[{"id":1755,"date":"2026-09-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:11:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:11:03","slug":"robotics-and-autonomous-systems-program-at-vcu-college-of-engineering-receives-1-million-of-community-project-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/17\/robotics-and-autonomous-systems-program-at-vcu-college-of-engineering-receives-1-million-of-community-project-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Robotics and autonomous systems program at VCU College of Engineering receives $1 million of Community Project Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From left to right: Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan; VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D.; Azim Eskandarian, D.Sc., the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. Dean of the VCU College of Engineering; Srirama Rao, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Innovation at VCU. (Photo credit: Jonathtan Haff, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The support will help establish a lab for the Commonwealth of Virginia\u2019s first Bachelor of Science in Robotics and Autonomous Systems Engineering<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In support of a new robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) engineering research program, the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering received $1 million of Community Project Funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The announcement was made by Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, who led the effort with support from U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and recently presented a check to the college. Remarks by Azim Eskandarian, D.Sc.<\/strong><\/a>, the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. Dean of the VCU College of Engineering, VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D., and Representative McClellan preceded a tour of VCU Engineering facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith this funding, the VCU College of Engineering will be able to conduct cutting-edge research in robotics and autonomous systems,\u201d said Eskandarian. \u201cThis is work that spans aerial drones, autonomous vehicles, collaborative and rehabilitation robots and the AI systems that control them. Our new labs will bring together articulated robots, mobile robots, drones, humanoid robots, exoskeletons and the AI computing resources needed to push this field forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VCU College of Engineering\u2019s Bachelor of Science in Robotics and Autonomous Systems is the first of its kind in the Commonwealth of Virginia<\/a>. It is designed to prepare students for emerging careers in industries like manufacturing, healthcare, defense and transportation. This funding will help purchase equipment, so engineering students can engage in research on the same caliber of equipment as industry professionals. Hands-on training is already an integral part of instruction at the VCU College of Engineering, and the RAS program\u2019s focus on project-based experiential learning will give students proximity to the same research that faculty are using to push the industry forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLiving in the Fan District, I\u2019ve \u200awatched VCU grow as part of the Richmond community,\u201d said Representative McClellan. \u201cAnd, as a member of Congress sitting on the Energy and Commerce Committee and spending two years on the Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee, I see VCU in those industries doing cutting-edge research. Whether it’s health care or manufacturing, trade or communications and technology, cybersecurity or biomedical research, VCU is really at the forefront of helping people and solving problems. I’m very excited to be able to bring one million dollars to VCU for robotics and autonomous systems research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The global robotics market is projected to grow from $11.5 billion to $78.8 billion by 2033. Virginia alone is forecasted to add more than 10,000 jobs in aerospace and unmanned systems over the next decade. To support the RAS engineering program, VCU has hired 11 new faculty members to augment existing expertise at the VCU College of Engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are very grateful to Congresswoman McClellan for championing VCU’s mission, and for her partnership in securing this vital investment,” said VCU President, Michael Rao, Ph.D. “This support expands our capacity to advance robotics and autonomous systems engineering by creating transportable models for the nation, by preparing a highly skilled workforce, and by delivering research and innovation that improves human lives. This is a seed for discovery that can grow across the country to serve communities everywhere.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The VCU College of Engineering offers innovative undergraduate<\/a> and graduate<\/a> degree programs tailored to meet the demands of the rapidly evolving engineering field. As part of a premier research university, students are given the opportunity to perform real-world research<\/a> in our state-of-the-art facilities as soon as they enroll. Browse videos and recent news to discover how the College of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University<\/a> prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers for the challenges of the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan presented $1 million in Community Project Funding to the VCU College of Engineering to establish a new lab supporting Virginia\u2019s first B.S. in Robotics and Autonomous Systems Engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1829,"featured_media":1756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,30],"tags":[1150,25,1135,1215],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","category-general-college","tag-aasc","tag-azim-eskandarian","tag-robotics","tag-robotics-and-autonomous-systems-research-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1829"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1758,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions\/1758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1750,"date":"2026-09-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:10:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:10:53","slug":"watermarking-ai-generated-text-for-transparency-provenance-and-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/17\/watermarking-ai-generated-text-for-transparency-provenance-and-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Watermarking AI-generated text for transparency,\u00a0 provenance and safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Q&A with cybersecurity expert Hong-Sheng Zhou, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Hong-Sheng Zhou, Ph.D.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Anthropic, the company behind the large language model Claude, is rolling out a new method of watermarking AI-generated text. It involves a pattern of favored word choices that can be recognized by software while remaining undetectable to human readers. Hong-Sheng Zhou, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a>, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the VCU College of Engineering, is a cryptography expert with insight into the process of watermarking techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does watermarking AI text have to do with cryptography?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

