VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY

International collaboration in biomedical engineering is vital for developing technologies that improve global healthcare. At Virginia Tech, the Therapeutic Ultrasound and Non-Invasive Therapies Laboratory, led by Eli Vlaisavljevich, focuses on histotripsy for liver cancer treatment. Team Malawi exemplifies transdisciplinary collaboration, addressing healthcare disparities in low-income countries. Successful international partnerships, like the Theresa study in Barcelona, highlight the importance of shared vision and sustained funding. Educating the next generation and focusing on global health needs are key to transformative progress.

The 39th AAAI Conference features workshops on AI advancements, including AI for public missions, social impact, urban planning, governance, and more. Topics span from AI in education, cybersecurity, music, to quantum computing, focusing on ethical AI, privacy, and societal benefits. Workshops aim to foster collaboration, share insights, and inspire new research directions in AI.

Bickel established the International Quit & Recovery Registry at Virginia Tech, aiding scientific understanding of long-term recovery. The registry now includes over 10,000 participants from 60 countries. Bickel also developed the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace to study health behaviors influenced by policy. His legacy includes BEAM Diagnostics, a digital screening tool for behavioral health conditions. Bickel's career was marked by collaboration, mentorship, and numerous awards. Despite a terminal cancer diagnosis, he continued his research, co-authoring studies on addiction until his final months.

New research confirms a link between excessive sweating (primary hyperhidrosis) and sensitive skin, with those affected sweating four times more than needed and experiencing heightened skin sensitivity beyond sweaty areas. The study, published in the Journal of the Drugs and Dermatology, suggests a complex connection involving abnormal nerve signals, potentially leading to new treatment approaches.

The AAAI-24 Workshop Program, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, features a series of workshops focusing on various AI topics. Key workshops include discussions on Large Language Models (LLMs) causality, AI for credible elections, digital human creation, AI in education, finance for social impact, AI in science and engineering, AI-based planning for cyber-physical systems, brain encoding and decoding with AI, cybersecurity, operations research, time series analysis, cognitive and mental health, neuro-symbolic learning, privacy-preserving AI, public sector LLMs, recommendation ecosystems, responsible language models, and scientific document understanding. Each workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to discuss advancements, challenges, and applications in their respective fields.

DOE commits $16.7M to 25 hydropower and marine energy projects, focusing on sensors, digital twins, pumped storage, and wave energy converters, aiming to accelerate innovation and technology growth.

Aminata Sarr, a Ph.D. student from Senegal, participated in Virginia Tech’s Drone School at Tidewater AREC, learning remote sensing for precision agriculture. She stayed to work with Abhilash Chandel’s lab, focusing on automated irrigation, supported by a scholarship emphasizing transformative technologies for societal impact.

Virginia Tech researchers found that hypoxic conditions increase _Fusobacterium nucleatum_ infection in colorectal cancer cells, altering cancer gene expression, which could inform future drug development.

The article profiles various professionals in health and statistics, including John R. Lumpkin, M.D., M.P.H., Mollyann Brodie, Ph.D., Kennon R. Copeland, Ph.D., Tara Das, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.L.I.S., Scott H. Holan, Ph.D., V. Joseph Hotz, Ph.D., Bradley Malin, Ph.D., Sally C. Morton, Ph.D., Lucila Ohno-Machado, M.D., M.B.A., Ph.D., Andy Peytchev, Ph.D., C. Matthew Snipp, Ph.D., Kelly Hoover Thompson, J.D., and David R. Williams, Ph.D., detailing their roles, achievements, and contributions to their respective fields.

Virginia Tech launched the “All In To Vote” online registration portal, aiding students and faculty in the voting process, especially out-of-state or abroad students. The portal provides non-partisan candidate info and aims to boost voter turnout, building on the university’s recognition as a Voter Friendly Campus.