Two University of Virginia students are spending their summer uncovering the architectural history of George Washington’s ancestral home in Sulgrave, England.

With funding from UVA’s Global Internship program, Jane Trask and Aisha Sawatsky, both graduate students in UVA’s School of Architecture, are finishing an internship at Sulgrave Manor, a stately but relatively modest home northwest of London where the first president’s ancestors resided for about 100 years.

The manor house was built by Lawrence Washington, George Washington’s five-times great-grandfather, who acquired the land after King Henry VIII dissolved England’s monasteries in 1539. Lawrence Washington – a prosperous wool merchant and twice mayor of nearby Northampton – his wife, and their 11 children lived there until his death, when the manor passed to his son, Robert. His descendants sold the manor in the mid-1600s, around the same time that George Washington’s great-grandfather, John, sailed for America.

After the Washingtons sold the manor, it endured through many owners and tenants, various states of disrepair and multiple renovations. Ultimately, a committee purchased it in 1914 to celebrate 100 years of Anglo-American peace following the Treaty of Ghent. Both Britons and Americans rediscovered its connection to George Washington and realized the value of preserving the president’s ancestral home.

Today, both British and American flags fly over Sulgrave Manor, which bustles with both British and foreign visitors, especially Americans. The manor’s grounds, gardens and exhibitions offer insight into the Washington family and its most famous member.

gw_ancestral_home_inline_01.jpg

Trask and Sawatsky are researching the evolution of the house from the 16th to the 21st century, led by fellow alumna Alexandra Valmarana, a 1996 architecture graduate who is a historic building conservator advising Sulgrave Manor. Another UVA alumna, Holly Smith, is on the manor’s Board of Trustees.

“The Sulgrave Manor Trust is particularly curious about what the house looked like in Tudor times,” said Sawatsky, who is pursuing a master’s of architecture with an additional certificate in historic preservation.

During their five-week stint at the manor, Sawatsky and Trask worked on a historic building assessment, using photographs and written records from the manor’s archives and their own observation of its architecture to understand the different phases of construction at Sulgrave.

“We measured and photographed the house and grounds and compared our findings with our archival research. We also visited other Tudor buildings in the region to get a sense of what Sulgrave may have looked like while the Washingtons lived there,” said Trask, who is working toward a master’s in architectural history with a certificate in historic preservation. “This has been a great opportunity to learn about many periods of architecture and construction.”

The pair presented their work at the manor’s Traditional Midsummer Tudor Fair, which included open-air performances, jousts, reenactments, archery competitions and more. Trask and Sawatsky will then turn the research over to the trust that operates the manor.

“We hope that our research will help people better understand Sulgrave Manor and its importance in American and British history,” Sawatsky said. 

uc247_1617_promo_c_ads_2.jpg

As for their own education, both Sawatsky and Trask said their experience at Sulgrave Manor – which fulfilled a requirement that graduate students in the historic preservation program complete an internship – was a great opportunity to practice what they have been learning in their classes.

“This practical application has been very valuable for me,” said Trask, who hopes to continue working in architectural history and historic preservation after she graduates next year.

Sawatsky agreed, and pointed out that working on historic homes like Sulgrave will be helpful even as she works on more modern buildings.

“Most of my work experience has been renovation and addition projects, so understanding historical construction techniques is important for me to design sensitively for what exists,” she said. “That was a big reason I was attracted to UVA’s program – because of the excellent historic preservation program and the wealth of resources of the historic campus itself.”

University of Virginia rowing head coach Kevin Sauer has been inducted into the Pocock/Collegiate Rowing Association Hall of Fame, announced June 13 during the Pocock/CRCA All-America, Coach of the Year and Hall of Fame awards show.

Sauer was honored for his major impact on the UVA rowing program. The two-time CRCA National Coach of the Year (2010 and 2012) has elevated Virginia to among the most elite rowing programs around the country.

Sauer, who completed his 22nd season at UVA this spring, guided the Cavaliers to NCAA titles in 2010 and 2012, plus 17 of the 18 Atlantic Coast Conference championships ever held and 11 NCAA top-four finishes. 

In addition, individual Cavalier boats have been crowned national champions nine times, including five times in the varsity four (2004, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2015) and three times in the second varsity eight (1998, 1999 and 2005). Sauer’s program hit another high in 2012 as the UVA varsity eight won the NCAA title for the first time and clinched the team title in the process.

“I am humbled and honored, and this reflects 40 years of hard work and great character from the student-athletes and coaches with whom I have worked,” Sauer said.

sauer_kevin_7_matt_riley_inline.jpg

Sauer was hired as the Virginia Rowing Club’s second full-time professional coach in the fall of 1988. He oversaw the direction of both the men’s and women’s club teams until the women’s team was upgraded to varsity status and began competition in the fall of 1995. Both teams thrived under Sauer, including the women’s varsity four winning the club national championship in 1995. 

Once at the varsity level, Sauer quickly built Virginia into a national powerhouse. Virginia is one of just seven schools to have claimed NCAA championships (Brown, California-Berkeley, Harvard, Ohio State, Stanford and Washington are the others) and one of four schools to compete in at least 18 NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships.

The Cavaliers have won 68 of the 75 events held at ACC regattas. Fourteen UVA crews have been named ACC Crew of the Year and Sauer has been honored as ACC Coach of the Year 11 times. Additionally, under Sauer’s tutelage, 39 student-athletes have earned 53 CRCA All-America citations and he has had 81 All-ACC selections. Virginia has had multiple All-Americans 17 years in a row and had at least one member on the first team in 18 consecutive seasons.

Landscape Architecture Society Honors Former Architecture Dean

Elizabeth K. Meyer, former dean of UVA’s School of Architecture, will receive the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal for significant and sustained excellence in landscape architecture education. 
“She is a renowned teacher whose critical thinking, student mentoring and inspiration have catalyzed outstanding practitioners across generations,” the society’s announcement said. 

Meyer, the Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture, began teaching at UVA in 1993 after holding positions at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, George Washington University and Cornell University. At UVA, she chaired the landscape architecture department three times before ascending to the deanship.

The society announced its 2017 honors recipients on June 13. Selected by the society’s board of trustees, the honors represent the highest awards it presents each year. They will be presented Oct. 23 during the 2017 ASLA Annual Meeting & EXPO in Los Angeles.

UVA Heart Failure Program Earns National Quality Awards

For working to improve patients’ recovery times and reduce readmissions, the heart failure program at the UVA Heart and Vascular Center has received two national quality awards from the American Heart Association.

uc247_1617_promo_c_ads_2.jpg

The Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Center earned the AHA’s 2017 Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and was named to the Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll.

“Each day, our multidisciplinary heart failure team is working to provide excellent care that is tailored to the needs of each patient,” said Dr. James Bergin, medical director of UVA’s heart failure/cardiac transplantation program. “It’s wonderful to see our team’s dedication recognized by the American Heart Association.”

UVA earned the awards by meeting or exceeding research-based standards designed to help heart failure patients receive the highest-quality care and recover sooner. Standards include prescribing appropriate medications, implanting devices to help improve heart function, giving flu and pneumonia vaccinations, scheduling prompt follow-up care and providing education to help patients manage their heart failure.

“These awards showcase the ability of our heart failure team to provide comprehensive, quality care for our patients,” said Pamela M. Sutton-Wallace, chief executive officer of UVA Medical Center.

UVA Honored as Center of Excellence for Bone Marrow Cancer

The UVA Cancer Center has earned recognition as a national center of excellence for its care of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer of the bone marrow that often leads to leukemia.

UVA is the only center in Virginia to receive this designation from the MDS Foundation for the treatment of this condition, which UVA hematologist Dr. Michael Keng said is often referred to as a “bone marrow failure” disorder.

Bone marrow produces stem cells that make white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. In patients with MDS, the marrow does not produce enough healthy cells. When there are not enough healthy cells, there is an increased risk of infection, bleeding, easy bruising and anemia. Approximately 30 percent of patients diagnosed with MDS will progress to a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia.

According to the MDS Foundation website, centers of excellence have:

•    An established MDS program

•    Recognized expertise in understanding the form and structure of MDS

•    Expertise in how genes and chromosomes impact MDS

•    Ongoing research, including clinical trials

•    Researchers that have published peer-reviewed articles on MDS

UVA provides tailored care for each MDS patient through a multidisciplinary team that includes medical oncologists/hematologists, pharmacists, care coordinators, nurses, infectious diseases specialists, clinical trial coordinators and support services such as social workers, case workers and therapists.

“UVA is devoted to providing support, research, treatment and education around MDS to all patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses and other health care providers,” Keng said.
 

Tens of thousands of people will be at the University of Virginia for its 188th Final Exercises weekend, May 19, 20 and 21, presided over by President Teresa A. Sullivan.

At Friday’s 3 p.m. Valedictory Exercises on the Lawn, students will pay tribute to their fellow classmates, presenting the Class Gift and University/Class Awards. The ceremony also features a speech from the keynote speaker selected by the Class of 2017 Trustees, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end his country’s protracted war with Marxist guerrillas. His son, Esteban, is receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy and leadership from the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

The first graduation ceremony on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m., will award degrees to students in UVA’s largest school, the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Deborah McDowell, director of UVA’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies and Alice Griffin Professor of Literary Studies, will give the keynote speech.

Sunday’s ceremony, also beginning at 10 a.m., will feature students from UVA’s other schools:

• School of Architecture
• Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
• School of Continuing and Professional Studies
• Curry School of Education
• Darden School of Graduate Business Administration
• School of Engineering and Applied Science
• School of Law
• McIntire School of Commerce
• School of Medicine
• School of Nursing

Students in the Data Science Institute will also participate. Sunday’s keynote speaker is Robert Pianta, Novartis U.S. Foundation Professor of Education and dean of the Curry School of Education.

In total, between 30,000 and 35,000 people are expected to attend Finals weekend.

Both days, students will participate in  school- or department-specific ceremonies at sites around Grounds following Final Exercises.

Graduation is a ticketed event. Each graduate receives six tickets for admission to the Lawn, which can be picked up at the UVA Bookstore before Finals Weekend. The days and times that tickets are available for pickup can be found here.

In all, 6,698 degrees will be conferred. Included in that figure are 4,084 baccalaureate degrees, 133 of which were earned in three years and seven in two. UVA will confer 465 professional degrees and 2,165 graduate degrees, including 326 Ph.D.s, 15 Doctor of Education degrees and 19 Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees.

There are 3,815 graduates from Virginia and 1,082 from 108 international countries.

Social Media, Live Streaming, Text Messages and Remote Viewing

UVA encourages everyone to participate in Final Exercises on its social media channels.

Throughout the weekend, students and guests alike can share their excitement by taking snaps with the “UVA Grad” geofilters on Snapchat. Creative mortarboards and other joyful moments will be featured on UVA’s Instagram account.

Final Exercises will be livestreamed at virginia.edu/live and UVA’s Facebook page, where photos also will be posted all weekend long.

UVA’s Twitter account will share memorable moments of Final Exercises; tweet us @UVA. And students, use #UVAGrad and your social posts could be featured on the big screen during the ceremonies.

To receive important Finals Weekend text alerts, type “uvagrad” to 79516. Users will be automatically unsubscribed after Finals Weekend.

Guests may watch live broadcasts of both Final Exercises ceremonies in these climate-controlled, remote viewing locations: the Alumni Hall ballroom, Chemistry Building Auditorium, Culbreth Theatre, Gilmer Hall auditoriums (rooms 130 and 190), the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library Auditorium, Newcomb Hall Ballroom and Theatre, the Student Activities Building and Zehmer Hall Auditorium. Additionally, there is a dedicated remote viewing site for persons with limited mobility on the third floor of Newcomb Hall.

