Category: Sci/Tech

Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech seeks dogs for clinical trials of new cancer treatment 

Sign outside the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (Josie Sellers, TheNewsFeedNRV.com)

By: Josie Sellers, health and wellness reporter

BLACKSBURG, Va. (Feb. 13, 2026)- Researchers at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech are testing a new approach to treating brain tumors using the drug verteporfin in combination with photodynamic therapy. 

Dr. John Rossmeisl working at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Photo by @vamdvetmet

Led by Dr. and Mrs. Dorsey Taylor Mahin Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Virginia Tech, Dr. John Rossmeisl, the study will test three dogs diagnosed with brain tumors over 180 days to determine a safe and effective dose of the photosensitive verteporfin, “NanoVP.” 

The trial specifically targets glioblastomas, which are extremely aggressive and infiltrative. In the United States, about 12,000 people are diagnosed each year, and they account for 14% of brain tumors. They are especially hard to remove because they lack a clear border. 

Hopefully, the findings from the trial will aid in research on tumors in humans, once again giving reason to believe dog is a man’s best friend.

Cancerous cells in brain tumors, especially glioblastomas, can travel from the tumor that is visible using diagnostic techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Because it is difficult to see the invasive cells, it is a challenge to remove the entire mass. As a result, it often recurs. 

Rossmeisl is collaborating with the University of Maryland Associate Professor Dr. Joe Huang, who developed NanoVP. He compares it to an eraser at the end of surgery, where cells that are not removed by hand are eradicated. 

“The goal of this particular study will be to administer the drug and then shine the light into the resection cavity after the main tumor mass is removed, with the goal of the drug in the photodynamic therapy killing any remaining cancer cells that remain behind that we can’t see,” said Rossmeisl. 

NanoVP differs from other photosensitizing drugs because it crosses the blood-brain barrier. This barrier is a wall of cells that defends the brain from harmful substances, preventing about 98% of small-molecule drugs from entering. 

Because of the relatively small size of the drug, it can cross the barrier to reach tumors.

Already, data from previous trials on mice show that the drug effectively kills tumor cells. In preclinical trials, it extended the life of the mice beyond other treatments. The current study will determine effective doses with limited side effects for the dogs. 

The target doses will be based on the data they already have from the mice. Because dogs are much bigger than mice, they will likely need more.

However, because of the photosensitization, the patient may have complications when they are exposed to light. This study aims to research the ideal amount of injection.

While the dogs are under anesthesia, as much of the tumor as possible will be removed through surgery. Then, NanoVP will be injected through a vein. Once the tumor is removed, a laser will shine to activate the drug, killing the remaining tumor cells. 

Within the next two hours, five blood samples from each dog will be collected for research. 

Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine building (Josie Sellers, JMC 4814)

For the next six months, they will have follow-up visits, and owners may withdraw them at any point. 

This trial differs from conventional animal testing, which involves generating a disease. Instead, his study focuses on dogs who already have brain tumors, which Huang says is a more ethical approach. 

“If we give the drug with no drug-associated side effects in this trial, we’ll consider the trial successful,” said Rossmeisl. “It’s a very early-stage trial, so we’re not trying to prove that it’s going to totally eliminate cancer. That’ll be later on down the road.” 

Rossmeisl hopes that in the future, this treatment will be used more frequently in combination with other forms of more traditional cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation.

While this trial specifically works with brain cancer, the drug is effective against any kind of tumor. 

In fact, Dr. Huang has already used the drug for various kinds of tumors. 

“You might need certain doses for certain types,” said Rossmeisl. “You might have to tweak the dosage or the exposures to light for certain types of tumors. But then again, those are details that would be answered in a different study.” 

Researchers also want to utilize findings from the trial to improve treatment for humans, giving hope to those who may benefit.

“As a patient who has a brain tumor- and actually has had a couple- and has undergone two surgical interventions for it, I am really glad that they are doing this experiment, and it’s going through the phases of clinical trials before it approaches the patient,” said Virginia Tech student Sydney Hill. “It seems like a really good therapy, and I hope that it has some promising results.” 

This trial is working with a European glioblastoma study using the same photodynamic therapy approach in people. Both trials are funded by the same company, Modulight, using a translational approach where the data from the trials are shared to improve both studies. 

As of now, there are no dogs enrolled in the study. Those interested in the trial can find more information here. 

Rural Virginia could see growth in data centers

By Savannah May, Politics & Government reporter


As Northern Virginia fills with massive data centers, tech companies are increasingly turning to rural counties for land. Places like Montgomery County, Va., may not have proposals yet, but experts warn that land-use decisions like these can affect communities for generations.

