wake Forest University to form the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest
University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences.
The plan for the school, which will be operated jointly
at each university's campus, is to offer master's and
doctoral degrees in biomedical engineering and to
conduct collaborative research. "This is a natural
partnership between Virginia Tech, with no human medical
school, and Wake Forest, with no engineering school,"
says Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger. The school
will be run by Tech's College of Engineering and the
Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and
by Wake Forest's School of Medicine, which is ranked by
U.S. News and World Report as the number 46 medical
school for research in the country.
The university will also collaborate with the
new Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, which will
be opened in Blacksburg in 2003 by The Harvey W.
Peters Foundation. The foundation, which operates the
Harvey W. Peters Research Center at Tech, will locate the
college in the Corporate Research Center and teach doctors
to work in the medically under-served rural areas of
Virginia. The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors has approved
a "collaboration agreement" that will allow the college
to use university facilities and offices, such as
academic support and student services programs. While the
medical college will have its own full-time faculty, it also will
hire selected Tech faculty members to teach courses,
and those who perform research will have joint
appointments with both schools.
"This is in concert with new directions for
the university," Steger says. "Our affiliation with Carilion
on biomedicine, our new bioinformatics institute,
the collaboration with the Via Osteopathic College, and
the partnership with Wake Forest on biomedical
engineering all steer us in the direction of research in human health."
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Spicy chicken may prevent Salmonella
Proving that good ideas can come at any time,
Audrey McElroy, assistant professor of poultry science, has
discovered that spicing up chicken may help prevent
Salmonella. The discovery came after
McElroy and her graduate advisor questioned the appeal of
spicy food, given its side effects of watery eyes and runny
noses. A Mexican graduate student mentioned that people
from his country believe spicy foods provide protection
from disease, leading McElroy and her advisor to hypothesize
that it might work with poultry. Her subsequent
research showed that adding capsaicin, the spicy component of
hot peppers, to the feed of neonatal broiler chicks
helped increase their resistance to
Salmonella. McElroy is currently working to show
the direct effect of capsaicin on
Salmonella in laboratory conditions.
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Chemistry professor wins awards
First-year Chemistry Professor Daniel Crawford
has received several awards for his research, including the
New Faculty Award from the Camille and Henry
Dreyfus Foundation for his proposal "Advanced Quantum
Mechanical Methods for Metalloenzymes." He
also received the Research Innovation Award from the
Research Corporation to focus on diagnostic procedures that
can check predictive statements about large molecules
before time and money is spent on expensive computer
simulations. Additionally, Crawford received both the
2000-01 ASPIRES award from the Virginia Tech
Research Division and a grant from the Jeffress Memorial Trust.
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VTTI to conduct landmark study
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI)
has been awarded $3 million by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the
Virginia Department of Transportation to study driver
performance and behavior leading up to crashes and near-crashes.
More than 100 cars belonging to private volunteer drivers
in Northern Virginia will be instrumented with
data collection systems for approximately one year.
The NHTSA hopes the project will fill gaps in
knowledge about pre-crash and conflict behaviors under
real-world conditions.
Vehicle crashes kill almost 40,000 people and injure
more than two million each year in the U.S. at a cost
exceeding $150 billion.
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