Inclement Weather

If inclement or severe weather plans need to be implemented for Final Exercises, the University will make an announcement in local media; on the UVA hotline (434-924-7669); the University’s home page, www.virginia.edu; the Finals Weekend website; and on the University’s Twitter, Instagram and Facebook channels.

In the case of inclement or severe weather on Friday, Valedictory Exercises will move from the Lawn to the John Paul Jones Arena. An announcement will be made no later than noon. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the case of rain without the presence of thunder, lightning, high winds or other unsafe conditions on Saturday or Sunday, the University will hold Final Exercises on the Lawn, while all school and department graduation ceremonies will be held indoors. The designated locations for the school/department ceremonies will be available on the “School/Department Graduation Ceremony Locations” page.

If the weather is severe on Saturday or Sunday, Final Exercises will be moved to the John Paul Jones Arena and all school and department graduation ceremonies will be held indoors. Graduating students should arrive at the arena by 9:15 a.m. and proceed directly to the seating area on the main floor of the arena. Faculty will assemble in the Courtside Club, which is located on the bottom level of the arena, by no later than 9:45 a.m. Only guests with bar-coded tickets will be allowed entry. Due to the space limitations inside the arena, students will be limited to only three guests.

Inclement or severe weather plans for Saturday and Sunday will be announced no later than 8 a.m. each day.

Food stands will be located throughout Grounds, serving beverages and snacks on Finals Weekend. Light breakfast items (doughnuts, pastries, muffins, fruit juice, soda, bottled water and coffee) will be offered for sale Saturday and Sunday mornings. Food stands will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch items will be available beginning mid-morning.

Information booths will be available around Grounds for guests who have questions or need assistance. These booths will also have Finals Programs available for distribution.

Security Checkpoints

Everyone attending Valedictory and Final Exercises ceremonies, including graduates, faculty and guests, will be subject to security screening before entering. All bags will be subject to search, which may delay entry into the venue. A “bag check lane” will be available for guests who choose to bring a bag with them.

Everyone wearing an outer garment such as an academic robe or coat will be asked to open it for a visual inspection. To expedite entry into the assembly areas, graduates and faculty are encouraged to don their robes after passing through the security checkpoint.

uc162_1617_connection_c_1.jpg

On Friday, security checkpoints for Valedictory Exercises will open at 1:30 p.m. and remain open until end of the ceremony. On Saturday and Sunday, checkpoints will open at 7:30 a.m. and remain open until the end of the ceremonies.

A list of prohibited items is available here. 

Parking and Transportation

For Friday’s Valedictory Exercises, guests may park free of charge at John Paul Jones Arena and ride a shuttle bus to Central Grounds.

On Saturday and Sunday, free parking will be available at John Paul Jones Arena, University Hall and Scott Stadium, with shuttle service leaving from the John Paul Jones Arena and Scott Stadium to Central Grounds.

First-come, first-served, paid parking will be available at the Emmet/Ivy Parking Garage and the Central Grounds Parking Garage for all three days, with no shuttle service provided. More information about parking, including shuttle bus routes and pick-up and drop-off locations, is available here.

Public parking will not be available on Central Grounds. McCormick Road will be closed from University Avenue to the McCormick Road Bridge from 1 to 6 p.m. on Friday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Allow extra transit time for all events due to increased pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

They call themselves the “Gizmologists,” and they live to create gizmos – nifty devices that perform a function while adding more than a touch of creativity, beauty and flair.

A new group of University of Virginia students, the Gizmologists have conceptualized, designed, built, tested and now hung a V (for Virginia)-shaped clock that combines engineering with style, using analog and digital precision-time-keeping functionality. It is a “kinetic art” piece – art that moves.

They placed their clock in the main hallway of the Engineering School’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where hurried students and visitors can take a glance to see if they are making appointments or classes on time.

Originally the Gizmologists intended to place their clock in a lecture hall, but its operation proved just a tad too loud for students taking exams, or for lecturers lecturing.

“We got the idea because a professor, who will go unnamed, was always looking up at a wall clock in the lecture hall and telling seemingly late-arriving students that they were late,” said Watson Spivey, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student. “But actually, the clock was 10 minutes fast. So we decided it was time for a new clock.”

Below, take a look at the progression of the project, from the first concepts through the finished product.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention.

The Gizmologists got their start two years ago when Gavin Garner, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor, decided to start a club for engineering and like-minded students who might want to put their classroom learning to practical use on projects of their own design, on their own time. Engineers being engineers, several signed on, eager to build upon the knowledge and training gained in their courses.

“Engineers are the epitome of makers, and what we do fits in with the current maker movement,” Garner said. “Our students are passionate about their projects, combining the logic and know-how of engineering with the creativity of artists. Engineering is inherently creative, and our concept of gizmology is to add beauty and style to the things we’re creating.”

The Gizmologists include students in electrical, mechanical and systems engineering and materials science. Students in architecture, business and other disciplines have joined in on the fun as well, all working together to create devices that previously did not exist.

the_gizmologists_13_da_inline_01.jpg

With Garner as their faculty adviser, they have been working on designing and building several other objects, including a clock with a robot arm that moves a feather quill over pressure-sensitive LCD screens to draw out the numbers of the current time, and a boombox table shaped like a cassette tape. The V-for-Virginia clock is simply the club’s first masterpiece to reach completion, and was the project that started it all.

“We teach our students to be unafraid of making mistakes so long as they learn from them,” Garner said. “Engineering begins with mathematics for making predictions as to how a design will work. But a lot of engineering is experimentation, the actual building of objects, and realizing mistakes and then fixing problems and making refinements. That’s how to learn, and how to make.”

Garner has won several awards for his invigorating and inspiring teaching, given by both his department and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. A Richmond native, he earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at UVA, and developed a love for teaching as a graduate teaching assistant.

“Engineering teaches humility, and these kinds of hands-on extracurricular projects boost the students’ confidence,” he said. “The great thing about engineering is it’s a way to take rational control over the world, to make and do things that have never been done before that ultimately make the world a better place.”

Garner’s own interest is in robotics, otherwise known as mechatronics, which brings together the principles of mechanical, electrical and software engineering. He played a key role in setting up the Engineering School’s Advanced Manufacturing Lab, which provides students with the tools needed to make what they imagine, fusing theory with practice. There, students can operate laser cutters, computer-controlled mills and routers, 3-D printers and water jets that can sculpt metal.

“We get a lot of engineering theory in our classes, but hands-on learning is important too,” said Ginger Collier, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and founding member of the Gizmologists. “This project, building the kinetic art clock, allowed us to really merge theory and manufacturing. I learned more doing this project than I did in some of my classes.”

The Gizmologists have signed their clock and designed it for easy disassembly and reassembly so future students can keep the clock well-maintained.

During his four years in the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, Matt Johnson has traveled to the Arctic, attended conferences in Australia and designed housing for the homeless in Ethiopia.

His biggest legacy, however, might be felt much closer to home.

Johnson is among a small group of students raising awareness of mental health issues and examining the culture of the School of Architecture’s studios, where students spend hours and hours working on design projects.

button_1.jpg

“Studio culture is a big issue in architecture schools around the country,” Johnson said. “It is a notoriously intense and demanding field, and the work can become all-consuming if you let it.”

Two years ago – after realizing how that intensity was impacting his own life – Johnson began planning events, poster campaigns and other initiatives reminding students to prioritize mental and physical health. Now, the A-School Wellness Initiative is a school-wide program.

“I am still involved in it, but it is bigger than me now,” Johnson said. “It has become a really powerful thing that is making the school a healthier, more productive place and a better community.”

UVA Today caught up with Johnson before graduation to learn more about the wellness initiative, his interest in architectural robotics, his work around the world and his post-graduation plans.

Q. Why did you choose to study architecture?

A. Initially, I applied to colleges as a medieval history major. I was interested in architecture as a kid, but scared I did not have the skills. Later, though, I was looking at UVA’s School of Architecture website. The work they were doing looked awesome, and I realized I wanted to give it a shot, at least for a semester. I fell in love with it and haven’t looked back since.

Q. You’re very involved in the School of Architecture’s fabrication shops. What kind of work do you do there?

A. I’m really interested in digital fabrication, including practices like 3-D printing, laser cutting and computer numerically controlled, or CNC, routing. As a student employee in the digital fabrication shop, I monitor students’ projects, maintain equipment and run safety training.

I am also very involved with architectural robotics. The school has a six-axis robot that can orient itself in 3-D space, unlike a regular CNC router. My thesis project used the robot to invent a new method for 3-D printing concrete columns.

Q. What method did you come up with?

A. To create something with concrete, you typically have to build a formwork, pour the concrete in and throw away the formwork. My method uses the robot to move the 3-D printing tool through space in free-form designs. It can change the design as it goes along, which allows for an infinite number of column shapes. I have been working with the Virginia Transportation Research Council’s concrete lab to develop the concrete mix, which is designed to pour smoothly and cure quickly while holding its shape.

uc162_1617_rotunda_c1.jpg

It’s exciting to be part of the research group getting architectural robotics off the ground here. I have gotten a lot of great opportunities to travel to conferences, including one in Sydney, Australia, and I aim to present my thesis at the next Robots in Architecture Conference in Switzerland.

Q. How is robotics changing the practice of architecture?

A. I believe these technologies will transform how buildings are built in the immediate future. Building construction is one of the least-automated manufacturing processes in the world, compared with manufacturing computers or clothes, for example. What we can do with robots is completely outside of the vocabulary of how we build buildings right now. It will change things drastically, and I am grateful to have developed literacy in that at UVA.

Q. You’ve also led efforts encouraging students to take care of their mental health. What inspired those efforts?

A. With design work, there is never really an endpoint. You can always do more work on a project. If you are not careful, you can find yourself pulling all-nighters, skipping meals or not exercising. I fell into that during my first year or two here, doing more and more work just to convince myself I was a good designer. It started affecting my health and actually holding me back from doing good work. 

In my third year, I hit a very difficult semester, and became so stressed and anxious that my friends noticed something was wrong. With their help, I realized that my unhealthy practices were affecting my mental health and actually preventing me from doing my best work. That semester, I gave up all-nighters and started prioritizing eating well, sleeping and taking time to do things with friends.

Q. How have you helped your fellow students work through similar problems?

A. The same semester that I was really struggling, we had an event for the entire school, talking about dealing with stress and setting limits around work. Professor Beth Meyer, the dean at the time, spoke, along with many faculty and students sharing personal stories. It was so powerful and moving.

After that, we started the wellness initiative. Now, there is a student-run commission doing everything from educating people about the danger of pulling all-nighters to providing technical assistance to younger students acclimating to our software programs. People are talking about mental health and they know there are resources there now.

Q. What else stands out as you look back over your time in the Architecture School?

A. I started the A-School Christian Fellowship during my second year, meeting twice per week in Campbell Hall to talk, read Scripture and support each other. Having that community has been so rewarding. It’s such an open group. People from all kinds of religious backgrounds – or none at all – come to talk and learn more about what we believe.

I have also gotten a lot of really great travel experiences. One of my studio classes did research in Svalbard, Norway, an island chain home to the world’s northernmost towns, with an otherworldly landscape and extreme way of building. Last summer, some classmates and I got a grant to help design housing and health care facilities for an NGO providing permanent homes to homeless people with disabilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We have been working with Professor Anselmo Canfora and his project, initiative reCOVER. It has been really cool to see another culture and know I am contributing to the world with design. Right now, I am considering returning to Ethiopia to work on this project after graduation, if I can line up grant funding.

Twelve University of Virginia scholars will pursue their work on foreign shores with the help of Fulbright Scholarships this year.

