Experience the latest innovations combining science, engineering, arts, and design created by Virginia Tech faculty and students during the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology’s annual ICAT Day on May 2.

Free interactive exhibits, workshops, talks, demonstrations, and performances will be offered from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the Moss Arts Center at 190 Alumni Mall.

From 9 to 10 a.m., projects by students in the Virginia Governor’s School Maker Conference will be on display in the Balcony Lobby of the Street and Davis Performance Hall. Projects designed by budding researchers across the state will include a motorized suitcase to make travel more efficient, a head-mounted display designed for firefighter safety, and a nightlight powered by bioluminescent algae.

A keynote talk by two artists from Los Angeles-based dance company Diavolo: Architecture in Motion will be at 10 a.m. in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre. Diavolo Artistic Director Jacques Heim and Scene Designer Daniel Wheeler will discuss their ongoing collaboration with Virginia Tech faculty and graduate students, sponsored by the Center for the Arts in partnership with the institute, to develop their next work, “Luminoir.” The dance company will also perform May 6  at the Moss Arts Center.

The Cube, the four-story, high-tech laboratory used for research, immersive environments, performance, and audio and visual installations, will feature several research projects from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors can experience a 3-D visualization of local ecosystems created from geographic information system data, immersive audio using the facility’s large-scale speaker arrays, an interactive particle generator using Leap Motion technology, and large-scale 3-D printing.    

Performances will be featured in the Cube and the adjacent Perform Studio from 3 to 4 p.m. and will include theatre, dance, imagery, mixed-reality environments, 3-D spatial audio, and interactive computer programming of sound and lighting.

Exhibits will be available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the Moss Arts Center, including demonstrations of wearable systems that monitor body activity, transportation system designs, and architectural projection mapping.

Projects by students from North Cross School in Roanoke, Virginia, also will be featured. The work was created during workshops co-designed by faculty and students from the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology; staff from the Center for the Arts; and North Cross administration and faculty as a multidisciplinary exploration of literature, performance, communication, and design. Virginia Tech students working on the project will have a 360-degree video presentation available documenting the workshops.

Other interactive demonstrations include an augmented-reality program that engages students in classrooms around the world, audio-based technology for children with autism, and media campaigns and applications to raise awareness of issues such as sexual assault and post-traumatic stress disorder.

An awards ceremony at 4:30 p.m. will recognize ICAT Day exhibitors in a variety of categories, including innovative output efforts and potential external impact, effective research process communication, most popular project, and research team project that best represents work combining science, engineering, arts, and design. The ceremony will include remarks from Theresa Mayer, Virginia Tech’s vice president for research and innovation.

In conjunction with ICAT Day is ICAT: Open (at the) Source, The Macronaut Project, an art exhibition featuring biological journal photographs taken by students in an integrated biology and design class led by Brook Kennedy, an associate professor of industrial design in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology fellow, along with Arthur Buikema, Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Ecology.

The students took the photographs using Macronaut, a smartphone-compatible magnifying lens Kennedy invented to to see and photograph natural surroundings in staggering detail. The exhibition will be featured May 2-22 in the Moss Arts Center Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor.

Parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street. Virginia Tech faculty and staff with a valid Virginia Tech parking permit can enter and exit the garage free of charge. Limited street parking is also available. 

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Kacy McAllister at 540-231-5300 or kmcallis@vt.edu during regular business hours at least 10 business days prior to the event.

A university-level research institute sitting at the nexus of the arts, design, engineering, and science, the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology is uniquely partnered with the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. By forging a pathway between transdisciplinary research and art, educational innovation, and scientific and commercial discovery, the institute works to foster the creative process to create new possibilities for exploration and expression through learning, discovery, and engagement.  

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