Nearly every Google search, social media post or online purchase passes through a data center somewhere. Companies rely on these facilities to store information, run websites and apps and manage internal operations like payroll, human resources and sales.

Data centers operate at different capacities. Hyperscale facilities differ from traditional data centers in their ability to host and operate at least 5,000 servers and cover at least 10,000 square feet of physical area.

“The number of operational hyperscale data centers continues to grow inexorably, having doubled over the past five years,” according to John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group. Not only will numbers increase, but so will their size. Advances in AI (artificial intelligence)-focused, GPU (graphics processing unit)-powered infrastructure are expected to roughly double the computing capacity of the next generation of hyperscale centers.

Companies like Google build at such a massive scale due to the demand for AI, data storage and other big-data computing pursuits. Hyperscale facilities are expanding rapidly across the United States. The number of hyperscale data centers doubled between 2019 and 2024, with more than 135 coming online in 2024 alone.

A map depicting the locations of major data centers across Virginia. (Map courtesy of Virginia Economic Development Partnership, vedp.org)

Virginia has the largest concentration of data centers in the world, hosting 35 percent of known hyperscale data centers worldwide. Northern Virginia, known as “Data Center Alley,” is at the forefront of this market.

Today, local constituents in these communities are pushing back against projects once considered “guaranteed approvals,” due to economic and political resistance.

For residents like Carlos Balvin, a cinema major at Virginia Tech, the impact is visible. “They’re a real eyesore and a stain on what would often otherwise be a beautiful day,” he says.

With this ongoing growth, companies are shifting to locations that offer large tracts of cheap land compared to dense urban areas.

Jurisdictions in Northern Virginia heavily invested in fiber-optic and network infrastructure to build a higher network capacity, which has helped attract data center development. Many companies in the region overlap with the defense and logistics industry. By developing near Washington D.C., a strategic decision, companies are closer to that infrastructure.

“In many ways, data centers are probably taking advantage of the fact that the infrastructure was prioritized here and developed here,” says Margaret Cowell, associate professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech.

Rural communities offer reliable grid connections for resource adequacy and open terrain, making line-of-sight transmission easier. Areas with less development become easy targets, potentially swayed by financial incentives.

“In the past, there were debates about whether it was fair to site landfills in poor, rural communities that didn’t have much economic opportunity,” says Cowell. “Waste management companies would approach them and say, ‘You’ve got land, you could make money off it.’” While landfills and data centers are quite different, weighing their strategic approaches may offer insight into the industry’s next moves.

For Montgomery County, the primary operating data center facility is located in Blacksburg. Brush Mountain Data Center, located within the Corporate Research Center at Virginia Tech, is a subsidiary of Advanced Logic Industries, a Virginia-based company. Brush Mountain is a smaller-scale data center compared to the majority of facilities located in Northern Virginia.

Planning commissions approve development for several reasons. Developments could be seen as a way to increase the tax base or improve the economic conditions within your community.

“If you’re doing smart economic development, you’re concerned with the workforce. If you’re going to say yes to one of these companies, ideally, there would be a guarantee of a certain number of jobs being created,” says Cowell.

Michael Cary, research assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech, wrote in an email, “The one area of research that does have some preliminary results that I am aware of is labor markets. There is no evidence of job creation beyond temporary spikes in construction jobs.”

This means that as research further develops, local politicians will still consider these impacts in making economic decisions for their constituents. As data centers continue to grow across the United States, including Virginia, it’s important to remember that if constituents are loud enough, they can have a real influence on what does or does not develop in their communities.

Montgomery County Board of Supervisors pose for a group photo. (Photo courtesy of BoardDocs)

The Montgomery County Planning Commission said there are currently no proposals or zoning changes under consideration for data centers, and the Board of Supervisors has only discussed the issue. Planning staff said no formal action has been taken beyond preliminary discussion.

“Montgomery County probably doesn’t draw much benefit from a data center, but it could be persuaded by promises of revenue,” says Cowell. “There’s a real tension about whether we should allow this in our backyards, because, in some ways, it feels exploitative.”

Does AI write music as well as humans?

Kailey Watson, Arts, Culture and Sports Reporter

Udio, an AI music generator and tool. (Kailey Watson, The New Feed NRV)

Many professionals in the creative technologies field have begun to explore artificial intelligence’s possible utilizations in music, although the scope has yet to be seen.

AI has made its way into seemingly all sectors of life, music being no outlier. Applications like Udio and Suno have arisen to turn written prompts into audible representations at the push of a button. There are positive applications of such software, such as assisting in co-creation and acting as an artistic tool, but there also lies the potential to strip away what some argue music is meant to be about.

