Research + Outreach

Our research has always been about impact.

Since our founding in 1964, research in service of society has been integral to the college's mission. Today, our researchers continue working to solve our most pressing global issues through fundamental and applied research in building construction, architecture, design, planning, policy, and the arts. Our researchers set out to improve how we will live, work, and travel now and in the years to come.

We do this work amid increasing research expenditures here at Virginia Tech, the Commonwealth's most comprehensive university and its leading research institution. Across campus, researchers tackle difficult problems with a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to fulfill our land grant mission.

Supporting the Groundbreaking Research of our Faculty

As a land-grant university and top 30 public research institution, Virginia Tech is committed to making innovative contributions in learning, discovery, and engagement. Virginia Tech’s leading research enterprise bolsters faculty research work through administrative, service, investment, and execution capabilities, as well as personnel and facilities.

Champions of Transformative Innovation

Investing in our researchers is an investment in a better future. Examples of this abound across the college: our faculty are designing a solar-powered home of the future, inventing a water-harvesting fog harp to collect water in arid regions, addressing complex, pressing issues, such as the refugee crisis, affordable housing, and sustainability practices, and so much more.

Positioned for Strategic Partnerships

Solving the complex problems of our time will require multifaceted solutions. Our centers and institutes are organized to invite collaboration across our college, the university, and more broadly with communities, government, and industry. 

With the immense potential of research within our disciplines to reach materialization, AAD is well-suited to work closely with government and industry partners looking to further collective efforts toward a healthy, secure future for the nation and the world.

Learn about one of our centers

The Center for Design Research (CDR) in the School of Architecture has served generations of students and faculty. Initiated as a small, grass roots collection of individuals, it has produced works of international achievement and recognition. These projects have proceeded through a design/build process involving numerous prototypes, intense troubleshooting, and external evaluation. A culture of curiosity has evolved through experiential learning resulting in positive impacts for architecture and design education. As a compendium of this work, the Center for Design Research has produced a video documenting the underpinning objectives. A kaleidoscope, oscillating between past research and future work, it forms a continuum and a network expanded by teams of students year after year.