The U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board offered the grants to the UVA alumni and graduate students, who will be among 1,900 U.S. citizens – selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential – who will travel abroad for the 2017-18 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

The scholarships cover round-trip transportation to the host country; funding for room, board and incidental costs; and health care benefits. In some countries, the scholarship also covers book and research allowances, mid-term enrichment activities, full or partial tuition, language study programs and orientations.

uc162_1617_rotunda_c1.jpg

The UVA scholars will teach English in foreign countries such as Brazil, Laos and Colombia or pursue research in international academic centers.

The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Its primary source of funding is an annual Congressional appropriation to the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the U.S. also provide support. The program operates in more than 160 countries and is administered by the Institute of International Education.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” said Andrus G. Ashoo, associate director of the Center for Undergraduate Excellence. “Our applicant pool is more and more representative of the student body at the University of Virginia and the types of awards available under the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. So it is exciting to see among those who have received the award two students who will pursue a postgraduate degree, at University College London and Yonsei University in South Korea; three alums who will be teaching English, in Bulgaria, Laos and Brazil; and two Ph.D. students who will pursue research in India and Sweden. In addition to students from the College of Arts & Sciences, there are two from the School of Architecture, two from the Frank S. Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and two from the Curry School of Education.”

Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright program has given approximately 360,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

This year’s recipients are:

• Hayley Anderson of Centreville, graduating with a master’s degree in public policy from the Frank S. Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy’s accelerated master’s program, who will be an English teaching assistant at a federal university in Brazil.

 “At the Batten School, my research focused on public administration and foreign policy,” she said. “For my final capstone project, I worked with the World Bank to find ways to scale up Brazil’s flagship social welfare program, called ‘Bolsa Família.’ I enjoyed this work because I often got to use my knowledge of Brazilian politics and Portuguese language skills to accomplish the real goal of bringing Brazilians out of poverty.”

While at UVA, Anderson was a Range resident; a member of Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars; president of the University Dance Club; and a student docent at The Fralin Museum of Art. Anderson will be a federal management consultant for Deloitte in Washington, D.C. when she returns from Brazil. Her eventual goal is to be a management officer in the U.S. foreign service.

“The Fulbright name carries a lot of weight in the government and private sectors, and I hope that my completion of the award will signal my ability to work and connect with people around the globe,” Anderson said. “On a personal level, this is an opportunity to give my passion for language and cross-culture communication a practical focus.”

• Mirenda Gwin of Vinton, a 2015 graduate with a double major in the distinguished history majors program and media studies, who will be an English teaching assistant in Burgas, Bulgaria.

“One of the purposes of the Fulbright program is for young people to grow in cultural fluency and learn to be more understanding of other ways of life,” Gwin said. “I’m absolutely thrilled about the opportunity for learning about the history, culture and educational systems of another country.”

While a student at UVA, Gwin was a member of the University Judiciary Committee; Movable Type, an undergraduate media studies journal; Catholic Student Ministries; and the Raven Society. She designed and taught her own course, “All Things Fitzgerald,” to other undergraduates in the Cavalier Education Program. She was an Echols Scholar and received the Kelly O’Hara Scholarship, the Academic Achievement Award for Media Studies and the 2015 Bernard Peyton Chamberlain Memorial Prize for the Best Distinguished Majors Thesis in the Corcoran Department of History.

Gwin worked at a summer camp in North Carolina after graduating, then spent the last academic year  teaching at Veritas Christian Academy in Chesapeake.

“It is a classical school with a large international student body, and I have been privileged to teach middle and high school students,” she said. “I really love working with and advocating for kids, and I’m interested in bringing my knowledge about international education back to the United States when my work as a Fulbright is done.”

• Nicholas Budd Fenton of Skillman, New Jersey, graduating with a double major in political and social thought and Russian and Eastern European studies, who will teach English in a university in Omsk, Russia.

While a student at UVA, Fenton’s research has focused on a contemporary strand of Russian nationalism called Neo-Eurasianism.

“I looked at the ideology’s historical roots, its current adherents and its broader political implications,” he said. “I found it to be a fascinating intersection of my interests in intellectual history and Russian area studies.”

An Echols Scholar and a Jefferson Scholar, Fenton is a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, the IMP and Raven societies and Engage@UVA. He is a recipient of the Hammond Prize for Excellence in Russian Area Studies. A graduate of The Lawrenceville School, he plans to continue his studies of Russia.

“This award is a dream come true,” Fenton said. “The opportunity to live and work in Russia for a year, where I will be able to explore Russian culture, forge relationships with Russian counterparts and additionally improve my knowledge of the Russian language means the world to me. I am confident that my experiences abroad in Russia will serve me immensely as I continue my studies and begin my career.”

• Corey Haynes of Falls Church, a 2016 graduate with a master’s in education from the Curry School of Education, who will be an English teaching assistant in Laos.

“I was an English teacher in Albemarle County Schools while at UVA, taught English for two years with the Peace Corps in Nicaragua and currently teach in Fairfax County,” she said. “I hope to further my teaching career, learning more about Lao/Asian culture and how to incorporate it into a multicultural and culturally responsive classroom.”

• Christopher Hiebert of Vancouver, British Columbia, a religious studies doctoral candidate, who will conduct research under a Fulbright/Nehru student research grant at Namdroling Monastery in the Tibetan refugee community of Bylakuppe, Karnataka State, India.

“My dissertation looks at the development of Tibetan monastic education in the 19th and early 20th centuries and its relationship to the wider world of Tibetan Buddhist religious practice and patterns of economic and political patronage in Eastern Tibet,” Hiebert said.

A graduate of the University of Toronto with a degree in Buddhist studies, Hiebert is a Buckner W. Clay Foundation for the Humanities Fellow. He plans a career in academia.

“The Fulbright-Nehru grant will enable me to conduct six months of intensive research in Tibetan communities in India and will forge numerous professional and cultural connections and contacts, which will greatly facilitate my academic work in the future,” he said.

• Tiffany Hwang of Richmond, on track to graduate in August with a master’s degree in education from the Curry School of Education, who will teach English in Taiwan.

“Much of my time at UVA has been spent honing my research skills and studying the science of learning from a distance,” she said. “I felt the time was ripe to gain more perspective by stepping into the classroom. Teaching in Taiwan topped my bucket list because I am close to driven, global-minded family and friends who were educated there, and I became curious about the systems that contributed to their success. I look forward to visiting them in Taiwan, learning from my students and using the year to improve my Chinese language skills.”

Hwang received a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science and psychology at UVA in 2016 and completed the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate program. She has been working with Sara Rimm-Kaufman in the Social Development Lab at UVA’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning to develop a science curriculum that integrates service-learning and social-emotional learning.

She also served as a project coordinator and former lab manager at the Child Language and Learning Lab directed by associate psychology professor Vikram Jaswal, where she initiated a partnership with the Science Museum of Virginia to connect with the public and share studies of how children learn. Her research projects have also included collaborating with Embracing Hope Ethiopia, Computers4Kids, the Coordinated Approach to Child Health Program in Virginia and the Living Laboratory at the Virginia Discovery Museum.

She has been an intern and consultant for the Volunteers with International Students, Staff and Scholars program at UVA’s Center for American English Language & Culture; a coordinator of the UVA Medical Center’s English as a Second Language Program for immigrant and refugee workers; and a Madison House youth mentoring program director for the Music Resource Center. She was a College Council department representative, an editor for the Cavalier Daily and a teaching assistant in the psychology department as well as in ESL classrooms for international graduate students.

“I hope this next adventure through Fulbright will help fuel my commitment to building bridges between education research, practice and policy,” she said. “Gaining experience in all three arenas is important to me. After teaching, I would like to explore education policy and continue with research.”

• Libby Lyon of Arlington, a 2014 graduate of the School of Architecture with a degree in urban and environmental planning and a minor in global sustainability, who will study at the Institute of Education at University College London.

“I will partner with primary schools in London and research the dynamics between cooking and gardening education programs in schools and family food practices at home,” she said. “My Fulbright tenure will further prepare me for a career in promoting the health of families and children through food-growing programs in schools. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to study at the Institute of Education, University College London, alongside researchers at the Thomas Coram Research Unit who are experts in the health and food practices of children and families.”

At UVA, Lyon received a 2013-14 Jefferson Public Citizen Grant to research and implement school-garden education programming at Burnley-Moran Elementary School in Charlottesville, as well as a 2012-13 Community Based Undergraduate Research Grant to research garden-based curricula for elementary school-aged students and developed lesson plans based in various academic subjects to be taught in Charlottesville City Schools.

A founder and student leader of the Burnley-Moran Elementary Garden Club, she was on the UVA Community Garden leadership team and an apprentice at the University’s Morven Kitchen Garden. She was a student leader of the City Schoolyard Garden in Charlottesville, a service member of FoodCorps and a farmers’ market manager for GrowNYC.

She also was a student representative to the UVA Strategic Planning Career Services Working Group; a site leader for Project SERVE, a day of service for incoming students; and a trustee of the Class of 2014.

After the Fulbright, she wants to continue to work with schools to connect kids and families to healthy food.

• Samantha Merritt of Fort Meade, Maryland, graduating with a double major in public policy and leadership from the Frank S. Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and in foreign affairs from the College of Arts & Sciences (with a minor in East Asian studies), who will pursue a master’s degree in Korean studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

“This two-year endeavor will give me the opportunity to study South and North Korean politics, economics, history, society, culture and the Korean language, while allowing me to focus on South Korea’s role as a critical partner for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region,” Merritt said. “I am especially interested in understanding the national reactions to, and international security implications of, South Korea’s foreign policies toward North Korea, such as [former South Korean] President Kim Dae-jung’s more peaceful Sunshine Policy and President Lee Myung-bak’s more hardline approach.”

While at UVA, Merritt has been a facilitator for the Women’s Asian American Leadership Initiative; a small-group leader and secretary for the Women’s Leadership Development Program; a language consultant for the Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars; and a member of the Batten Undergraduate Council External Committee and the Rotaract Club at UVA. She has lived at Shea House, a total immersion language dormitory, for the past three years. She received a Critical Language Scholarship for Korean and spent two months last year in Gwangju, South Korea.

A graduate of the Seoul American High School, Merritt plans to work for the U.S. government after graduation, using her Korean language skills, cultural literacy and background in Korean studies while working in the diplomatic or intelligence field in order to assist with advancing U.S. foreign policy and military relations.

“I knew that to better facilitate mutual understanding between the U.S. and South Korea and to help strengthen critical U.S.-Korean bilateral relations, I would need more than a summer or two abroad to focus on Korean studies,” Merritt said. “Fulbright offers this incredible award and it made sense to pursue a total immersion program in the country itself.”

• Sara Pancerella of Manassas, who is graduating with a double major in foreign affairs and Spanish and a minor in Latin American studies, who will be an English teaching assistant at the Universidad Nacional in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia.

“While I’m there, I will also be developing a social project, which will be determined once I arrive, to work on for the duration of the grant,” Pancerella said. “One of the most important aspects of my grant is that I will be a cultural ambassador for the United States.”

A member of the Sigma Delta Pi Spanish Honor Society, she has been a Spanish tutor for the past two years, a Madison House volunteer as an English as a second language classroom assistant, and a language consultant for Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars this semester. A graduate of Stonewall Jackson High School, Pancerella wants to continue her studies on Latin America.

“I definitely plan to pursue a master’s degree following the Fulbright with a regional focus on Latin America, possibly Latin American studies itself,” she said. “Before I jump into that, I would like to take a year or two off to work, gain more experience and save up money for my degree.”

