Virginia Tech's solar house, Lumenhaus, won the Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid, Spain, competing in 10 different categories against seventeen solar houses from seven countries on three continents. Designed and originally constructed on the Blacksburg campus by a team of faculty and undergraduate and graduate students, the Virginia Tech entry was declared the most efficient structure in the competition. Lumenhaus tied for first in architecture, placed second in communication and social awareness, and placed third in both industrialization and market viability and lighting.
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STUDENTS TAKE FIRST PLACE IN NASA CONTEST

A team of 10 aerospace engineering students took the top prize in a NASA aeronautics competition for college students to develop a multipurpose amphibious aircraft. Tasked to design a civilian aircraft that could rescue up to 50 survivors in the event of a natural disaster, the Tech team conceived a rotorcraft that resembled a catamaran. In teams or as individuals, more than 100 college students worldwide entered the contest sponsored by NASA's Aeronautics Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.
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ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE SELECTED AS 2010 COMMON BOOK

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life--the bestseller that recounts the changes experienced by the author's family during a year of deliberately eating food produced locally--was selected for Virginia Tech's 2010-11 Common Book Project. Now in its 11th year, the Common Book Project gives new and transfer undergraduate students a common academic experience during their first year at the university. Faculty teaching first-year students are encouraged to integrate the common book into their curriculum to foster broader community discussions on important themes or issues and to enhance student learning.
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