Stepping over rough gravel near the Potomac with a giant crane swinging overhead, Ken Smith, the chief operating officer of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, said, “You’re actually inside the building right now — we’re in the two-story atrium space.”
It took a little imagination, but then again, Smith was leading a construction tour at the symbolic midpoint of a project poised to transform technology education in the region. For years, university, industry and civic leaders have been collaborating on plans to lure tech companies to Northern Virginia, revitalize a neighborhood just across the river from the nation’s capital, and educate an increasingly diverse group of students to use technology to solve problems.