• Melissa Roggero of Venice, Florida, a 2014 graduate with a degree in foreign affairs and a minor in French, who will be teaching English-language and American culture classes at a federal university in Brazil.

Roggero, who has been working as a Peace Corps English Education Volunteer in Ozurgeti, Georgia, eventually plans to return to graduate school.

“After the Fulbright, I hope to return to school to get my master’s degree and eventually work in international development and education policy,” she said. “I want to eventually work in international educational policy, so working within a different educational framework will be very important.”

• Elizabeth Doe Stone of Concord, Massachusetts, a Ph.D. candidate in art and architectural history in the McIntire Department of Art, who will conduct archival research in Stockholm and Mora, Sweden, at the National Museum, the Zorn Museum and Stockholm University.

“My dissertation, ‘Cosmopolitan Facture: John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn, 1871-1915,’ situates these two painters in relation to one another and locates their artistic experimentation within a broader community of international artists, sitters and philosophers at the turn of the century,” she said. “I knew that my dissertation research necessitated prolonged engagement with archival material, so the Fulbright research grant was a perfect fit.

“On a personal level, I was drawn to the Fulbright’s diplomatic mission and I look forward to the cultural immersion it facilitates.”

Stone, who earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Dartmouth College in 2012, has had her research at UVA supported by the Institute for the Humanities and Global Cultures, the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, the Dumas Malone Fellowship, the Rare Book School, the Double Hoo Research Grant and the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Research Fellowship. She plans to teach as a college professor.

• Mitchell Wellman of Marietta, Georgia, graduating with a dual major in political and social thought and Spanish (linguistics and philology track), with a minor in economics, who will teach English to high school students in Madrid and conduct linguistic research.

“This scholarship will provide me a great opportunity to apply classroom experience in the real world,” he said. “Learning a language is more than just remembering words and grammar; it’s about experiencing the culture and the people who utilize that language. I believe the Fulbright program offers all of these things.”

Wellman was a Lawn resident and a member of the University Judiciary Committee and the Raven Society. He was an assistant managing editor of the Cavalier Daily; founder and executive editor of Q* Anthology of Queer Culture; and a student lecturer in the “Everyone’s a Journalist” course offered by the Cavalier Education Program. An Echols Scholar, Wellman also received a 2017 Reider Otis Endowed Prize, presented by the UVA Serpentine Society, for advancing rights of the LGBTQ community. He earned a 2016 Wyatt Family Fellowship for Spanish Distinguished Major Program thesis research in Barcelona, Spain, awarded by the UVA Spanish Department. He was a digital producer for the USA TODAY College section this spring. A graduate of Carl Harrison High School, he plans to attend law school and focus on education policy.

A lot has changed in the four years since the Class of 2017 arrived at the University of Virginia. Jefferson’s Rotunda has been restored and readied to face another century, University researchers have forever changed the field of medicine with new discoveries about the brain, and legions of UVA graduates have taken on mantles of leadership.

Just as UVA is always growing as a community, students walk their own path of growth from the moment they set foot on Grounds. Often, the hesitant first-year they once saw in the mirror is unrecognizable to the confident scholar who will walk the Lawn this weekend.

To celebrate their transformative years on Grounds, UVA Today asked graduating fourth-years to share “then and now” photos from their earliest days at UVA and their final days before graduation.

Photos came in from across the University and many grads-to-be used their submissions to highlight the lasting friendships they’ve forged here.

surrency_1st4th_inline_01.jpg

In her submission, Curry School of Education student Aubree Surrency explained that she and her three best friends – Alysse Dowdy, Shontell White and Alexis Jones – met through a combination of dorm assignments and shared classes first year.

“After that we all started hanging out and we solidified our friendship our first year with an Easter weekend trip to Shontell’s house,” she said. “We just ended our fourth year with a trip to Myrtle Beach together. It’s safe to say we are forever friends!”

dupree_1st4th_inline_02.jpg

Growing friendship was the same theme for Chanel Dupree, a McIntire School of Commerce student graduating with a B.S. in accounting and finance. She and fellow friends Deanna Madagan, Abby Systma, Kaitlyn Colliton and Jennifer Cifuentes all met in the first-year dorms.

“We took one picture at the end of first year, before the Rotunda went under construction and I started laughing and fell off. We decided to recreate it this year for graduation,” Dupree said.

dunlop_1st4th_inline_03.jpg

Other students decided to show a more personal transformation with their photos.

History major Malcolm Dunlop joined UVA’s Naval ROTC as a first-year and will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps on the steps of the Rotunda on Friday morning. He’ll take four years of leadership experience at UVA with him when he heads to Quantico for further training this year.

"NROTC has been massively influential during my time at UVA," he said. "I am emerging a far more confident individual, and this confidence extends to other realms at UVa including my academic and social endeavors."

ritchie_1st4th_inline_04.jpg

Architecture student Renee Ritchie was shaped not only by her days on Grounds, but by the additional global perspective she gained through a study-abroad program in her final year at UVA.

“From looking out over ‘Mount Kellogg’ during my first year in dorms, my view changed to looking out over the Dolomites in Bressanone, Italy during my fourth-year architecture study-abroad experience,” she said. “I gained courage, knowledge and a passion for architecture over these past four years, thanks to UVA and the Architecture School.”

bohmer_1st4th_inline_05.jpg

Some students, like Carrie Bohmer, chose to trace their time at UVA by looking back on their favorite annual activities and events. The psychology and women, gender and sexuality double-major sent in photos of visits to UVA’s “Teeny Tiny Zoo,” during her first and fourth years. The regular event is designed to offer a fun stress-reliever during spring midterms every year.

Along with her cheerful photos, Bohmer included some reflection on just how much she’s changed as a person during her time at UVA.

“Over the past four years I have grown from a girl to a woman and learned who I am as a person,” Bohmer said. “UVA has given me the best gift possible – myself.” 

Below, readers can scroll through the fourth-year submissions sent in the last days before graduation.

Final Exercises 2017 was built of moments that graduates and their parents will carry with them forever. The University of Virginia conferred 6,698 degrees over two joyous days.

Watch the video above for a look back at the weekend and see a comprehensive index of photos, videos and stories on the Final Exercises 2017 aggregation page. 

What do you do when the building believed to be President James Monroe’s home – a building that attracts a consistent stream of visitors each year – wasn’t actually the Founding Father’s residence?

That’s the question that leaders at Highland, the fifth president’s estate in Albemarle County, enlisted University of Virginia School of Architecture students to help answer this spring. The 14 students enrolled in architectural history professor Lisa Reilly’s “Strategies of Interpretation: Highland” course developed four revamped tours for the site, some using augmented reality technology to take visitors back in time.

uc162_1617_connection_c_11.jpg

Each tour takes into account Highland’s 2016 discovery of the previously buried remains of Monroe’s true house, a much larger house than what currently exists on the property. That more modest home is now believed to be a guest house commissioned by the fifth president at least 15 years after he bought the estate in 1793 and moved in 1799.

“For us, this discovery was a tremendous opportunity and one that we intentionally sought through years of research,” said Sara Bon-Harper, Highland’s executive director. “I don’t know of any other case where a presidential house has been lost and found.”

Monroe – who also lived at the site of UVA’s Brown College – owned the Highland estate until 1826, a time period that included his tenure as governor of Virginia and his two terms as president. Archeologists will excavate what is left of his home– now believed to have burned down – in the yard of the present property, which was previously called Ash Lawn-Highland, but recently returned to “Highland,” the name used during Monroe’s era. So far, they have found remnants of stone wall foundations and the brick foundation for a chimney, as well as fragments of furniture, ceramics and other artifacts.

highland_class_visit_ss_12_inline_01.jpg

Bon-Harper and her team now embrace the dual tasks of discovering more about Monroe’s original home and sharing their findings with the visitors who travel to Highland daily – a challenge that they shared with the UVA students.

“We have an opportunity to be really creative in how we interpret the site,” she said. “The research we are doing will shed light not just on Highland itself, but on history’s understanding of Monroe.”

The architecture, architectural history and art history students met several times with Bon-Harper, architectural historian Carl Lounsbury and others who made the discovery. They also visited similar sites nearby, including Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

Lounsbury, a faculty member at the College of William & Mary, showed students how small clues like the techniques used to create nails and bricks for the house led his team to suspect it was constructed much later than 1799. Subsequent tree-ring dating tests confirmed that the building’s wooden beams were cut at least 15 years later, between 1815 and 1818. In an 1818 letter to his son-in-law, Monroe made passing reference to the construction of a guest house on his property.

highland_class_visit_ss_16_inline_02.jpg

Students split into four groups to develop new plans for presenting the property to visitors, given the new discovery. Their final presentations, delivered to Highland officials in early May, included ideas for revamping the guest house to more accurately reflect its origins, new ways of displaying the Monroes’ furniture currently housed there, new exhibits for Highland’s information center and new tour scripts.

Two of the four student teams elected to partner with ARtGlass, a technology firm that has developed augmented reality glasses and tours for several museums and historical sites in Europe. The firm hopes Highland can be one of its early test clients in the United States.

In the final presentations, fourth-year architectural history student Hannah Glatt told Bon-Harper and the assembled team that augmented reality tours allow visitors see how the site might have looked without interrupting ongoing excavations.

highland_class_visit_ss_05_inline_03.jpg

“You can see buildings or look closely at foundation stones while still protecting them,” Glatt said. Her classmate, fourth-year architecture student Seth Pantalony, also said that augmented reality tours could be adjusted quickly.

“We were really drawn to AR because it is easy to build out new versions of the tour as more information is known,” Pantalony said.

Glatt and Pantalony’s team developed plans for a tour featuring virtual narrators – including Monroe himself – taking visitors through the property and explaining how archeologists uncovered the truth about the guest house. Other ideas for augmented reality tours included audio tracks immersing visitors in the sounds of a bustling plantation and narrations by its inhabitants, from the enslaved men and women toiling there to Monroe’s famous neighbor, Thomas Jefferson. Students also suggested using iPads – perhaps more familiar to older visitors than augmented reality glasses – to guide visitors through the guest house and archeology site.

Some groups focused closely on the guest house itself, exploring which of Monroe’s political associates might have stayed there and how the visitors – and the estate itself –influenced Monroe’s illustrious career.

highland_class_visit_ss_01_inline_04.jpg

“When Elizabeth Monroe, 25, and James Monroe, 35, purchased Highland, James Monroe had already begun his political career,” graduate architecture student Henry Hull said. “It was a built environment that undoubtedly shaped his political aspirations and school of thought.”

Others were interested in expanding the tour to include the estate’s agricultural fields and network of trails, some of which connected Monroe to Jefferson’s Monticello. Bon-Harper told students that improvements to the trails are underway and play a significant role in her team’s long-term plans for the estate.

“One of the things that we identified in our strategic planning was that we are not capitalizing on the tremendous potential of the property,” she said. “Right now, visitors are only seeing a handful of the hundreds of acres.”

Bon-Harper said that she and her creative team will carefully review and consider the students’ ideas as they continue to update the estate’s exhibits and tours in light of last year’s discovery. Ultimately, she and the students agree that, almost two centuries after Monroe sold the property, historians and tourists alike still have much to learn about Highland and the role it played in American history.

“This place has an extended, complicated history that is still in the process of being unpacked and is really changing how we think of James Monroe,” Hull said. “There were so many different factors that contributed to his development as one of the most qualified people to be president at that time.”

The huge societal challenges of global infectious diseases and a rapidly changing climate are now key transdisciplinary focus areas at the University of Virginia under two newly established, pan-University institutes.

The UVA Environmental Resilience Institute and the Global Infectious Diseases Institute will each bring together top researchers from a range of disciplines at UVA to tackle some of the biggest problems facing society.