Ivica Ico Bukvic has been a professor in Media Arts and Production and the inaugural Director of the Kinetic Immersion and Extended Reality (KIX) Lab at Indiana University since August of 2025. Before this, he worked at Virginia Tech for 19 years and notably is the founder and director of the Digital Interactive Sound and Intermedia Studio and the World’s first Linux-based Laptop Orchestra.

Bukvic also developed L20k Tweeter, which came into being during the Coronavirus pandemic, to bring people together by making music over the internet that could be in sync and co-created. The program encourages collaboration over any distance and differs from the traditional method of the composer and performer.

Bukvic is now looking to infuse the system with an AI co-performer and co-creator to explore how it can create a sense of comfort for those joining the group for the first time. Thus making them feel encouraged to keep playing by feeling less alone.

“Now AI becomes the connecting tissue, rather than something that steals away the creativity from humans,” Bukvic said.

Bukvic is a strong believer in the benefits of creating music, no matter the amount of training one has. “Music was always this thing that was created by humans to bring us together, to celebrate, to enjoy each other’s company, etc.,” Bukvic said. “So if we were to replace that co-creation with something that is generated through AI, in some ways, we are robbing the humanity of the elements that bring us together.” 

Eric Lyon is a composer, computer musician, spatial music researcher, audio software developer, curator and professor at Virginia Tech. His work with technological applications in music began at a very young age, his first trial being recording himself playing the violin and then playing alongside this recording, a practice not unlike what’s being developed today.

Eric Lyon, performing on the computer. (Courtesy of Eric Lyon)

Amongst his many compositions, Lyon also researches ways to enhance music technologies, including publicly available software FFTease, written with Christopher Penrose, and LyonPotpourri, collections of externals written for Max/MSP and Pd.

A survey by Qodo, an AI coding platform, reported that 82% of software developers use AI coding tools daily or weekly, but 65% say it misses relevant context during critical tasks. A similar sentiment is shared by Lyon.

“I haven’t gotten to the point where I could coach the audio programming to be as good as the kind of code that I wrote 25 years ago,” Lyon said. However, he expects it to be within five years based on the strides that it is continually making.


AI has a ways to go in music composition as well. Lyon shared an example where he asked a music AI, either Udio or Suno, to write a song about the atomic bomb. The result was a cheerful tune about nuclear war, not particularly befitting for the subject matter, but something that he shared he would never have been able to come up with. A snippet of the song would become part of a piece of his. 

As these AI tools stand now, Lyon noted, they do not make very good music on their own. An example he shared was of an AI that was trained on every Beatles song, and then asked to create the next 50 Beatles songs. The result was mediocre, “Not even close to the worst Beatles song,” Lyon shared. This being said, it’s unclear how AI will continue to progress, and if it is possible for this threshold for good music to be reached.

There are already AI musicians breaching into platforms like Spotify, but whether this will become the future is yet to be known. Lyon argues that there has always been a deskilling aspect to music, such as how all keyboardists used to know how to read figured bass. AI could be another step in removing areas of knowledge that are no longer seen as necessary. An extreme would be that no one has the skills to compose a piece, and music is generated simply by the push of a button.

“AI is kind of an amputation, but it feels a little bit more like brain surgery,” Lyon said. 

Bukvic begs the question, “Why would you use AI to remove what was the, arguably, primary motivation for having such an activity in place in the first place?” He instead looks to the notion of co-agency, a concept in which he currently has pending projects.

He aims to develop his own AI collaborator that is trained on important parameters to assist in the process of co-creation. He shares that it could assist in live performances, as there are only so many things one can juggle in one’s mind at once, and only so many hands to carry out said things.

Lyon’s AI-related projects are titled “Eric, this is so you coded,” a whole piece coded by AI, and “How I learned to stop worrying and love the hallucinations,” a work about how AI malfunctions and gives false information. Lyon shared his goal with this piece is to answer the question, “How can you make AI worse rather than better in ways that are artistically interesting?” 

AI certainly has applications in music, though whether its trajectory lies in assisting artists or becoming them will be answered with time.

“How do you create a Beethoven and then make that Beethoven make music?” Lyon said. “I mean, we’ve got 32 piano sonatas. If you could make a Beethoven and you could get 32,000, would they all be as great?”

Telehealth continues to expand access to care in the New River Valley

By Timothy Kwon, science and technology reporter

LewisGale Hospital Montgomery in Blacksburg provides in-person and telehealth services to patients across the New River Valley. Photo credited by Timothy Kwon.

For many residents of the New River Valley, a doctor’s appointment no longer requires a long drive through mountain roads or hours away from work. Telehealth has become a lasting part of rural health care, offering patients across the region more flexible access to medical and mental health services.