More than 25 years ago, cryptographers started employing watermarking techniques to protect data. One example is copyright protection and digital rights management, where production houses would embed specific codes into the data on a DVD, for example. If that disk was illegally copied or its data extracted, the embedded watermark could provide evidence that helps identify where the copied content came from. It\u2019s kind of like a fingerprint in the code that tells you where something came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would you watermark AI text?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the primary drivers is the European Union with its Artificial Intelligence Act, which has goals that include more transparency of what is AI generated and disclosing when AI is employed for a task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is another side to this too \u2013 privacy, fairness and the appropriate use of detection. A watermark can provide evidence that an AI system may have been involved in producing content, but that evidence can easily be over-interpreted. Should we have the ability to use these tools without submitting to a verification test? What if the content is not AI generated, or employs a light use of AI, and the detection tool returns the wrong result? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider a foreign language speaker who is seeking employment. If they use AI to help bridge the language barrier and compose their resume but the employer rejects their application because AI tools were detected, is that fair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry discussions are centered around topics like these and finding a balance between the perspectives. We need better awareness of things like deepfakes, and tools to detect them, but also need to consider individual users looking to use tools with no ill intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you go about watermarking text?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT and other large language models work by predicting what comes next in a response. Technically, the model predicts the next  token \u2014 roughly speaking, a word or part of a word \u2014  based on an input, or prompt. As the AI works, there are several plausible choices for what comes next,  and the large language model assigns scores or probabilities to those choices.  The higher the probability assigned to a token, the more likely it is to  be selected as the next word in the AI\u2019s response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watermarking this kind of output is difficult because it\u2019s dynamically generated. Static DVDs contain information that doesn\u2019t change, so encoding it with a recognizable fingerprint is relatively easy. Multimedia file types also have places where you can hide the watermark to make it unobtrusive, but text generated by AI can’t hide a watermark in that way because raw text doesn\u2019t have places to store additional information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s being done to watermark text is biasing the AI\u2019s next word choice based on a secret key value. The goal is to introduce the watermark without noticeably changing the content or meaning of the generated text. If you analyze a sufficiently long sample of text, a detector can estimate whether a particular AI system, such as Claude, was involved in producing it.  That does not mean the detector can identify every kind of AI-generated text or determine which AI system produced arbitrary content. Detecting the watermark relies on secret cryptographic information controlled by the model developer. That means the developer also controls who can use the detection tool by, for example, offering a detection service or API to authorized users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are some challenges with this kind of technology?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First is that you need a sample of text. Generally, the more text you have, the more statistical evidence the detector has to work with. Very short passages can be difficult to assess. This is an issue if someone takes a piece of AI-generated text and edits it, leading to some part of the text not being recognized as AI-generated. It\u2019s also possible to muddle the watermark by translating the text into another language and translating it back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because these tools are not perfect, a detection result should not be treated as definitive proof on its own. These kinds of detection tools might be used as one source of evidence in settings like assessing whether AI may have been involved in a student\u2019s essay.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a governance question. The company embedding the watermark may also control the tool used to verify it, so outside users have to rely on the provider\u2019s own detection system. An important question is whether trusted third parties should eventually have ways to independently verify these claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is AI watermarking going next?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Right now we\u2019re in the middle of a big social experiment. There are proponents for AI use, but also people pushing back against it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reminds me of the internet\u2019s first years. File types on the early internet were simple, HTML code and text and images, but as things grew more data types came. Different image formats, multiple coding languages, videos with multiple encoding schemes, it\u2019s kind of polluted. Applying watermarks to content, however, may help reveal where some content came from or whether AI was involved in producing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t know what the future holds, but one application of this technology may be to help distinguish content produced entirely by people from content generated or substantially modified by AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As AI-generated content becomes more common online, it will become increasingly important to know where training data came from. AI-generated data is not necessarily bad, but repeatedly training models on poorly understood or low-quality AI-generated material can reinforce errors or