Three years ago, the University began an initiative under its strategic Cornerstone Plan to tackle major 21^st-century issues by establishing up to five institutes drawing on the University’s broad and specific intellectual capital. The UVA Data Science Institute – the first, and established in 2014 – facilitates data-intensive research, analytics, management and education across the University. The UVA Brain Institute, established last year, focuses on better understanding the human body’s most complex organ.

uc162_1617_connection_c_11.jpg

And now, major UVA resources are being dedicated to problems involving the environment and infectious diseases, globally related issues with myriad challenges. Each institute is initially funded with a three-year, $2 million grant from the University, and spearheaded by the offices of the Executive Vice President and Provost and of the Vice President for Research. The institutes use this seed money to organize and then produce multi-faceted grant proposals to earn additional long-term funding from federal and state agencies, foundations and private donors.

“We know that the solutions to many of our most challenging global problems lie at the intersections of disciplines,” UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan said. “By assembling talented, multi-disciplinary faculty teams to address environmental change and to study infectious diseases, we are confronting two of the 21^st century’s most vexing problems head-on.”

Environmental sciences professor Karen McGlathery will lead the Environmental Resilience Institute. Alison Criss, an associate professor of microbiology, immunology, and cancer biology, will head the Global Infectious Diseases Institute.

“Both of these proposals really captured the essence of the pan-University challenge, expertly bringing together multiple disciplines in a novel way to address complex societal issues,” Thomas C. Katsouleas, executive vice president and provost, said. “These institutes have great teams with extraordinary leaders at the helm, and I am excited about the advances they will make over the next few years.”

The Environmental Resilience Institute will seek to accelerate solutions to urgent social-environmental challenges such as coastal flooding and storm impacts in coastal regions, as well as water security. This requires collaborative research where human, natural and infrastructure systems converge and that integrates new models, sensing tools, big data, narratives, designs and behavioral research.

karen_mcglathery_11hr_da_pan-u_inline_01.jpg

UVA already has a strong multidisciplinary research department in environmental sciences, and the new institute will bring together faculty and resources there with problem-solvers in disciplines across the University to deal with big-picture, long-term environmental problems affected by societal decisions of the present.

“The pace and dimensions of environmental change are now greater than at any other time in human history,” McGlathery said. “This affects economics, security and the human condition throughout the world.”

She noted that well over half the world’s population lives along coasts and the rivers that feed them, including 11 of Earth’s 15 largest cities, which are increasingly affected by flooding, frequent storms and declining water quality.

“These are wicked problems that cannot be solved by a single discipline,” McGlathery said. “They require the kind of transdisciplinary collaboration and training that the Environmental Resilience Institute will catalyze between environmental scientists, engineers, designers, social scientists, humanists, educators, lawyers and business innovators. UVA has never been in a better position to achieve preeminence in this space – we are building on a strong faculty community in all 11 schools, new cluster hires in Arts & Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, and partnerships in the U.S. and abroad.”  

The Global Infectious Diseases Institute will catalyze transdisciplinary research to combat the most notorious and urgent infectious threats afflicting humankind, including epidemics like Ebola, untreatable “superbugs” and the diarrheal infections that kill hundreds of thousands of children around the world each year. This institute will solidify UVA’s global footprint through international partnerships and collaborations while seeking new funding for high-impact, transformative research. By promoting scholarly activity revolving around infectious diseases, the institute will educate and train the next generation of lab, social science and clinical researchers, engineers, educators, policymakers and entrepreneurs.

alison_criss_05hr_da_pan-u_inline_02.jpg

“Infectious diseases continue to wreak global havoc – the current outbreaks of Ebola in Congo and cholera in Yemen as two examples,” Criss said. “With an infectious agent a flight away from anywhere in the world, infectious diseases are inextricably linked to issues of human health as well as national security, human rights, international law, cultural practices and public health infrastructure.

“Concerted responses to global infectious threats require research and communication across traditional disciplinary lines, spanning science, engineering, medicine, social sciences, nursing, law, education and public policy. With a thriving culture of cross-Grounds collaborations and longstanding international partnerships, the UVA Global Infectious Diseases Institute is poised to have a major impact in local, national and international communities.”

Katsouleas; Phillip A. Parrish, interim vice president for research; and a committee involving vice provosts and a representative of the UVA Faculty Senate selected the two new institutes from among several proposals by faculty leaders across Grounds during an invited competitive selection process over the past several months. A team of expert reviewers from within and outside the University evaluated the ideas, and ultimately the University selected both environmental change and infectious diseases as the subjects on which to build the University’s newest institutes.

“It is our intention that these institutes will elevate UVA from prominence to preeminence in these two areas,” Katsouleas said.

The pan-University initiative is designed to distinguish the University in a handful of key areas and establish its research and educational tone for the next decade and beyond. Hundreds of current faculty members from more than a dozen departments across Grounds and from the Data Science Institute will participate in these new efforts.

“UVA’s strategy to distinguish itself through transdisciplinary research and scholarship addressing areas of critical global societal need is being further realized through the formation of these two new pan-University institutes, and positions UVA to be highly competitive in pursuit of major grant and philanthropic opportunities,” Parrish said.

The University will recognize the two new institute teams and finalists during a celebration event in the fall. At that time, a seed grants competition will open to enable faculty teams to work together toward creating the next pan-University institute.

Two University of Virginia students are spending their summer uncovering the architectural history of George Washington’s ancestral home in Sulgrave, England.

With support from UVA’s Global Internship program and the School of Architecture's Program in Historic Preservation, Jane Trask and Aisha Sawatsky, both graduate students in UVA’s School of Architecture, are finishing an internship at Sulgrave Manor, a stately but relatively modest home northwest of London where the first president’s ancestors resided for about 100 years.

The manor house was built by Lawrence Washington, George Washington’s five-times great-grandfather, who acquired the land after King Henry VIII dissolved England’s monasteries in 1539. Lawrence Washington – a prosperous wool merchant and twice mayor of nearby Northampton – his wife, and their 11 children lived there until his death, when the manor passed to his son, Robert. His descendants sold the manor in the mid-1600s, around the same time that George Washington’s great-grandfather, John, sailed for America.

After the Washingtons sold the manor, it endured through many owners and tenants, various states of disrepair and multiple renovations. Ultimately, a committee purchased it in 1914 to celebrate 100 years of Anglo-American peace following the Treaty of Ghent. Both Britons and Americans rediscovered its connection to George Washington and realized the value of preserving the president’s ancestral home.

Today, both British and American flags fly over Sulgrave Manor, which bustles with both British and foreign visitors, especially Americans. The manor’s grounds, gardens and exhibitions offer insight into the Washington family and its most famous member.

gw_ancestral_home_inline_01.jpg

Trask and Sawatsky are researching the evolution of the house from the 16th to the 21st century, led by fellow alumna Alexandra Valmarana, a 1996 architecture graduate who is a historic building conservator advising Sulgrave Manor. Another UVA alumna, Holly Smith, is on the manor’s Board of Trustees.

“The Sulgrave Manor Trust is particularly curious about what the house looked like in Tudor times,” said Sawatsky, who is pursuing a master’s of architecture with an additional certificate in historic preservation.

During their five-week stint at the manor, Sawatsky and Trask worked on a historic building assessment, using photographs and written records from the manor’s archives and their own observation of its architecture to understand the different phases of construction at Sulgrave.

“We measured and photographed the house and grounds and compared our findings with our archival research. We also visited other Tudor buildings in the region to get a sense of what Sulgrave may have looked like while the Washingtons lived there,” said Trask, who is working toward a master’s in architectural history with a certificate in historic preservation. “This has been a great opportunity to learn about many periods of architecture and construction.”

The pair presented their work at the manor’s Traditional Midsummer Tudor Fair, which included open-air performances, jousts, reenactments, archery competitions and more. Trask and Sawatsky will then turn the research over to the trust that operates the manor.

“We hope that our research will help people better understand Sulgrave Manor and its importance in American and British history,” Sawatsky said. 

uc247_1617_promo_c_ads_2.jpg

As for their own education, both Sawatsky and Trask said their experience at Sulgrave Manor – which fulfilled a requirement that graduate students in the historic preservation program complete an internship – was a great opportunity to practice what they have been learning in their classes.

“This practical application has been very valuable for me,” said Trask, who hopes to continue working in architectural history and historic preservation after she graduates next year.

Sawatsky agreed, and pointed out that working on historic homes like Sulgrave will be helpful even as she works on more modern buildings.

“Most of my work experience has been renovation and addition projects, so understanding historical construction techniques is important for me to design sensitively for what exists,” she said. “That was a big reason I was attracted to UVA’s program – because of the excellent historic preservation program and the wealth of resources of the historic campus itself.”

University of Virginia rowing head coach Kevin Sauer has been inducted into the Pocock/Collegiate Rowing Association Hall of Fame, announced June 13 during the Pocock/CRCA All-America, Coach of the Year and Hall of Fame awards show.

Sauer was honored for his major impact on the UVA rowing program. The two-time CRCA National Coach of the Year (2010 and 2012) has elevated Virginia to among the most elite rowing programs around the country.

Sauer, who completed his 22nd season at UVA this spring, guided the Cavaliers to NCAA titles in 2010 and 2012, plus 17 of the 18 Atlantic Coast Conference championships ever held and 11 NCAA top-four finishes. 

In addition, individual Cavalier boats have been crowned national champions nine times, including five times in the varsity four (2004, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2015) and three times in the second varsity eight (1998, 1999 and 2005). Sauer’s program hit another high in 2012 as the UVA varsity eight won the NCAA title for the first time and clinched the team title in the process.

“I am humbled and honored, and this reflects 40 years of hard work and great character from the student-athletes and coaches with whom I have worked,” Sauer said.

sauer_kevin_7_matt_riley_inline.jpg

Sauer was hired as the Virginia Rowing Club’s second full-time professional coach in the fall of 1988. He oversaw the direction of both the men’s and women’s club teams until the women’s team was upgraded to varsity status and began competition in the fall of 1995. Both teams thrived under Sauer, including the women’s varsity four winning the club national championship in 1995. 

Once at the varsity level, Sauer quickly built Virginia into a national powerhouse. Virginia is one of just seven schools to have claimed NCAA championships (Brown, California-Berkeley, Harvard, Ohio State, Stanford and Washington are the others) and one of four schools to compete in at least 18 NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships.

The Cavaliers have won 68 of the 75 events held at ACC regattas. Fourteen UVA crews have been named ACC Crew of the Year and Sauer has been honored as ACC Coach of the Year 11 times. Additionally, under Sauer’s tutelage, 39 student-athletes have earned 53 CRCA All-America citations and he has had 81 All-ACC selections. Virginia has had multiple All-Americans 17 years in a row and had at least one member on the first team in 18 consecutive seasons.

Landscape Architecture Society Honors Former Architecture Dean

Elizabeth K. Meyer, former dean of UVA’s School of Architecture, will receive the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal for significant and sustained excellence in landscape architecture education. 
“She is a renowned teacher whose critical thinking, student mentoring and inspiration have catalyzed outstanding practitioners across generations,” the society’s announcement said. 

Meyer, the Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture, began teaching at UVA in 1993 after holding positions at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, George Washington University and Cornell University. At UVA, she chaired the landscape architecture department three times before ascending to the deanship.

The society announced its 2017 honors recipients on June 13. Selected by the society’s board of trustees, the honors represent the highest awards it presents each year. They will be presented Oct. 23 during the 2017 ASLA Annual Meeting & EXPO in Los Angeles.