While telehealth use surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, local providers say it has evolved into a permanent tool for connecting rural patients with care. In communities such as Giles, Floyd and Pulaski counties, distance and transportation remain significant barriers to in-person visits.

At LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, telehealth is now integrated into outpatient workflows across the network. Rhonda Whaling, healthcare provider of LewisGale community outreach, said virtual care helps eliminate the burden of travel for many patients.

“Telehealth cuts out the long drive,” Whaling said. “For a lot of rural patients, it turns a half-day trip into a focused visit from home.”

Whaling said many telehealth appointments involve follow-ups, check-ins and specialty visits that do not require a hands-on exam. Patients still follow a structured process, checking in and joining secure video visits much like they would wait for a provider in a traditional office setting.

“The biggest benefit is simple access,” Whaling said. “It lowers the life cost of getting care..”

Taryn Wilson is a physician assistant who provides clinical assessments, tests, and prescriptions at Blacksburg Psychiatry. Photo courtesy of Blacksburg Psychiatry.

Mental health services have become one of the most common and effective uses of telehealth in the region. At Blacksburg Psychiatry, physician assistant Taryn Wilson said virtual visits help patients remain consistent with treatment.

“We use telehealth as a practical way to keep people connected to care,” Wilson said. “Telehealth helps us reach people who would otherwise skip care because the drive is too hard.”

Wilson said psychiatric assessments, medication management and routine follow-ups can often be handled effectively through video when clinically appropriate. That flexibility is particularly valuable in rural communities, where access challenges extend beyond provider availability.

“In the New River Valley, access isn’t just about whether a provider exists. It’s whether someone can realistically get to the appointment,” Wilson said. “It turns ‘I can’t make it’ into ‘I can show up.’”

For providers, consistency is one of the biggest advantages. When patients can attend appointments more regularly, treatment plans can be adjusted more quickly and progress can be monitored more closely.

“Better access usually means better follow-through and better outcomes,” Wilson said.

However, telehealth does not eliminate every barrier. Both providers emphasized the ongoing impact of the digital divide in rural communities. Spotty broadband access, limited data plans and lack of private space for appointments can still limit participation.

“The digital divide is real,” Whaling said. “Internet and technology are still the big challenges.”

Wilson also said that unstable internet connections can disrupt visits and that some situations require in-person care.

“Telehealth expands access, but it doesn’t erase broadband and privacy barriers,” Wilson said.

Clinically, providers stress that telehealth cannot replace all services. Physical exams, lab work and emergency care must still take place in person. In psychiatry, safety planning also requires careful attention during virtual sessions.

“We have to know where a client is located during a visit and have a plan if they’re in crisis,” Wilson said.

Telehealth policies continue to evolve at both state and federal levels. During the pandemic, reimbursement rules expanded to support virtual visits. In Virginia, Medicaid continues to update telehealth guidance, including provisions for live video and certain audio-only services in specific circumstances.

Whaling said telehealth has transitioned from an emergency solution to a long-term component of care delivery.

“Telehealth went from temporary fix to normal option,” Whaling said. “Now it’s about using it wisely.”

Looking ahead, both providers expect telehealth to remain part of a hybrid model that blends virtual and in-person services.

“I think telehealth will keep expanding, especially for specialties that are harder to access in rural areas,” Whaling said.

Wilson said the future of rural health care will likely focus on matching the format of care to the needs of the patient.

“Telehealth won’t replace clinics,” Wilson said. “But it will stay a key bridge between visits and help rural patients stay connected.”

In a region where geography has long shaped access to health care, that bridge may continue to narrow the distance between providers and the communities they serve.

How ownership and politics are shaping TikTok and the social media landscape in Virginia

by Hunter Grove, science and technology reporter

Over the past couple of years the popular social media app TikTok has become a “political football” among U.S. lawmakers and state governments. Now, with TikTok’s new ownership and Virginia’s new governor, Virginians might see some changes regarding regulation and app usage, but the future is still uncertain.

TikTok’s new ownership deal had been underway for a couple of years but was officially enacted on January 22nd, 2026. The app’s U.S. operations were transferred to a newly created company called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. The change was made in order to keep the app unbanned in the U.S. and to give lawmakers more domestic control. After suspicions arose of information being stolen and anti-American propaganda being fed through the app, it was important to the U.S. government to see the app banned if kept in foreign hands. 

