The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, opening next week, looks more like a tech company than a typical academic building. It’s designed to be a pipeline of tech talent — students earning master’s degrees in computer science and computer engineering. 

“I think we’re incredibly excited to finally be our home,” Virginia Tech Innovation Campus Vice President and Executive Director Lance Collins said. 

“We really wanted to be a campus that is highly integrated, highly collaborative and able to work with all of the companies that are in the region,” Collins said.

More than 400 students stepping through the doors next week will see some traditional classrooms, but what really stand out are the new spaces where they can work collaboratively and get the opportunity to work with outside business to troubleshoot their tech challenges. Areas of focus range from machine learning and artificial intelligence to quantum computing. 

Merna Khamis recently got a sneak peak with a select group of students. She enrolled with the help of a scholarship from Boeing, where she’s also interned. 

“It really has a good plan of being educationally supported but also that you have all those companies around you so you are going to have more networking,” Khamis said. 

The building itself also reflects new technology. Solar panels are embedded in the windows, helping generate power. 

From the upper floors, students can literally get a glimpse of the government or corporate buildings where they might first put their tech talent to work.