UVA Heart Failure Program Earns National Quality Awards

For working to improve patients’ recovery times and reduce readmissions, the heart failure program at the UVA Heart and Vascular Center has received two national quality awards from the American Heart Association.

uc247_1617_promo_c_ads_2.jpg

The Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Center earned the AHA’s 2017 Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and was named to the Target: Heart Failure Honor Roll.

“Each day, our multidisciplinary heart failure team is working to provide excellent care that is tailored to the needs of each patient,” said Dr. James Bergin, medical director of UVA’s heart failure/cardiac transplantation program. “It’s wonderful to see our team’s dedication recognized by the American Heart Association.”

UVA earned the awards by meeting or exceeding research-based standards designed to help heart failure patients receive the highest-quality care and recover sooner. Standards include prescribing appropriate medications, implanting devices to help improve heart function, giving flu and pneumonia vaccinations, scheduling prompt follow-up care and providing education to help patients manage their heart failure.

“These awards showcase the ability of our heart failure team to provide comprehensive, quality care for our patients,” said Pamela M. Sutton-Wallace, chief executive officer of UVA Medical Center.

UVA Honored as Center of Excellence for Bone Marrow Cancer

The UVA Cancer Center has earned recognition as a national center of excellence for its care of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer of the bone marrow that often leads to leukemia.

UVA is the only center in Virginia to receive this designation from the MDS Foundation for the treatment of this condition, which UVA hematologist Dr. Michael Keng said is often referred to as a “bone marrow failure” disorder.

Bone marrow produces stem cells that make white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. In patients with MDS, the marrow does not produce enough healthy cells. When there are not enough healthy cells, there is an increased risk of infection, bleeding, easy bruising and anemia. Approximately 30 percent of patients diagnosed with MDS will progress to a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia.

According to the MDS Foundation website, centers of excellence have:

•    An established MDS program

•    Recognized expertise in understanding the form and structure of MDS

•    Expertise in how genes and chromosomes impact MDS

•    Ongoing research, including clinical trials

•    Researchers that have published peer-reviewed articles on MDS

UVA provides tailored care for each MDS patient through a multidisciplinary team that includes medical oncologists/hematologists, pharmacists, care coordinators, nurses, infectious diseases specialists, clinical trial coordinators and support services such as social workers, case workers and therapists.

“UVA is devoted to providing support, research, treatment and education around MDS to all patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses and other health care providers,” Keng said.
 

As the University of Virginia strategically invests in expanding and enhancing its research enterprise, with the goal of doubling by 2022 the sponsored programs base from 2015 levels – the payoff is becoming apparent.

Sponsored research funding has increased for four consecutive years – including 10 percent during the 2016-17 fiscal year, to a total of $372.4 million. In 2015-16, sponsored funding was at $338 million – up 8 percent from the previous year.

“We’re on track to meet audacious institutional growth goals in research funding,” said Elizabeth Adams, assistant vice president for research administration in the Office of Sponsored Programs. “The University’s comprehensive strategy to increase the volume and diversity of research funding is proving sound.”

This year, the University is bringing in $282 million from the federal government (76 percent of the total and a 9 percent increase over last year); nearly $71 million from nonfederal sources, including foundations and industry (19 percent of total funding); and more than $19 million from state, local and foreign governments (approximately tripling funding in this category relative to the previous year’s total).

The biggest single funding source – $191 million – is from the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the National Institutes of Health, the leading funder of medical research. The National Science Foundation provides more than $27 million of the University’s sponsored funding; the Department of Defense funds nearly $24 million; the Department of Education covers more than $11 million; and the Department of Energy provides $9.5 million. Other federal agencies award more than $18 million in grants and contracts.

sponsored_research_2017_inline_01.jpg

In partnership with the University’s 11 schools, UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan, Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas C. Katsouleas, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Dr. Richard P. Shannon and the UVA Board of Visitors have in recent years committed resources toward research infrastructure improvements and faculty recruitment and retention.

“I am excited about the direction research is headed and the momentum that has been generated at the University,” said M.K. (Ram) Ramasubramanian, UVA’s new vice president for research, appointed in February. “In collaboration with the senior leadership and schools, and with Board of Visitors support, UVA is well-positioned to continue its growth in research and strengthen its position as a world-class, premiere research institution. The future is bright and I look forward to partnering with my colleagues across Grounds to move the research vision forward.”

The Board of Visitors’ Strategic Investment Fund is supporting multi-disciplinary and multi-school research initiatives, as well as infrastructure support, such as for computing and capital equipment, among other initiatives to enhance the research/education connection at the University. With the Strategic Investment Fund, the University also has created modern laboratory spaces, while increasing support staff and investing in an internally developed software platform, ResearchUVA, designed to efficiently transact business and analyze data related to sponsored programs.

“These SIF investments are designed to enhance the University and to bring in new funding from multiple sources for societally important research,” said Jeffrey Blank, associate vice president for research. “Along with medical and engineering research, we are looking to include the humanities, social sciences and the arts. We want to be proactive, looking ahead to where new collaborative opportunities lie.”

sponsored_research_2017_inline_02.jpg

One way to promote and expedite this effort runs through UVA’s Data Science Institute, established three years ago as part of the Cornerstone Plan. The institute facilitates multidisciplinary, data-intensive studies across schools and in conjunction with other institutes and centers that bring understanding to how complex systems work, such as the ways societies interact with environments and each other.

The University’s investment also includes “cluster” hires of faculty members who can tap into a range of funding sources through their ability to collaborate across academic units and fields.

“Increasingly, research funding is awarded to teams of researchers working together to tackle big problems that cannot be studied by individuals working alone,” Blank said. “By broadening our scope and putting together teams of researchers, we can become highly competitive in a hyper-competitive national funding environment. Increasingly, we also are teaming up with other institutions in the commonwealth, sharing resources, to increase research capacity.”

Two years ago, the Office of the Vice President for Research established ResearchNet, a cross-Grounds initiative to assist faculty in developing research collaborations and in discovering external funding opportunities. ResearchNet also provides support for proposal preparation on large, multidisciplinary projects.

“Seed funding mechanisms at the University allow researchers to strengthen their internal collaborations and develop preliminary data to strengthen extramural funding applications,” Adams said. “We’re also working on institutional strategy to diversify our nonfederal and federal portfolios, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Transportation. And we’re trying to encourage all schools, centers and institutes to play a larger role in the research mission of the University.”

The strategy includes the recent establishment of three new pan-University institutes, each of which leverages the Data Science Institute’s resources – the UVA Brain Institute, devoted to multi-faceted explorations into the workings of the brain and its diseases; the Global Infectious Diseases Institute, which is delving into ways to alleviate the spread of infectious diseases; and the Environmental Resilience Institute, which takes multi-pronged approaches to understanding how societies and the environment interact. All of these areas are ripe for new funding as resources and ideas are shared in new collaborations, Blank and Adams said.

“Leading the research in these critical areas has real impact at UVA, helping us in getting recognized as a premiere research institution, as well as having broader societal and economic impacts,” Adams said. “It helps us recruit world-class faculty, attract top graduate and undergraduate students, and the outcomes of this research will have a positive ripple effect across the commonwealth, the nation and the world.”

uc247_1617_promo_c_ads_1.jpg

On Sept. 30, a unique public-private partnership will present a daylong community conversation around the coming driverless car age’s impacts on Charlottesville and other small to mid-sized cities around the country, paired with an opportunity for attendees to experience live autonomous vehicle demonstrations.

The event, “The Driverless Future: Asking the Big Questions,” will be held at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., and is free and open to the public. UVA, the City of Charlottesville and the Virginia Autonomous Systems Center of Excellence, established by the governor in May, are organizing the presentations.

The program will bring together Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, Virginia Secretary of Technology Karen Jackson, UVA Executive Vice President and Provost Tom Katsouleas, Perrone Robotics Inc. CEO Paul Perrone and experts from around Grounds and across the country for an examination of how the quickly emerging driverless technology will transform the ways in which small and medium-sized cities like Charlottesville will function, while considering what can be done to enhance the benefits and lessen the negative impacts of the transition for people across the economic spectrum.

Billed as a community conversation rather than an academic conference, the event will feature a series of hourlong discussions throughout the day built around key questions, including:

• How will this future impact the physical design of small and large cities and their surrounding regions?
• What is the future impact of this technology on human well-being, and how can public policy address or enhance these impacts?
• What will be the impact on our general quality of life?
• How will autonomous vehicles impact private and public transportation systems?
• How can we best prepare the economically disenfranchised for this transition?

“Thus far,” Katsouleas said, “much of the research emphasis and resources on this issue have been put toward looking at the impacts on larger cities and their surrounding regions. Charlottesville, a small city with a progressive ethos, represents an extraordinary opportunity for us to work with our partners at the state level and in the city government here to look at the various ways this coming technological revolution will impact our cities – not only physically, but socially as well.”

“Innovation and technology are at the heart of what makes Virginia such an exciting place to live and to work today,” McAuliffe said. “This new technology promises to transform our lives in many positive ways, from providing easier access to health care services, to reducing accidents and offering easier access to healthy foods. I look forward to joining this important community conversation, which will be an invaluable tool as we look to support this industry and drive innovation in our new Virginia economy.”

“With roots in both Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, we couldn’t be more pleased to help bring a sense of the possibilities to this meeting,” said Paul Perrone, CEO and founder of Perrone Robotics Inc. “While our technology is coming together quickly, these broader community issues must be addressed for driverless vehicles to succeed, and therefore we look forward to participating in this conversation and many more ahead.”

Signer said the event’s questions represent “incredibly important issues for our community moving forward.

uc247_1617_promo_c_ads_1.jpg

“The advent of this new technological era will change the way we live and the way we work, and we have a collective responsibility to ensure that all of our citizens are prepared and positioned to thrive,” he said.

Toward that end, the University and city officials are already working on a collaborative, predictive investigation to examine shifts in jobs and the provision of public health in Charlottesville, with a goal of creating job-training programs that might prepare those dependent on hourly wage jobs for autonomous vehicle-related jobs.

Other planned collaborative efforts will focus on forecasting the policy and infrastructure changes required to realize health, well-being and economic benefits throughout the community. Meanwhile the city has already been providing UVA researchers with key transportation data that can make Charlottesville an important research site in what will be a critically important national conversation.

Attendees will also have a chance to observe and experience the driverless car revolution for themselves, thanks to live demonstrations provided by Perrone Robotics, which will have several autonomous vehicles running throughout the day on a closed loop on UVA Grounds.

Event organizers are committed to making this event as inclusive as possible. Interested parties who require accessibility accommodations should contact Amy Stoops at amys@virginia.edu or 434-924-6815 by Sept. 22.

For information and a full schedule of the events, click here.

In the summer of 2016, dozens of school teachers from around the country came to Charlottesville for a series of workshops to learn new ways to teach about one of America’s most cherished – and controversial – founding fathers.

Led by Lisa Reilly, an associate professor of architectural history at the University of Virginia, the workshops delved into the contradictions and complexities of Thomas Jefferson and the ways that teachers can bring those topics into the classroom.

It was such a success that in August, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Reilly a $157,956 grant to create a two-week teachers’ institute using the same model.

“Thomas Jefferson: The Public and Private Worlds of Monticello and the University of Virginia,” will bring teachers from across the United States to Charlottesville to learn more about the Thomas Jefferson’s multi-faceted life, both at Monticello and the University. It will offer access to the extensive records Jefferson kept throughout his life, including working records of Monticello and UVA’s founding, as well as his architectural designs. Next year’s program will take place from July 8 to 20.

The institute, offered by UVA’s Center for Liberal Arts, offers educators a hands-on approach to history and an in-depth perspective they can take back to their schools. UVA Today recently caught up with Reilly to find out more about this unique opportunity and how it will help bring primary historical sources to classrooms across America.

