Sometimes having an impact may mean personally touching someone's life.  Students at Virginia Tech have been doing just that, and in the process, learning many things about themselves.  Several students, staff, and faculty members traveled to Malawi, a country known for its compassionate population. 

   

Virginia Tech scientist Scott Bailey launched a rocket at the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska.  While data on the excursion is yet to be available, Bailey and his colleagues' plan was to use a two-stage rocket to estimate the amount of nitric oxide in the upper atmosphere.

   

A new innovation in engineering leads to the design of an automobile for the visually impaired. Engineering students wired the car with laser sensors to provide the necessary technology to allow blind individuals to drive. Virginia Tech is the only university to have answered the Blind Driver Challenge issued by the National Federation of the Blind in 2006.

   

High school, undergraduate, and graduate students came together to characterize a formally unknown group of bacteria. The bacterium was isolated at the Hahn Horticulture Garden and is the first bacterium isolated on the Virginia Tech campus to have its genome sequence.