With the change in ownership now finalized, attention in Virginia has shifted toward how the state’s new governor plans to approach TikTok and similar platforms moving forward. Governor Abigail Spanberger emphasized data security, transparency, and the protection of public institutions in the past, signaling that Virginia’s policies would likely coincide with federal suggestions. This could mean continued restrictions on government-issued devices and state networks, as well as an overall increased push for accountability. However, at this stage, not much is known about Virginia’s plans for mandating the app or what federal guidance might suggest.

For more information, I spoke with Dr. Megan Duncan, an associate professor in the School of Communication at Virginia Tech. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Dr. Megan Duncan, professor of communications and social media at Virginia Tech

How has TikTok’s role changed in the U.S. political and cultural landscape over the years?

TikTok has become a political football in the sense that debates at the national and state level often aren’t really about the app itself. While the push for a U.S. buyer was initially framed as a national security issue, much of the discussion—especially early in this administration—shifted toward using TikTok as leverage in negotiations over things like tariffs or taxation. As a result, the focus among policymakers has drifted away from national security and toward broader political goals.

How does TikTok’s new owner and Virginia’s new governor change the conversation about the app’s regulations as a whole?

I think we have yet to see what Governor Spanberger is going to do specifically about TikTok. She’s addressing some other concerns first. But there are a lot of concerns about regulation and policy around TikTok, especially at public institutions like Virginia Tech, where it’s banned and where there’s related legislation.

There are also broader concerns because in Richmond there are many state employees, and in Northern Virginia there are many federal employees who are still banned from having TikTok on their devices. A lot of this policy directly affects Virginia residents, federal workers, and people who work and learn at places like Virginia Tech.

The laws Virginia passed regarding state employees don’t include any trigger that would lift the ban if TikTok were sold to a U.S. buyer. Even if legislators believe a sale resolves the security concerns, fixing that issue appears to be a low priority right now, as they’re focused on other matters at different levels of government.

That said, there’s an opportunity to raise awareness with Governor Spanberger and state delegates to address this at the state policy level. As for new ownership, lawmakers are likely to trust the president and the executive administration to determine whether it resolves the security concerns outlined in the law.

How does new ownership for TikTok matter to the US lawmakers, and what concerns do you think they might have with that? 

It seems like lawmakers are going to trust the president and the executive administration to say that the new ownership fixes the security concerns addressed in the law. There was a mechanism in the law that said Congress was supposed to determine whether a new deal resolved those concerns, but instead we got an executive order saying that it does.

Congress could push back and argue that certification is their responsibility, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to. At the same time, we could see other legislation depending on how international relations develop. Part of how we got the law in Virginia was increased awareness, especially after the surveillance balloon incidents raised broader national security concerns.

What kind of authority does Abigail Spanberger have to regulate this kind of thing for Virginians? 

In conjunction with the state legislature, she can issue some executive orders, but mostly we’ll have to wait for legislation. Reversing the ban at public institutions or for public employees would require going through the legislature because it was passed by the delegates and state senators and signed into law by Governor Youngkin. If it had been just an executive order, she could have undone it easily, but changing a law requires legislative action.

Do you think Virginia’s approach to TikTok at all is going to change within the next couple of years? 

In a couple of years, we might see a change. There are a lot of organizations that go state to state to influence social media policy and law. That’s how we got the ban that went into effect on January 1st, limiting screen time for users 16 and under to just one hour. One advocacy group focuses on reducing mental health harms and screen time for that age group.

Because federal policy can move slowly, a common strategy is to get multiple states to implement similar policies. That’s exactly what this group did—they coordinated a consortium of states to pass similar legislation. You could think of these advocacy groups as lobbyists, but without the negative connotations; they have a mission to change policy. When they can’t influence federal law effectively, they target several states to achieve similar outcomes.

SCI/TECH: Inside Moltbook

By Jackson Woodling and Caitlin Whitfield —

Moltbook, the internet’s latest viral phenomenon. Moltbook, a social network created exclusively for artificial intelligence agents, where humans are allowed to observe but not post themselves.

Launched in January 2026 by entrepreneur Matt Schlicht, the site mimics the look and feel of Reddit but replaces human users with autonomous AI agents that can post, comment, and upvote discussions ranging from technical tips to philosophical musings.

We explore why this experiment in “AI social interaction” has captivated millions online, sparked debates about machine autonomy, and even led to security concerns after vulnerabilities in the system’s design were exposed.

How AI is changing everyday life at Virginia Tech and higher education

By Timothy Kwon, science and technology reporter

Artificial intelligence is becoming a regular part of daily life at Virginia Tech, affecting how students complete assignments, how professors teach classes and how research is conducted. From AI-powered writing tools to software that generates computer code, the technology is increasingly used across campus and is raising questions about learning, ethics and the future of higher education.

