Education

Exposure to interdisciplinary research can cultivate a broad, cross-cutting perspective that provides context and motivation for advanced technical knowledge alongside a broad, sharpen students' abilities to communicate and work productively across boundaries, and create opportunities to make a difference in their local, national and global communities. ICTAS is committed to increasing access to these experiences for students at all levels.

For Undergraduates

Undergraduate research experiences are a core piece of the research mission at Virginia Tech. ICTAS supports research experiences for undergraduate students through our ICTAS Undergraduate Research Fellowship, as well as through our VT Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR).

VT OUR helps students do the following:

• Understand the research landscape to locate the right research opportunities for them
• Offers faculty a platform for posting open undergraduate research positions
• A Canvas page to look at informational videos
• Travel grants to present research at a conference
• On-campus research symposiums

Other ways ICTAS supports interdisciplinary experiential learning opportunities for undergraduates include the Roop and Kavita Mahajan awards, which fund student projects aimed at reducing poverty in under-resourced communities, and the Virginia Tech Drone Park, a unique space for drone-related research, education, and recreation. 

For Graduate Students and Faculty

ICTAS partners with Virginia Tech colleges and departments to enrich the research ecosystem through the ICTAS Doctoral Scholars Program, which recruits talented doctoral candidates interested in interdisciplinary research.