Announcing the Future of Work in Health Faculty Fellows Program

I’m please to announce the launch of the Future of Work in Health Faculty Fellows Program – a close collaboration between the Center for Future Work Places and Practices (CFWPP) and the Destination Areas (DA) 2.0 Smart Healthcare Hub (SHH).

This new initiative offers Virginia Tech early- and mid-career faculty a unique opportunity to:

Advance their research in close collaboration with one of the Smart Healthcare Hub teams.
Receive mentorship from senior faculty across CFWPP and the SHH.
Access cutting-edge research infrastructure accessible to the SHH at the Virginia Tech–Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke.
Contribute to shaping the future of healthcare work and technology.

The Smart Healthcare Hub is advancing research at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and human-centered systems, with focus areas in:

AI as a tool for human-centered healthcare delivery
Healthcare data privacy and cybersecurity
Immersive simulation and gaming as a tool for clinical training and patient learning
The development of a Naturalistic Clinical Interaction Database (NCID)

Aligned with these themes, the CFWPP brings together technology, design, policy, and economics to explore the future of work, workplaces, and processes, with an emphasis on workforce development, responsible use of technology at work, and sustainable, health-focused work environments.

Program Benefits

$10,000 in overhead funds (for course buyout, summer salary, graduate student support, equipment, etc.)
Formal engagement with SHH research teams and CFWPP leadership
Engagement in the 2026 AI and Health Conference at Virginia Tech’s Academic Building One in Alexandria
Support to pursue external funding and expand research impact

Eligibility & Application

The program seeks early- and mid-career Virginia Tech faculty eager to apply their disciplinary expertise to healthcare and the future of work. Priority will be given to proposals with strong potential for external funding, scholarly recognition, and broader impact. Applicants must submit:

A 3-page proposal (using the template provided)
A CV (maximum 4 pages)

Deadline: November 30, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET

Submit via this Google Form

Generative AI for High School Innovators

I’m pleased to announce the Center for Future Work Places and Practices (CFWPP) will be running a new two-week course this summer for high school students, entitled “From Data to Generative AI: A Journey through Machine Learning.”

This course is designed for students in Grades 9–12. No prior experience in coding or artificial intelligence is required—just bring your curiosity and enthusiasm.

Win a Scholarship! Essay Contest for VA Students

Virginia high school students in grades 9-11 are invited to participate in an essay contest exploring AI’s future!

Theme: How AI is shaping society, education, work, or ethics
Length: 800-1,000 words
Prize: Five (5) winners will receive a full scholarship to this summer school!
Deadline: June 20, 2025
Award Notification: June 30, 2025
Submit: Essay + CV to vtcfwpp@gmail.com

What Student Will Learn

Understand how generative AI works – from neural networks to transformers like GPT and DALL·E.
Create content with AI tools – use platforms like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Llama to write stories, design graphics, and generate music.
Analyze ethical and social implications – explore bias, misinformation, creativity, authorship, and responsible AI use.
Develop your own AI mini-project – pitch and present a creative application of generative AI to solve a real-world problem or express a unique idea.
Build foundational knowledge in machine learning concepts like training data, model outputs, and prompt engineering.

Agenda/Schedule (July, 2025)

Week 1: Foundations of Machine Learning and AI
Session 1: Introduction to AI and Machine Learning
Session 2: How Machines Learn
Session 3: Data in Machine Learning
Session 4: Machine Learning with AWS
Session 5: Building Our First ML Model

Week 2: Generative AI and more
Session 6: Introduction to Generative AI
Session 7: Neural Networks and Deep Learning
Session 8: Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Session 9: Ethics and Societal Impact of AI
Session 10: Capstone Project and Showcase

Prerequisites: Curious, open to learning, comfortable with basic use of computers.

Tuition Fees: In-State: $400, Out-of-State: $1000

Women in High Tech: Upskilling in the Era of Gen AI

The next installment of the Center for Future Work Places and Practices’s (CFWPP’s) Women in the Future of Work speaker series will be happening on Friday, November 15, from 3-4pm in Pamplin, Room 1045.

Please join us to hear Dr. Sreyoshi Bhaduri present on “Women in High Tech: Upskilling in the Era of Gen AI.”

Dr. Bhaduri is a Senior Research Scientist at Amazon with over 10 years of experience in mixed-methods research. She is a Founding Fellow of the Aula Fellowship for Artificial Intelligence and champion of democratizing emerging tech in the ever changing and interconnected workforce and broader society. Dr. Bhaduri’s recent recognitions include the Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE’s) Distinguished New Engineer award (2024) and the Amazon Tech Innovator award (2024). In 2022, Dr. Bhaduri was named on the SWE’s list of Women Engineers You Should Know.

2024 CFWPP Summer Research Award Recipients

Meet the Center for Future Work Places and Practices (CFWPP) 2024 Summer Research Award Recipients – Sakshi Taori, Mary Frazier, Yuxuan Guo, and Zeyuan Hou – who shared the findings from their summer research with the center earlier this week.

Symposium on the Human-Centered Future of Work

Registration for the VT Center for Future Work Places and Practices (CFWPP) Symposium on the Human-Centered Future of Work is now open.

When: 8:30am-4:30pm, Friday, Nov 3, 2023

Where: North End Center 2420, Virginia Tech 300 Turner St. NW, Blacksburg. A Zoom connection is available for those unable to attend in person.

Video of the Center Launch

Please find below the recording of the launch of the new Virginia Tech Center for the Future of Work Places and Practices.

Here is a link to the slides used in the presentation.

Moss Arts Center – Open House

This afternoon, I wore my Google Glass device to the open house for VT’s new, and I must say rather amazing, Moss Arts Center. The 150,000-square-foot facility is designed to bring creativity, art, and technology together under one roof. The facility has a 1,260-seat performance hall, visual arts galleries, amphitheater, four-story experimental Cube, and multiple studios. The potential of this facility is immense and I’m already thinking about one or two new collaborations in the area of policy informatics that such a facility will enable.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While walking around the open house, I had the opportunity to speak with Ben Knapp, the Director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT). Ben was one of three colleagues who I recently invited to join the VT Google Glass team. The team now consists of Peter Sforza, Brian Mathews, Tom Sanchez, Troy Abel, Ico Bukvic, Ben Knapp, and myself. [If the Glass XE team is reading this post, I have another three colleagues waiting in the wings to join our growing team of explorers 😉 One of these individuals is shown in the second video below.] While talking with Ben, we discussed how his research into the study of human emotion could be linked to my use of Glass in the classroom. There is a ‘hint’ of this new Glass application in the video below. With the addition of an Android/Glass programmer to our team in the near future, I’m keen to see how we can turn this idea/concept into a testable platform.

I first came across Google Glass while undertaking a New Media seminar at Virginia Tech. One of the great things about the seminar was getting to know faculty from across the university. One of my fellow seminarians was Joycelyn Wilson, who I also met during the open house. I asked Joycelyn to say a few words about her digital archiving project in which she is working to document over 4,000 vinyl records among other music-related items. During the video below, I asked Joycelyn how she would use Glass if I were given an additional three Glass invitations.