Q.  What is the purpose behind your new project, “The Public and Private Worlds of Monticello and the University of Virginia?” 

A. The project seeks to bring K-12 school teachers together with some of the foremost scholars on Thomas Jefferson in a two-week institute during the summer of 2018. This institute will provide teachers with an on-site introduction to Thomas Jefferson’s writings, architecture, and other evidence of material culture, with the goal of establishing a full and complex narrative of the life of not only Jefferson, but those who inhabited the Monticello and University communities.

By reading for themselves the evidence that can inform our understanding of Jefferson and his private and public realms, participants will be better equipped to teach the process of reading and understanding both textual and material primary sources, and to evaluate them within a larger historical context. It will also introduce the teachers to digital tools they can use in their classrooms so their students can work with primary sources. 

Q. What are some of the unique learning experiences that teachers will have through the institute?

A. Throughout the institute, teachers will get to collect data from Jefferson’s primary sources as they relate to one of five central themes: women, enslaved people, education, landscape and architecture.

So when looking at Jefferson’s Farm Book, for example, some teachers might analyze its contents in terms of what it meant for women, while others might look at the book’s implications for enslaved people. At the end of the program, they will create a digital project based on their respective themes, which they can later access and share with students in their classrooms.

They will also spend some time with the archeological team, visiting excavations, analyzing sources such as Jefferson’s papers, and visiting UVA’s Special Collections library to research how students, families and enslaved people lived during Jefferson’s time. So we want to give teachers a better picture of the larger community and not just Jefferson himself. 

Q. In what ways will next year’s program format differ from last year’s?

A. In the summer of 2016, we did two one-week summer workshops that were similar to this. However, the NEH is not offering that format for the summer of 2018, but encouraged us to apply for a summer institute.

uc247_1617_promo_c_ads_1.jpg

In a summer institute, 25 K-12 teachers from across the United States come together for two weeks to explore a topic in depth. Part of the feedback we received from the highly successful 2016 workshops was that participants wished that the workshops were longer, offering them the opportunity to go more in-depth and to meet with some of the speakers more than once, as well to visit Poplar Forest. We have also included some new speakers such as Niya Bates, a double-’Hoo who now works at Monticello as the public historian of slavery and African-American life; we will also have Elgin Cleckley, a new faculty member at the School of Architecture who is developing an exhibition about African-American history at the University.

Q. What inspired you to create this program?

A. I have done several programs for teachers over the years, including a previous NEH workshop through the Center for the Liberal Arts at the University which I have found very rewarding.  Teachers make great students; they are very engaged and passionate about learning.

So when Professor Bonnie Hagerman, then working as associate director for the Center for the Liberal Arts, contacted me about doing another NEH program, I jumped at the opportunity. The NEH workshop series emphasized learning on site about American history, so Monticello and the University seemed like natural venues for such a program.

Q. What do you think teachers will take away from the upcoming institute?

A. I think the teachers will come away with a richer, more nuanced and more complex understanding of both Jefferson and life on a 19^th-century Virginia plantation, as well as slavery.

I have received many emails from past participants telling me how participation in the workshops of 2016 transformed their teaching and allowed their students to engage more directly with the material.

Q. In what ways has the NEH grant made a difference in your program?

A. The NEH grant is what makes the program possible – it is an NEH program, and we could not do it without their funding and support. For a relatively small financial outlay, we reach both the participants in the program and then all of their colleagues and students at their home institutions. It has quite ripple effect. 

Landscape architect and University of Virginia alumna Kate Orff has officially earned the right to call herself a genius.

Orff is one of 24 promising professionals to receive a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship – colloquially known as “genius grants.” The prestigious fellowships, announced Tuesday by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, honor exceptionally talented and creative leaders in a variety of fields. Each fellow receives a $625,000, no-strings-attached grant to further his or her work.

Orff is the first landscape architect to receive the honor. Other members of the UVA faculty who have received MacArthur Fellowships include then-English Professor Deborah Eisenberg in 2009; Terry Belanger, University Professor emeritus, former director of the Rare Book School, 2005; Janine Jagger, epidemiologist and research professor of neurosurgery, 2002; and Brooks Pate, professor of chemistry, 2001.

“I was shocked and deeply honored. It’s amazing to be named a MacArthur Fellow and to be asked to raise the game even higher,” Orff said, writing from Amman, Jordan, where she is currently conducting research. “I am thrilled to be the first landscape architect, but I am also pretty sure there will be many more to come. Creative, political landscape practice is becoming more and more critical to the future of humanity and the planet.”

Orff, who played on the women’s lacrosse team at UVA, graduated in 1993 with a degree in political and social thought. She also took as many classes as she could in the School of Architecture and earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard University in 1997. She has returned to UVA several times since graduating, including as the School of Architecture’s Howland Memorial Lecturer in 2012.

She credited the interdisciplinary education she pursued on Grounds as a significant influence in her career.

“It was great training to become a practitioner,” she said, speaking to UVA Today about her work in the spring. “I got to pursue my interests in politics, ecology and environmental science, and bring all of those to bear on my career as a landscape architect.”

kate_orff_macarthur_genius_grant_inline_02.jpg

Orff founded her own landscape architecture and urban design firm, SCAPE, in 2007. Among many other projects, the firm has played a key role in efforts to boost New York’s resilience and reduce risk in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Its Living Breakwaters project, one of six winning proposals in the Rebuild by Design competition launched by the Department of Housing and Urban Development after Sandy’s devastation, is revitalizing Staten Island’s southern shore and preparing that vulnerable landscape for future storms.

Rather than building more bulkheads and walls – which displace water to other areas, block views and reduce the shoreline’s usability – the Living Breakwaters project combines offshore breakwaters, designed to provide a habitat for oysters and small fish, with onshore dunes and a robust public education program.

The layered approach helps to prevent wave damage and coastal erosion while keeping the shoreline beautiful and accessible for Staten Island residents and protecting marine life.

“In the era of climate change, we have more frequent and less predictable storms,” Orff said. “We absolutely have to think differently about the relationship between cities and water, and be proactive about not only planning for resilient communities, but planning to rebuild ecological systems.”

Other SCAPE projects highlighted by the MacArthur Foundation include the Town Branch Commons project in Lexington, Kentucky, which is revitalizing Town Brach Creek – currently buried among downtown streets – to create a 2.5-mile network of trails, parks, pools and stormwater management systems. The project exemplifies her signature combination of landscape architecture, conservation and community education.

“Orff’s resourceful design approach calls attention to the most distinctive natural attributes of a given place, while her collaborations and community outreach strategies extend the boundaries of traditional landscape architecture,” the foundation wrote in an announcement of her selection.

Orff is also an accomplished author. She published “Toward an Urban Ecology” in 2016 and co-edited “Gateway: Visions for an Urban National Park,” about the Gateway National Recreation Area spreading across Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey, in 2011. In 2012, she partnered with photographer Richard Misrach for a two-part book, “Petrochemical America,” documenting economic, environmental and public health issues due to intense chemical production along a stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to New Orleans.

The variety of Orff’s work, paired with her continued to commitment to finding solutions that benefit the community and the natural environment, set her apart, according to landscape architecture professor Beth Meyer.

“Through Kate’s practice as a landscape architect, she imaginatively addresses the most pressing socio-ecological challenges of contemporary urbanization, from the loss of wildlife habitat to rising sea levels,” Meyer said. “She has re-conceived the public in ‘public space’ to include non-human as well as human life, and in doing so she has formed new links between urban design, landscape ecology and landscape architecture.

“For all of these reasons, it is fitting that she is the first landscape architect to be selected as a MacArthur Fellow,” Meyer said.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is putting on a show this weekend – and not just on the football field.

Students and faculty members from the University of Virginia and 14 other ACC schools are headed to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. for the inaugural ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival, celebrating innovation in science, engineering, art and design.

The festival, presented by Virginia Tech and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Visitors can explore 48 interactive exhibits highlighting compelling research from each ACC member school and attend panel discussions and performances.

UVA students and faculty will present four projects and one performance, including exhibits about robotic manta rays, water filtration systems powered by silver nanoparticles, a large interdisciplinary project to clean up New Delhi’s Yamuna River, and an interactive display tracking the carbon footprint of social media.

“The visibility of this national stage will bring a lot of great attention to our research efforts here,” said William Sherman, UVA’s associate vice president for research in design, arts and the humanities. “The general public is not always aware of everything that goes on at a university, so it’s great to see schools come together to lift public perception of what universities are about and how they contribute to society.”

Learn more about the exciting projects representing UVA:

Mantabot

Engineers in UVA’s Bio-Inspired Engineering Research Laboratory, led by mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Hilary Bart-Smith, have built an “autonomous underwater vehicle” that looks and swims like a ray.

mantabot_cg_accelerate_inline_01.jpg

The team created 3-D models of real rays to study how they move efficiently through the water and used a 3-D printer to render those models in plastic and silicone components that comprise the “Mantabot.” Tiny motors, with about four hours of battery life, power the graceful motion of the ray’s wings and tail.

Researchers hope the mechanical rays, which are outfitted with cameras, can gather data in situations untenable for human divers, such as shipwrecks. They also want to make the technology more affordable. The current model costs less than $1,000 and other underwater vehicles that are currently being developed in the lab could be under $100.

“Many underwater vehicles like this are very expensive,” said research scientist Joseph Zhu, one of the engineers working on the Mantabot project. “We want to build one that is more cost-effective.” 

PureMadi

PureMadi is a not-for-profit organization that collaborates with local citizens in South Africa to produce affordable water filters for villages and homes. UVA civil and environmental engineering professor and PureMadi director James Smith started the project in 2011 with Rebecca Dillingham, director of UVA’s Center for Global Health.

jim_smith_puremadi_accelerate_inline_02.jpg

PureMadi’s ceramic filters, invented at UVA, use silver nanoparticles to purify water. Teams of faculty members and students have visited South Africa to develop two fully functional ceramic water filter facilities, help local laborers produce filters and teach primary school students about water sanitation and health.

“After this event, we hope more people will know about what we are doing at UVA to address the global water crisis,” said alumna Thy Nguyen, who got involved with PureMadi as a student and is now on the project’s leadership team. “I also hope the festival will inspire students to utilize science, engineering, art and design to address significant local and global problems for the benefit of the human community.”

#CarbonFeed

A single tweet generates an estimated 0.02 grams of carbon dioxide. Data centers worldwide – which support all of that tweeting and online activity – emit enough CO2 to fill a 10,000-square-foot mansion every second.

carbonfeed_inline_03.jpg

The #CarbonFeed project, based at UVA and funded by the Jefferson Trust, uses these statistics and other research in interactive exhibitions that turn tweets into sounds and movements. Friday’s exhibition will feature six water-filled tubes based on different Twitter hashtags. Anytime anyone in the world tweets using that hashtag, the exhibit’s software will release a bubble in the tube, representing CO2 released into the environment.

“We had the exhibit installed in a Portland museum during a debate in the Democratic presidential primary,” UVA doctoral student and #CarbonFeed co-founder Jon Bellona said. “All of the activity on Bernie Sanders’ hashtag – #FeeltheBern – had water exploding out of the tube.”

Bellona, who collaborated with his brother, David Bellona, and artist John Park on the project, emphasized that it’s not intended to discourage online activity, but to promote informed decision-making.

“We know how much a coffee costs; we know how much a house costs; but we don’t know as much about what our online behaviors cost,” he said. “We want to educate people about the physical infrastructure that supports what we do online and put those costs in real terms.”

