Virginia Tech: 2011 Halftime spot - Teaching
| Chip Frazier is the Thomas M. Brooks Professor in the department of wood sciences and forest products in the College of Natural Resources and Environment. He works in the area of adhesion and polymer science with an emphasis on wood-based composite materials. He is the director of the Wood-Based Composites Center, a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. He is also active in the Bio-based Materials Design and Processing Group and the Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute. Frazier's areas of expertise are wood adhesion, characterization of the wood/adhesive interphase, biomass rheology, thermoplastic and thermosetting adhesives for wood, and fracture testing of bonded wood. He teaches classes such as survey of organic chemistry and wood adhesion and composites. |
| Nikki Giovanni is the Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies and a University Distinguished Professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Giovanni is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Over the past 30 years, her outspokenness, in her writing and in lectures, has brought the eyes of the world upon her. One of the most widely-read American poets, she prides herself on being "a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English." Giovanni remains as determined and committed as ever to the fight for civil rights and equality. Always insisting on presenting the truth as she sees it, she has maintained a prominent place as a strong voice of the Black community. Her focus is on the individual, specifically, on the power one has to make a difference in oneself, and thus, in the lives of others. She is the author of 30 books. She writes both for adults and children. Giovanni teaches creative writing and poetry classes. |
| Dennis Hong is an associate professor in mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering. His research expertise lies in the area of novel robot locomotion mechanisms, design and analysis of mechanical systems, kinematics and robot mechanism design, humanoid robots, and autonomous systems. Hong is passionate about advising student design competition and robot competition teams and serves as the director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory. Hong was named as one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10 for 2009 and also received the SAE International's Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award. He teaches courses such as mechanical design, robot locomotion, and kinematics and dynamics of machinery. |
| Ed Dorsa is an associate professor and an assistant director of the School of Architecture + Design, part of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. Dorsa is the recipient of the School of Architecture + Design’s 2009 Excellence in Teaching Studio Award, the 2006 College of Architecture and Urban Studies Award for Excellence in Outreach, and the 2005-06 University Certificate of Teaching Excellence. Dorsa teaches classes such as 3-D computer modeling for industrial design and industrial design junior studio. |
| Julie Ozanne is the Sonny Merryman Professor of Marketing in the Pamplin College of Business. Her research interests are in the philosophical and methodological issues in transformative, action, and interpretive research; improving the well-being of low literate and low income consumers; and understanding new forms of market exchange based on sharing. Ozanne teaches classes such as marketing, society and the public interest, advertising, consumer behavior, and marketing theory. |
Featured research:
| Virginia Tech's Lumenhaus won the 2010 Solar Decathlon in Madrid, Spain, by showing how its design can contribute to helping the environment while offering a comfortable living style. A team of faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students from four Virginia Tech colleges — the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, the College of Engineering, the Pamplin College of Business, and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences – designed and built the solar house. |
| CHARLI is a 5-foot tall humanoid robot built by graduate and undergraduate students with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory. CHARLI (that’s for Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence) is historic. CHARLI is the first untethered, autonomous, full-sized, walking, humanoid robot with four moving limbs and a head, built in the United States. His two long legs and arms can move and gesture thanks to a combination of pulleys, springs, carbon fiber rods, and actuators. CHARLI, who can also talk, won the RoboCup 2011 international soccer competition – including the grand prix Louis Vuitton Humanoid Cup – in July 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. |