To better understand how AI is changing everyday academic life and what it means for students, Chris North, a professor of computer science at Virginia Tech, discussed how AI is already being used on campus, how it is influencing teaching and coursework and why adaptability will be important for students entering an AI-driven workforce.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How do you define artificial intelligence for people who use it every day but don’t have a technical background?

Artificial intelligence is a broad term, but in general it refers to designing computer systems that behave in intelligent ways. These systems rely on large amounts of data and past experience to guide how they respond to users.

A common example is large language models like ChatGPT. These tools are trained on massive amounts of text from across the internet, which allows them to produce responses that sound realistic. They work by learning patterns from how people communicate and then using those patterns to generate new responses.

How has AI changed everyday academic life for students and faculty at Virginia Tech?

It affects different people in different ways. One example from my own experience involves mentoring graduate students who are writing and publishing research papers. Many of those students are international students, and English is not their first language.

In the past, I spent a lot of time correcting grammar and improving the readability of their drafts. That was time-consuming and not really the main focus of my job, which is to evaluate the quality of the research. Over the past few years, language models have helped take on that proofreading role. Now, when students submit drafts, the writing is usually clearer, and I can focus more on the science rather than grammar.

From the students’ perspective, AI can also help them think more critically about their writing. Some students use AI tools to summarize their work. If the summary does not match what they intended to say, it shows them that their writing needs improvement before they submit it.

How is AI changing the way professors teach and design coursework in higher education?

AI has forced professors to rethink traditional assignments. Many quizzes, homework problems and programming exercises can now be completed easily using AI tools. That raises questions about what students are actually learning if the technology can generate answers on its own.

In computer science, it is still important for students to learn the basics of programming. AI can write good code, but it can also write bad code. Students need to understand how to evaluate code, fix problems and think about issues like security.

The challenge for educators is figuring out how to teach these skills in a way that feels meaningful. Some professors are experimenting with assignments that allow students to use AI for an initial draft and then require them to critique or improve the work. The goal is to use AI as a tool while still encouraging critical thinking.

How should universities balance innovation with concerns about academic integrity, privacy and bias in AI systems?

There are still many unknowns. Higher education is very much in a trial-and-error phase when it comes to AI. Academic integrity is a major concern, especially when students can submit AI-generated work without fully understanding it.

Creating assignments that encourage thoughtful use of AI is difficult, and grading that type of work takes more time. In the past, many assignments relied on automated grading systems that simply checked whether an answer was correct. Evaluating students’ reasoning and reflection is more subjective.

Bias is another concern. AI systems may push users toward certain ways of thinking or problem-solving that are not always ideal. Universities are still figuring out how to address these issues, and it will likely take time to understand the long-term effects.

What advice would you give students who are worried that AI might replace certain jobs or career paths?

Concerns about AI are understandable, but they are not new. Similar worries existed during the rise of internet search engines like Google. At the time, people feared those tools would destroy jobs or harm society. Instead, they changed industries and created new opportunities.

AI will likely change jobs rather than eliminate them entirely. Some roles may disappear, but new ones will be created. The most important thing for students is adaptability. Education should focus on helping students learn how to adjust, be creative and use new tools as technology continues to evolve.

That is why banning AI outright in education is not helpful. Students need to learn how to use these tools responsibly so they are prepared for an AI-driven world.

Looking ahead five to 10 years, how do you expect AI to further change college campuses?

I am not very good at predicting the future, but I think mindset matters more than specific predictions. Approaching AI with fear is not productive. Instead, students and educators should view it as an opportunity to do new and innovative things.

AI will continue to develop quickly, and success will depend on how well people adapt. Universities should focus on teaching creativity, critical thinking and flexibility so students can take advantage of new technologies as they emerge.

How climate change impacts Indigenous communities 

By Emily Southern, science reporter

Eranga Galappaththi, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech, teaches a variety of classes surrounding geography, ecological systems and sustainability. 

His research focuses on complex human-environmental system changes and has a strong focus on Indigenous communities across the world. 

“I’m trying to understand how Indigenous people or communities experience climate change, specifically within the context of a climate-food-health nexus,” Galappaththi said. “I am also trying to understand the issues and dynamics around how they respond to climate change.”  

Galappaththi has strong research partnerships with the Indigenous communities in Sri Lanka, Canada and the Artic. He has published 36 peer-reviewed research articles in leading journals, including The Lancet Planetary Health, Nature Climate Change and One Earth, along with three book chapters. He has contributed to high-profile reports for the United Nations, like the IPCC and FAO. Galappaththi received his doctoral degree from McGill University in Canada.  

In an interview last week, Galathappaththi spoke on issues regarding climate change and affected communities. 

