Message from the Department Head: Greetings, I write this in the quiet time between Christmas and New Year’s. I do not know if the Hokies will win their bowl game, but I do know this will be the 24th consecutive bowl appearance for Virginia Tech, the longest active streak in the nation (update: They won!). Go Hokies! I hope you will enjoy reading about the many changes, accomplishments, and success of our students, staff, and faculty. One of the new buildings on campus is a Classroom Building that opened August 2016. The $42 million, 73,400-square-foot building contains 15 state-of-the-art classrooms and four interdisciplinary teaching laboratories with seats for more than 1,450 students, as well as study rooms and group meeting space. The new learning spaces are designed to support increasingly interactive and technology-driven learning experiences. The classrooms have features that include moveable furnishings, wall-mounted writing spaces, and multiple screens for projecting shared material and student work. Some rooms were configured as SCALE-UP (Student Centered Active Learning Environment- Upsidedown Pedagogy) classrooms, a specific design that facilitates teambased, active learning as an alternative to lectures, even for large classes. You can learn more about SCALE-UP classrooms at: http:// www.lib.vt.edu/instruct/classrooms/scaleupclass.html. The finishing touches have been put on the SCALE-UP classroom in the Food Science Building. FST Room 27, which was originally constructed as the dairy pilot plant (approximately 3,000 sq. ft.), has been converted into a classroom for a maximum of 68 and has all the audio visual equipment found in the new Classroom Building. The FST classroom is equipped with a Crestron AirMedia wireless presentation system that allows you to broadcast your laptop or tablet screen to the projectors without any cables. Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android are supported. The FST classroom has three 80-inch HD flat-panel screens and a HD projection system that can project an image from a single source or multiple sources simultaneously. The electrically controlled screen is 144-inches wide and 53 inches high when fully extended. Twelve recessed ceiling mounted speakers provide high quality audio. Freshly painted walls along with new carpet and furniture make FST 27 a great space to teach our classes. We may have old walls, but everything else in the FST classroom is high technology and state-of-the-art for teaching. This renovation has been a team effort. A lot of hands have been involved in making this dream a reality. Many in the FST department worked tirelessly to get the room ready for the renovation and planning the functionality of the classroom. The department enjoys beautiful labs in HABB1 and now a beautiful teaching space in FST 27. Thanks to all for your continued support and encouragement to our department. We hope to see you in the coming year. Best personal regards, Joe Marcy.