The Yamuna River Project

The Yamuna River near India’s capital city, New Delhi, once was an important waterway for the city of 25 million, but has suffered from tremendous pollution, becoming an outlet for as much as 58 percent of New Delhi’s waste.

yamuna_river_project_accelerate_inline_04.jpg

The Yamuna River Project, based in UVA’s School of Architecture, aims to drastically reduce that percentage and restore the Yamuna as an environmental and cultural centerpiece of the city. Faculty and students in several departments are working with officials in India to reduce pollution in the river’s main tributaries, plan public spaces along the riverbank and create the city’s first planning department dedicated to water resources.

“It is such a big, complex problem, and a platform that needs the participation of many people and groups,” co-director and architecture professor Inaki Alday said. “We are looking forward to participating in the festival to raise awareness and curiosity among the public and connect with other researchers there.”

“The Ceiling Floats Away”

Matthew Burtner, a professor of composition and computer technologies and the chair of UVA’s McIntire Department of Music, will present an interactive composition, “The Ceiling Floats Away,” accompanied by a professional quintet. The Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble, or MICE, that Burtner leads with 10 UVA students also will perform during a reception Saturday night.

ode_to_glass_ss_ceiling_floats_away_accelerate_inline_05.jpg

“The Ceiling Floats Away” features poetry by UVA English professor and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. Burtner and his team have created a software system, NOMAD, that layers Dove’s voice with other sounds while also bringing in audience responses in real time, as viewers text in their reactions to different verses or write their own poetry.

“The database can compare words from something that an audience member texts in and construct responses from the poet,” Burtner said. “It essentially listens to what the audience says and responds in Rita’s voice in real time.”

The University of Virginia’s new Global Infectious Diseases Institute recently held its first working meeting, which brought together its discipline-diverse membership to discuss ways to tackle some of the biggest health issues and problems facing society worldwide.

During the symposium, institute director Alison Criss, a microbiology professor, announced a call for proposals for collaborative research seed and planning grants. Projects funded under those grants will bring together multiple UVA researchers as teams to answer pressing challenges in the realm of global infectious diseases, using multi-disciplinary approaches that could not be accomplished by individual investigators.

“The goal is to develop projects that will be highly competitive for obtaining substantial external funding, and that will provide real solutions to serious global infectious challenges,” Criss said. “The research should be transformative and differentiating for the University.”

Grant-winning teams will be composed of researchers in disciplines including the basic sciences, medical clinicians, computational modelers, and social science and policy investigators. Research seed grants, in the amount of $100,000 each, will support the efforts of newly established teams to gain preliminary data that could encourage major multi-year external funding. Additionally, “Proposal Planning Grants” of $50,000 each will go to teams that already have gathered preliminary data and are prepared to begin submitting multi-investigator, multi-year proposals for high-level external funding.

Criss asked institute members to submit their seed grant proposals by Jan. 15, with awardees to be announced March 15. The planning grant proposals are due by March 1, with recipients to be announced May 1.

Meeting participants formed into groups at separate tables to discuss scenarios for handling emerging global infectious disease challenges. Challenges included: identifying ways to predict pandemic threats that may be associated with trade along China’s planned “New Silk Road”; stemming outbreaks of a drug-resistant diarrheal disease in Sierra Leone; controlling outbreaks of infectious disease in nursing facilities; and stopping the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogen strains.

uc162_1617_rotunda_c.jpg

“We challenged each other to think beyond our own areas of expertise and to bridge the terminology divide between our many disciplines,” said Linda Columbus, a chemistry professor and the associate director of the Global Infectious Diseases Institute, “and we encouraged ourselves to have fun getting to know each other as we together approach solutions to highly challenging, big-picture global health issues.”

UVA established the institute in July. It currently includes 106 members from eight schools, and anyone interested is invited to join. It operates on $2 million in University-provided seed funding, and is one of four institutes created by the University in the last few years, each designed to address major societal challenges.

The intent of the Global Infectious Diseases Institute is to stimulate and facilitate trans-disciplinary activities across Grounds in global infectious diseases research, scholarship and education. The institute is working to establish and further partnerships beyond the University, including internationally, with these efforts focused on obtaining large external grants. It is initially focusing on possible pandemics, diarrheal diseases affecting children, and drug-resistant pathogens.

“It was inspiring to see how researchers from different departments across Grounds engaged with each other at the retreat,” Criss said. “The participants were enthusiastic for the scenarios we presented and the opportunity to learn about each others’ research interests. The institute is now developing ways to help turn the connections made at the retreat into new collaborations and opportunities for seed grants. I’m excited to see how these projects develop.”

Datapalooza 2017, a daylong event dedicated to bringing insight to data science activities and issues at the University of Virginia and beyond, will this Friday feature keynote addresses by leading “big data” experts from Google, the New York Times and Elder Research.

Also featured will be data analytics panels, research highlights from across Grounds and a unique real-time data visualization project aimed at showing the diversity of data collaborations around UVA. This year’s event will showcase initiatives, research, resources, services and outreach at the University, all centered around the compilation and analysis of large data sets.

The real-time data visualization project was facilitated by Eric Field, lecturer and director of information technology for the School of Architecture. Using a program he created, attendees each will receive a unique identification number on their name tag, and can connect on their smartphone with other attendees throughout the event. A screen will show the connections being made across categories like student, industry and resource as the day progresses.

dsi_inline.jpg

Keynote speakers include John Elder, founder and chair of Elder Research; Mary Jo Madda, creative strategy manager for Code Next at Google; and Chris Wiggins, chief data scientist at the New York Times.

Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Bill Hazel will introduce research highlights from across Grounds, and UVA Executive Vice President and Provost Tom Katsouleas will help kick off the daylong event. A variety of researchers, government agency officials and industry experts will participate in panels on health care, business and social media analytics and data visualization.

“Datapalooza is a celebration of what UVA has accomplished in data science and a window on what is to come,” Data Science Institute Director Philip Bourne said. “The Data Science Institute, which as the first pan-university institute at UVA, sits at the nexus of collaborative partnerships in data analytics research and education which will define the economy and wellbeing of the Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond in years to come.”

The day of data science will be held at Newcomb Hall, beginning at 8 a.m. with registration and breakfast. It will include presentations from morning through noon, afternoon panels, and then conclude with a closing keynote and reception.

At 9 a.m., Elder, who leads Elder Research, a major data sciences consultancy, will speak on issues he’s come across in more than 22 years of data science consulting and breakthroughs in the field that solved them. He is co-author of award-winning books on data mining, ensembles and text mining and the discoverer of ensemble methods in data science; chairs international conferences; and is a popular keynote speaker. He also serves occasionally as an adjunct professor in UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and has served on a panel appointed by President George W. Bush to guide national security technology.

At 10:30 a.m., Hazel will introduce a session highlighting data science research at UVA.

At noon, Madda will speak about expanding opportunities in tech and education to empower the next generation of tech leaders from underrepresented communities. She is an educator who works to create free computer science education programs for black and Latino/Hispanic students for the Code Next team at Google. She joined the firm after four years at edtech news organization EdSurge, where she was the director of audience development and a senior editor. She was featured on the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for 2016 for her work at EdSurge, and has presented at TEDx Chicago, SXSWedu and Stanford University.

At 4 p.m., Wiggins, a professor of applied mathematics and applied physics at Columbia University, will discuss data science in the rapidly evolving media industry and the ways people create and consume content. He is a member of Columbia’s Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, a founding member of its Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, and co-founder of hackNY, an organization aiming to federate the next generation of hackers for the New York innovation community.

Bourne will follow Wiggins’s talk with a question and answer session.

For the full schedule, and to register, click here.

The event is sponsored by the Data Science Institute and UVA’s offices of the Vice President for Information Technology and the Vice President for Research.

On Friday, the University of Virginia unveiled a University Remembrance Garden honoring students who have died during their time at UVA.

The garden, located between Newcomb Hall and Clemons Library, represents years of work by students, administrators and community members who secured funding and designed the site. The site was designed and constructed with local funds, not tuition or state funding.

Those efforts began more than a decade ago as a class project in the School of Architecture, where students in Nancy Takahashi’s landscape architecture class created their own designs for a remembrance garden on Grounds. The designs eventually made their way to Student Council’s Building and Grounds Committee, which added the garden to its growing to-do list.

rememberance_wall_07hr_da_inline.jpg

Sadly, a tragedy propelled the garden to the top of that list: the 2014 murder of second-year student Hannah Graham made the need for a remembrance garden all too clear.

Students put together a temporary memorial to Graham near Newcomb Hall, with flowers, candles and skis – a nod to her dedication to UVA’s Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team. However, Student Council members realized that having a specific space for such memorials would be helpful.

“We wanted to have a more permanent space ready,” said 2017 School of Architecture graduate Daniel McGovern, who was on the Building and Grounds Committee at the time. “It is a difficult, morbid issue to talk about, but UVA is a community of thousands of people, and unfortunately tragedies do happen.”

McGovern; Caroline Herre, a student representative on UVA’s Arboretum and Landscape Committee; and other students worked closely with UVA’s Facilities Management division and landscape architecture firm Rhodeside & Harwell to design the garden unveiled Friday. They raised funds, wrote grant proposals and surveyed more than 250 students to fine-tune their design requirements.

“We tried to make the process behind the design as inclusive as we could,” said Herre, who earned a master’s degree in urban planning in May and now works in Washington, D.C. “I had close friends pass away while I was a student, so I was very keen on this idea.”

The final design includes a prominent Remembrance Wall, where students can write tributes and place memorials for classmates; a small plaza with a large curving concrete bench; and a more secluded back garden, featuring shaded benches and plenty of greenery. The back wall includes two items that were already at the site: a plaque commemorating deceased students, donated by the UVA Parents Fund years ago, and a bench donated by the family of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, the only UVA alumnus killed in the Iraq War.

“While we never want to lose a member of our community, we hope this will be a place for the entire University – not only for remembrance, but for thought, reflection and expression,” Facilities Management Project Services Director Mark Stanis said when unveiling the site Friday.

Each element was chosen to give the small courtyard a sense of place that would draw people in.

“This space sits on a northwest path that connects a lot of other important student spaces like Clemons Library and Newcomb Terrace, but it was not a well-defined space, or particularly inviting,” said Helen Wilson, a senior landscape architect in the Office of the Architect. “Now, it fills a need for a more contemplative space alongside other more social spaces.”

Rhodeside & Harwell did the final design, with engineering by Dewberry Engineers and construction by UVA Facilities Management and Faulconer Construction Company. Fine Concrete, a design firm co-founded by UVA architecture professor Alexander Kitchin and Nicole Sherman, designed the Remembrance Wall and connected bench.

McGovern, who accepted a job offer at Fine Concrete after graduating, said the design team debated inscribing the names of deceased students on the Remembrance Wall, but ultimately decided to keep it blank to avoid inadvertent omissions and leave as much space as possible for students to write their own messages.

“We wanted the garden to work just as well 50 years from now as it does today,” he said.

They also wanted the garden to be a welcoming space, both for students grieving the loss of their classmates and for students coping with other issues and in need of a quiet spot.

“My hope is that students see this as a place they can go not just to remember a classmate, but to deal with anything going on in their lives, to have a quiet moment to themselves,” Herre said. “I like that the space is flexible, while still dedicated to remembering fellow Wahoos.”

Current Student Council President Sarah Kenny called the new garden “a significant addition to Grounds that Student Council members have been working toward for several years now.”

“I can imagine few things more tragic than a young adult with a world full of opportunity ahead of them losing their life,” she said. “This garden will provide their classmates, faculty and loved ones with an interactive space to keep the flame of their memory alive. … It sits at the heart of University student life, where we can now ensure the legacies of those we have lost will continue to burn bright.”