His comments were slightly edited for length and clarity.  

What motivates your passion for focusing on climate change affecting Indigenous communities? 

Fifteen years ago, I migrated to Canada because I’m originally from Sri Lanka. After I moved to Canada, I worked in the northern communities reserves which were mostly occupied by Indigenous people.  

Within my first three months I connected with those communities. I thought they would be a developed community, but I found that they were a very underdeveloped country. I was very touched, and I connected with those people and that’s how I continued my research with these communities. Slowly after my doctoral degree, I expanded to other countries as well with the help of other researchers and globally connected networks. 

Eranga Galappaththi interviewing Indigenous community members in Sri Lanka. Photo courtesy of Eranga Galappaththi.

From your view, what are the biggest impacts of climate change on Indigenous people or minorities? 

We have worked with over 100 Indigenous communities internationally and have a network of 14 partner countries as well. Based on this research and the work so far, we found that the way people experience climate change is very different.  


Each Indigenous community has their own problems. For example, one community in Sri Lanka might experience tourism related issues because they get more tourists. Indigenous people are used as a tool to do tourism, and they are not given any benefits for doing so. For them, there’s a lot of social power gaps, marginalization, education problems and food security issues.  

If you go to the Arctic, they have very different issues. They don’t have roads. They’re isolated communities and they have lot of food related health issues because of nutrition. They’re still highly relying on hunting, trapping and fishing for their food security. It’s because of the isolation and lack of economic opportunities that cause a high level of suicidal rates and high level of drug and violence issues.  

These are very complex issues, and each community is affected in different ways. Climate change acts as a central hub for these issues because Indigenous people are still relying on natural systems for their food security.  

When they lose their food security it causes food contamination, and they start to face different food related health impacts as well. That’s why I study a nexus of climate-food-health. These topics are interconnected especially when it comes to rural communities. 

In your view, why do some individuals remain unconvinced about the reality of climate change?  

I travel to places that specifically experience climate change. For example, in the Arctic you can see climate change because these places are totally covered with ice. They experience global warming at a very high level, so when they lose ice and lose their food, it’s obvious that it is real.  

The problem is people have trouble believing in something that they can’t see. It’s all evidence based and it has a high-level of research. I contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment reports, and we know it’s real.  

Have you seen any like climate change impacts in Blacksburg, Virginia? 

I moved from Canada in 2021, and we got a really good snow here that winter. I was so happy. The next couple of years, we have gotten less and less snow each year, at least to my standards. 

I’ve heard from a lot of elders here in Blacksburg, that have said we used to get a lot of snow in Blacksburg, but now we don’t. That’s one observation that I have made during my time here. Another thing I have noticed is the predictions. They’re sometimes inaccurate which could be a result of climate change impacts.  

How do you think educators could better integrate Indigenous knowledge or concepts into student learning? 

Most people limit their education to western knowledge systems. There are non-western knowledge systems like Indigenous knowledge, local knowledge and other knowledge systems. We need to go beyond science to integrate those systems. For example, I invite some of the Indigenous researchers and Indigenous community members to give guest talks with my students, so they get that opportunity.  

My aim is to not only deliver knowledge to students, but to create a core learning environment. This makes an equal base learning environment. I want to learn, and they want to learn as well. It turns into a group learning environment; it’s not just reading and studying a textbook.  

Do you include approaches or perspectives in your teaching that weren’t part of your own education?  

I’m trying to integrate a lot of community perspectives and non-western type of perspectives. I’m really just trying to bring different perspectives into my classroom which was something I didn’t experience.  

What advice would you give students who want to pursue research or careers focused on climate resilience and sustainability? 

In any research, it’s very important to integrate multiple perspectives and to respect all of them.

Researchers at Virginia Tech Combine Public Health and Geography Expertise to Understand a Concerning Trend.

By: Eli Lamport, science reporter

Dr. Korine Kolivras in her office in Wallace Hall, on Virginia Tech’s campus.

Dr. Korine Kolivras is a medical geographer with more than 20 years of experience in her field. At Virginia Tech, she has embarked on research into the spread of Lyme disease in the New River Valley area.

Dr. Kolivras also teaches several undergraduate courses and works directly with graduate students in Virginia Tech’s Department of Geography. I sat down with Dr. Kolivras to discuss her background, research, and thoughts on the current state of science in the United States.

(Editied for clarity)

You describe yourself as a medical geographer. Can you elaborate on that? What does that mean? What does your day-to-day look like? 

