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UPCOMING OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EVENTS

GRANTS AND AWARDS HIGHLIGHT

Sub-Second Catecholamine Dynamics Underlying Food Reward in Humans

Principal Investigator:
Alexandra G. DiFeliceantonio
Assistant Professor
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Awarded $2,748,263 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Alexandra G. DiFeliceantonio portrait.

Convergent Solid-State Manufacturing for Extreme Materials

Principal Investigator:
Hang Yu
Associate Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering

Awarded $4,200,000 from the United States Army Research Laboratory.

Hang Yu portrait.

SOLVING CHALLENGES EMERGING IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD

The university has invested in major research initiatives, bringing together diverse expertise that transcends traditional discipline boundaries. In partnership with industry, government, and foundations, these focus areas address emerging challenges and opportunities that seek to improve the human condition and create a better world for all. 

These strategically focused areas are Virginia Tech Research Frontiers.

MEASURES OF EXCELLENCE

$453.4M in sponsored research expenditures in FY24.
17.5% year-over-year increase in federal expenditures.
4000+ faculty researchers
145 new invention disclosures

FOCUS ON RESEARCH NEWSLETTER

Subscribe: FOCUS ON RESEARCH

Graphic showcasing researchers.

Virginia Tech’s FOCUS ON RESEARCH newsletter explores how student and faculty researchers are addressing emerging challenges that seek to improve the human condition and create a better world for all. 

Latest Issue

Learn how Virginia Tech researchers are working to prevent future pandemics, exploring the impacts of AI on children’s health care, paving the way for the next generation of wireless technology, and Hokies helping communities impacted from Hurricane Helene.

VIRGINIA TECH RESEARCH EXPERTS IN THE MEDIA

Digital Trends - Google AI Mode will reinvent Search. I’m worried — and you should be, too - When asked whether astronauts met cats on the moon, it confidently agreed that it was true, adding that astronauts even took care of those lunar cats. Virginia Tech digital literacy expert, Julia Feerrar, remarked that AI doesn’t actually know the answers to our questions, citing an example where Google AI overview confidently mentioned Barack Obama as the first Muslim President.

New York Times - Are Ultraprocessed Foods Addictive? - A few drugs, like cocaine and amphetamines, trigger dramatic surges in dopamine that are obvious on PET scans, but for others, like nicotine or opioids, the dopamine responses are smaller and not always detectable, said Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, a neuroscientist at Virginia Tech who was not involved with the study.

Technical.ly - Check out Virginia Tech’s $1B innovation campus, now open in Alexandria - Drones and other autonomous vehicles could soon help one another navigate dangerous terrain without actual communication. Thanks to research out of Virginia Tech, they may even eventually operate with common sense. Students and faculty are fusing quantum computing, artificial intelligence and wireless technology to build synced autonomous vehicles. It’s also the concept of a digital twin, explained professor Walid Saad from the school’s Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

RESEARCH CAMPUS NOTICES