A team of students from the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech recently won first place at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) / National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association Student Design Competition. The team won a $2,000 cash prize, as well as products donated by InfoMine USA Inc. A second team of students, also from Virginia Tech's Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, earned fifth place. The competition was part of SME's 2009 Annual Meeting and Exhibit in Denver. It marks the second consecutive year that the College of Engineering placed two teams in the finals, as well as the second year in a row that Virginia Tech has captured the top spot at the competition. In addition to the cash prize and equipment, the first-place team was invited that day to present a technical session to industry professionals, university faculty, and student peers attending the conference.

A partnership begun Jan. 20 between Dining Services and Poplar Manor Enterprises (PME) had reduced the weekly waste at the Southgate Food Processing Center by as much as 2.5 tons as of April. Each week, the center saves all compostable pre-consumer waste, including chopped vegetables, peelings, and cores, which is then taken by PME staff members to the PME facility in Riner, Va., to begin a six-month process that converts the waste into compost. The drastic reduction in waste has led the university to expand its composting program to include post-consumer waste as well, naming Owens Food Court as the location for its pilot program. The composting program is part of a larger Dining Services initiative to explore sustainable alternatives to current practices.

As part of its Green Fleet Initiative and in an effort to meet customer's demand for alternative fuel sources, Virginia Tech Fleet Services will begin using B-10 biodiesel for diesel powered vehicles. The B-10 mixture, which will be supplied through APB Whiting, is a combination of 10 percent biodiesel and 90 percent regular diesel. Biodiesel has successfully completed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health testing under the Clean Air Act and has shown to significantly reduce the harmful emissions that are common in standard diesel usage. Fleet Services will continue to use B10 in the coming years; however, due to the cold-flow properties, it might not be used during the winter months.

Virginia Tech is one of only two universities from the United States that was invited to compete in the first Solar Decathlon Europe, to be held in Madrid, Spain, in June 2010. The Solar Decathlon Europe competition, in which 21 college and university teams from around the world will compete, is modeled on the biennial U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon. In these decathlons, each team designs and builds a self-sufficient house using solar power as the only source of energy. For the European competition, houses will be designed according to the concept of responsive architecture, adapting both to climate changes and user requirements via the simplicity of an iPhone interface.

VT'S SOLAR HOUSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The Virginia Tech team will submit the house they are currently developing for the U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon in October 2009. Students working on the house hail from the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and Pamplin College of Business.

Follow the house's progress on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/lumenhaus.

In the 2005 U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon competition, the Virginia Tech team won first place in four categories--Best Livability, Best Architecture, Best Day Lighting, and Best Electric Lighting--and garnered fourth overall. The house later won the American Institute of Architects President's Award for Best House.

Virginia Tech held its 2009 University Commencement ceremony on May 15. Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Lance L. Smith, a graduate of the Pamplin College of Business who served as commander for the U.S. Joint Forces Command and as NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, delivered the keynote address to an estimated 33 associate's degree and 4,011 bachelor's degree candidates. Businessman, philanthropist, and former ambassador Nicholas Frank Taubman addressed 1,201 graduate and professional degree candidates at the Graduate Commencement ceremony. The 29th National Capital Region (NCR) Commencement ceremony was held May 17 at the George Mason University Center for the Arts in Fairfax, Va. Shelley Duke, owner and manager of Rallywood Farm in Middleburg, Va., addressed approximately 300 NCR graduates.

This year, the most popular major for graduating undergraduates was mechanical engineering. Biology and marketing followed in second and third places, respectively. The fourth most popular major was psychology, followed by human nutrition, foods, and exercise; finance; and communication.

Enrollment nearly tripled during Hahn's tenure, increasing from 6,358 students to 17,470, which led to the construction of new residence halls and academic buildings and the renovation and enlargement of many other facilities. Lane Stadium, Cowgill Hall, and Slusher Hall are just a few of the prominent buildings added to campus during Hahn's 12 years as president. Other firsts under Hahn included the hiring of a black faculty member, the graduation of a black woman, and the opening of the corps of cadets to women.

The 85,000-square-foot Chemistry-Physics Building is the second building to be named for Hahn and will be known as Hahn Hall-North Wing. An adjacent, 71,000-square-foot building was named for Hahn in 1990 and is used mainly for chemistry research. That building will now be called Hahn Hall-South Wing.

Former New York Times science writer Daniel Goleman's latest work, Ecological Intelligence, has been selected for Virginia Tech's Common Book Project for the 2009-10 academic year. Now in its 10th year, the Common Book Project gives incoming first-year and transfer undergraduate students a common academic experience during their first year at Virginia Tech. Ron Daniel, associate provost for undergraduate education and a member of this year's book selection committee, says that the consensus was that the theme of ecological awareness and environmental sustainability would offer numerous options for faculty to incorporate it into their course work. In Ecological Intelligence, Goleman explains why we as shoppers have found it impossible to know the true range of harmful environmental and health consequences of our purchases and how both individuals and companies fail to consider the true impact our actions have on the environment and our own health.