VTechWorks
VTechWorks provides global access to Virginia Tech scholarship, including journal articles, books, theses, dissertations, conference papers, slide presentations, technical reports, working papers, administrative documents, videos, images, and more by faculty, students, and staff. Faculty can deposit items to VTechWorks from Elements, including journal articles covered by the University open access policy. Email vtechworks@vt.edu for help.
Open Access Policy
Virginia Tech's open access policy enables researchers to deposit the accepted version of scholarly articles with no embargo.
Theses and Dissertations
Virginia Tech was first in the world to require ETDs in 1997, and continues to add scans of older theses and dissertations.
Open Textbooks
More than 50 freely available and openly licensed textbooks are among our most downloaded items.
Communities in VTechWorks
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
Directing Polymer-Metal Binding Interactions by Modifying Polymer and Solvation Structure
Gallagher, Connor Michael Blake (Virginia Tech, 2025-12-15)
The rare-earth elements (REEs: La-Lu, Y, Sc) are a subset of critical minerals used in a variety of essential technologies, particularly in green energy. However, their chemical similarities and co-occurrence in ores make them difficult to access as they first must be separated from their ores, then from one another. Current industrial methods to accomplish these separations rely on liquid-liquid extraction and other hydrometallurgical techniques that are energy intensive, require large pH swings, and use large quantities of organic solvents. Metal-chelating polymers are a promising class of materials to improve or supplant these existing technologies due to their low cost and high tuneability. Much research has focused on designing specific ligands to bind REEs selectively and occasionally attaching these ligands to polymer backbones; however, nature's approach uses simple carboxylate ligands in proteins and can achieve high selectivity through controlling specific changes in solvation and conformation. This work takes inspiration from nature to study how modifying the polymer and/or solvation structure can direct polymer-metal interactions. The toolbox of synthetic polymer chemistry provides many strategies that we used to alter the polymer structure. To gain molecular-level insight into how these structural changes affected metal-chelation we turned to isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to measure the solution thermodynamics of these interactions directly. We studied the effect of the broader solution environment by changing the solution composition and solvent to find that both impacted the thermodynamics of these entropically-driven interactions. We also developed and used new modular polymer synthetic methods to establish structure-property relationships between polymer structure and REE-binding efficacy and applied ITC to study calcium binding in biologically relevant systems. In total, this work developed new materials design principles that will guide polymer-metal interactions by modifications beyond the chelation site.
Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes Across Two Modalities for an Online Industrial and Systems Engineering Educational Game
Tilashalski, Melissa; Ellis, Kimberly P.; Cherbaka, Natalie (2025-12-15)
Background: Effective experiential learning activities increase student engagement, which is considered a strong predictor of student learning. With the prominence of distance learning, instructors are increasingly interested in experiential learning activities that are effective for multiple modalities. Although previous studies have highlighted the effectiveness of online educational games, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of different modes of delivery for engineering-focused experiential learning games.
Purpose: Evaluate student engagement and learning outcomes of an online educational game and compare two modalities, in-person versus remote.
Methods: A randomized experimental design in which teams of students are randomly assigned to participate in playing the game either in an in-person or a remote setting. Students completed surveys (n = 122) to assess emotional, physical, and cognitive engagement both during the game and a regular class. To assess learning outcomes, students completed pre-game and post-game quizzes (n = 123).
Results: Student emotional, physical, and cognitive engagement scores increased when playing the game, compared to traditional class sessions. For the two modalities, emotional, physical, and cognitive engagement scores showed no significant differences, except emotional engagement did not significantly increase for the remote group. In addition, scores from pre-game and post-game quizzes showed statistically significant improvement for both modalities.
Conclusions: The online experiential learning activity is effective at improving both student engagement and learning, regardless of modality. There are benefits from employing experiential learning activities and games into the classroom of either a remote or in-person modality. Consideration should be taken regarding emotional engagement for remote learning.
Youth Hockey STAR Testing Protocol
Stark, Nicole; Begonia, Mark T.; Rowson, Steven (2025-12-15)
Understanding Sustainability from a Regional Perspective: How regional governance organizations define and contextualize sustainability
Talukdar, Shahidur Rashid (IGI Global, 2025-12)
Embracing a regional strategy to foster sustainability offers several strategic benefits. In the US, regional governance organizations (RGOs), including councils of governments and regional planning councils, assume crucial roles in regional governance. RGOs can wield significant influence in advancing sustainability within and beyond their respective regions. As sustainability is arguably a contested concept, it is important to learn how sustainability is viewed from a regional perspective. This inquiry poses a fundamental question: how do regional governance organizations define and contextualize sustainability? To answer this question, this study explores RGOs serving 39 of the largest US metropolitan areas. This research examines several conceptualizations of regional sustainability from various RGOs. Employing qualitative content analysis on information extracted from websites, reports, and other publicly accessible materials online, this study concludes that regional organizations conceive sustainability through four key dimensions: economy, environment, community, and time.
When is Violence OK? Moralistic Violence as a Counter-Hegemonic Strategy
Costello, Matthew; Hawdon, James E. (Bloomsbury, 2025-11-01)