Directors Message
Director's Message
It is a great honor and responsibility to have accepted the position of Director of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science last fall. The key factor in my decision was the opportunity offered by ICTAS to bring interdisciplinary talents at Virginia Tech to bear on society's scientific and technological challenges of our times. To this end, we have identified and embarked on a number of strategic research initiatives consistent with our philosophy of investing a majority of our resources in a few selected areas in which we can aspire to be among the top in the nation.
The Venn diagram below represents our view of the major technologies that are going to play a key role in transforming our lives in the 21st century. ICTAS focus and theme areas are either subsets of, or at the intersection of, these major technologies.
In addition to investments in the focus and theme areas, ICTAS is invested in other ongoing initiatives such as the School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES), Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems (VaCAS), Wireless at Virginia Tech (W@VTech), Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), Center for Innovation in Construction Safety and Health (CICSH), Materials Center of Excellence (MCOE), and Next Navy Composites ( N2C).
In support of the on-going and new cutting-edge areas of research, two new ICTAS research facilities are currently under construction and a third is in design.
Recognizing that faculty and graduate students form the life blood of a top ranked research university, ICTAS is working with and assisting departments across the campus to recruit highly talented young faculty for sustained excellence in strategic areas of research. We have also initiated the new ICTAS Doctoral Scholars program to honor exceptional Ph.D. applicants.
Finally, to honor our top-notch faculty, we plan to initiate an ICTAS Faculty Fellow Program. Designed after the prestigious Fellow Awards in Bell Labs and other institutions, it will be limited to 0.1% of the faculty/year with a lifetime cap of 1%. This program is still in the early stages of formulation and details will be announced as we sort through the resources to fund it.
During this year, we have planned a number of activities to enhance communication with the university community, state and federal funding agencies, Virginia Tech alumni and industry. These include, among others, a quarterly newsletter, a series of Technology Alerts, a seminar series, and intellectual /social get-together's among the ICTAS Awardees.
ICTAS has embarked upon an exciting journey to help Virginia Tech reach higher level of excellence and performance in research and education. We invite you to join us and seek your active support to reach our destination.