Stepping back a little bit, as a geographer we study why things are where they are. So some people call it the science of where, because we’re understanding why is that type of plant here and not there? Why is this city here and not somewhere else? So I study why diseases and health concerns are where they are, what factors are unique to making certain places healthy or less healthy and also how diseases spread from place to place. So day to day, I do research related to that. 

How do medical geographers work alongside other kinds of geographers, and what other fields does your work overlap with?

Yeah, so I collaborate with people within geography as well as in other fields and disciplines. It’s pretty interdisciplinary. So, within geography, we’re trying to figure out where diseases are, but oftentimes that’s where certain insects are. So it’s like, where are ticks living? Where they’re living, we’ve found that Lyme disease is higher, where we have land cover change, where we have different land covers next to each other. So a forest, a large forest patch next to a farm field, for example, that’s the type of place where we would have Lyme disease more typically. And so I could work with bio-geographers and people that study land cover change. And then outside of geography, I collaborate with people in epidemiology and public health, but also, I could collaborate with people in sociology, because they understand population patterns and population level decision making within society. 

How did you end up in this field? Do you remember a moment where you realized this is what you wanted to do long term?

First of all, in K-12 education we don’t get a really good understanding of what geographers do. Students come into my class, and it’s just like memorizing capitals and where rivers are and stuff. That’s not really what we do, you know, the location of things is definitely important, but it’s more about what else is going on in that place?

In college, I started out as a Spanish major because I love to travel. I love languages, and then I just randomly took a geography class. And I’m like, oh my gosh, this is where the cool stuff is, the stuff that I’m excited about. So I switched my major to geography. And actually, it was my senior year of undergrad when I first took a medical geography class. It was fascinating to combine this idea of geography and why things are where they are, with thinking about human health. It also made me realize that I could do research that could make a difference. I feel like everyone deserves good health, and so by doing this kind of research, it could help with that. So I went on, I got my master’s degree and then my PhD doing medical geography related work.

You have done extensive research on Lyme disease trends within Virginia. Can you tell me more about that process, and why Lyme disease continues to spike in this area?

I first got started working on it a little over 15 years ago when the Virginia Department of Health noted that Lyme diseases were increasing in Virginia. I think the number of cases tripled over a 20 year span, and they were looking to do a study to try to understand why that was happening. And so that’s when I first got started on it. And then eventually I got funding from the National Science Foundation, which was critical in getting this research started and trying to understand Lyme diseases spread. Early on, we had a lot of cases around northern Virginia. There’s a lot of people living there. There’s also a lot of suburbanization. Suburban areas are often hotspots for the disease. Starting around 2014, the New River Valley was a hot spot. We had a lot of cases down here. So my research is centered around  trying to understand why that spread happened and why some places have high rates of Lyme disease and some places have low rates. 

Even when we standardize and adjust by population, some areas stand out as having a lot of cases. And so what we found is that within plots of land that had high rates of forest patches next to herbaceous land. So like a pasture, a farm field, you know, grassy areas, those  were the census tracks that had the highest rates of Lyme disease. And honestly, if you drive around, that’s what a lot of neighborhoods around Blacksburg are like. And honestly it’s kind of a cultural thing where that’s what we want our suburban developments to look like. We want to live in areas where you’re close to forest or greenspace, which is understandable, but at the same time, it supports this Lyme disease cycle. 

How do you feel about the state of your field going forward? 

I’ll speak about science more broadly. The United States has been an innovator and leader within science for decades. Developing new things, new solutions, discoveries. And I am a bit concerned about the decreased focus on research funding that we’ve seen recently. I’ve gotten funding from the NSF, and that’s definitely something that could be in jeopardy. Science research is so important, and I’m not just saying that as a researcher, but also as a member of the public.

SCI/TECH: Complexities of Vaping

by Ava Dorn, Eden Kaplan –

Vaping has become increasingly popular in recent years, but what do we really know about it? This podcast explores the science, technology, and risks of vaping, and provides a balanced perspective on this complex topic. News Feed Reporter Eden Kaplan shares a personal experience to the topic. This podcast demonstrates the real health risks that come along with vaping. Whether you’re a current smoker, a concerned parent, or someone who’s just curious about vaping, this podcast will explore how vaping works, the health effects, and the marketing tactics that led to the younger demographic obtaining the addiction.

The catalyst for this podcast topic was the FDA’s recent ban on menthol pods. Here is an article discussing the recent ban. We discussed how even with the FDA’s efforts there are still room for appeals from these large companies. Only time will tell what the future has in store for vaping. For now, the technology and science of it all is still evolving every day. The Real Cost has made it their mission to inform young teens and adults on the health effects of vaping. Their website has a lot of extensive and accurate information regarding vaping, the long term effects and also resources on how to quit.