Engineering students have always conducted projects, and at Virginia Tech our students are able to be involved in projects from the beginning of their academic careers. As freshmen, students are welcome and encouraged to become involved with projects being done by students in the College and throughout the University. These projects may involve paper studies, hardware and/or software projects, or any of the other facets of engineering. However, they all have a common theme: engineering students, working together in teams which are often multidisciplinary, under the direction of engineering faculty and graduate students. The learning that goes on in these projects transcends anything that could be expected in a "classroom." Indeed, the classroom for these projects may be a computer laboratory, a robotics laboratory, an auto shop, or a factory of one of our cooperating industries.
The success of the student projects at Virginia Tech is well known to engineering students and educators across the United States and Canada. When our teams arrive for a competition, members of other teams inevitably drift by our area to see what our students have created this year.
Historically, the projects have been spread out through the many buildings occupied by the College, basically where we could find the space for the teams to work. Largely because of a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fulton Ware, Jr., we have consolidated a number of these "Student Involvement Projects" in a facility known as the Joseph Fulton Ware, Jr. Advanced Engineering Laboratory.
Joe Ware is a 1937 graduate of Virginia Tech's Department of Mechanical Engineering, having received one of the first Aeronautical Option ME degrees offered by the University. He subsequently earned a Master's degree from Cal Tech and spent his career with Lockheed Corporation, with most of it as a flight test engineer at the famous Skunk Works. Mr. Ware was one of the first engineers employed at the SkunkWorks as a flight test engineer on the YP-80A, which was America's first production jet fighter. He continued as a flight test engineer at Lockheed on all variants of the Constellation, including but not limited to (1) the 049, the first pressurized, 300mph airliner, (2) President Eisenhower's Columbine, I and II, (3) all military variants by Lockheed such as C-121C (passenger/cargo), the RC-121D (early warning, radar surveillance), WV-2E (experimental early warning aircraft), and the R7-V2 (turbo-prop variant). The Connie was not a production of the Skunk Works, though it was largely designed by Kelly Johnson. Mr. Ware also worked on the YC-130 (4-engine cargo turboprop still in use today). Continuing for the Skunk Works, Joe worked with the F-104 Starfighter (America's first mach II+ production fighter), the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird, the world's fastest and highest flying airplane.
The first projects moved into the Ware Laboratory in June 1998. The Lab is located on the second floor of the Military Building, which is at the intersection of Stanger and Barger Streets, near the lower right corner of this campus map. This approximately 10,000 square foot facility, located approximately one half block from most of the engineering buildings, is the home of a number of student projects, including the SAE Formula Car, the SAE Mini-Baja Car, the Hybrid Electric Car (including a fuel cell project), the Autonomous Vehicle, the ESM/AOE Submarine Project, the AOE Airplane Project, and the Personal Electric Rapid Transit System (PERTS). This facility includes a student machine shop, a welding shop, a Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing Laboratory, a conference/classroom, and project workspaces.
Those of you who haven't visited Blacksburg may be wondering about how we can have car projects on the second floor of a building. The Virginia Tech campus is built on a series of hills. The side of the lab that faces Barger Street is the second floor, but the other side of the building opens toward Turner Street, and the second floor is at the same level as Turner Street.
For more information on the Ware Laboratory, you can send e-mail to Dr. Hayden Griffin, Professor and Director of the Division of Engineering Fundamentals. We are very excited about the Lab, and we hope if you come to visit, we'll have a chance to show it off to you. It's a world-class facility, in use by our world-class students.
Here are some pictures of the lab:
The loading dock for allowing large equipment entry into the showroom. 
The front door.
The showroom/lobby.
An attempt at a panoramic view of the machine shop.
The welding shop.
The classroom/conference room.
Some of the work bays. 
The drive door at the rear of the lab from the inside. 
The drive door at the rear of the lab from the outside. 
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