biases. Knowing the origin of training data can help developers make better decisions about what data to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watermarking is only one way of protecting digital content in the age of AI. Other techniques are designed to make certain kinds of AI training more difficult or less effective. Those approaches are different from watermarking: a watermark is primarily intended to leave a detectable signal or provenance marker, while other forms of data protection are designed to affect the training process itself. Data poisoning is another, separate idea in which manipulated training data is intended to influence the behavior of a model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Department of Computer Science provides undergraduate<\/a> and graduate<\/a> students with the opportunity to perform real-world research<\/a> as soon as they enroll. From designing algorithms to solving complex computing problems to working with cutting-edge AI technology, students gain understanding of many important computing topics. Browse videos and recent news from the Department of Computer Science<\/a> to discover how the College of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers for the challenges of the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a Q&A on AI text watermarking, cybersecurity expert Dr. Hong-Sheng Zhou explores how Anthropic embeds cryptographic signals into Claude\u2019s output to improve transparency, AI provenance, and content safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1829,"featured_media":1751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1150,45],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cs","tag-aasc","tag-hong-sheng-zhou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1829"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1747,"date":"2026-09-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2026-09-15T18:02:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:02:48","slug":"little-ram-pantries-receive-upgraded-technology-to-help-address-student-food-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/16\/little-ram-pantries-receive-upgraded-technology-to-help-address-student-food-insecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Ram Pantries receive upgraded technology to help address student food insecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New sensors can show the inventory of each location and help monitor usage while preserving privacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brian McNeill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixteen Little Ram Pantries<\/a> located across Virginia Commonwealth University\u2019s two campuses have received a technology upgrade, allowing students to view real-time photos<\/a> of the pantries\u2019 contents before visiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched in 2021, the Little Ram Pantries provide free food and essentials for any VCU student who needs it. Contents typically include shelf-stable snacks, grab-and-go items, canned goods and personal hygiene products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the concept of Little Free Libraries, the Little Ram Pantries are a miniaturized extension of VCU\u2019s Ram Pantry<\/a>, which has provided food and other items to VCU students in need since 2014. Both the Little Ram Pantries and the Ram Pantry aim to mitigate food insecurity, which is estimated to affect more than one-third of college students nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the summer, upgraded sensors were installed in Little Ram Pantries , including inward-facing cameras that show current inventory at each location, a \u201cheartbeat\u201d indicator that indicates the location is online, and improved overall stability. The new technology enhances the ability to monitor usage and gather useful data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really hope students bookmark the website and use it to see what\u2019s [available in the Little Ram Pantries] and go grab what they need,\u201d said program creator John Jones<\/a>, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability<\/a> in the College of Humanities and Sciences<\/a>. \u201cThe pictures are the current inventories of each of the locations. So, say you were looking for a box of pasta, for instance. You could visit the website and see, \u2018OK, well, Harris Hall has some macaroni and cheese.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engineering students play key role<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The sensor technology was developed by two cohorts of VCU College of Engineering students\u2019 capstone projects, along with Lauren Linkous, Ph.D., a VCU engineering research scientist who has worked on the project for more than six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been with the Little Ram Pantry project since the start of my graduate program, when I met John Jones through another project,\u201d Linkous said. \u201cI was brought on to build the initial prototype, just to see if we could quantify what we were working with. That first device was simple: It wrote to a spreadsheet whenever a pantry door opened and closed. But we got data, and the data was telling us a story. Students were using these pantries, and now we had a record of engagement to bring with us to secure more resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project grew from there, she said. Within a few years it included capstone teams, student collaborators and more people anchoring every aspect of the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the technical side, the sensor systems give us a way to put numbers to need without ever identifying a student,\u201d Linkous said. \u201cThat data is how we justify the program, grow it and get more food where it\u2019s needed. It\u2019s been a major interdisciplinary effort, and I\u2019d love to see more problems solved that way, especially ones with this kind of immediate community benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josh Hayes, who graduated in 2024 with a degree in computer science, helped develop the Little Ram Pantries technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChoosing the Little Ram Pantries as my capstone project was one of the best decisions I made during my time at VCU,\u201d he said. \u201cDeveloping and iterating over this technology, first as a student among a group of peers and then for John with Lauren\u2019s mentorship, has not only taught me so much but has allowed me to give back to my community in a way I never initially imagined. I am grateful to have helped develop technology to solve a real problem and strengthen a program that provided me with assistance when I was a student in need. I hope that the upgraded technology inside the pantries allows for more people to have access to food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology at work<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The sensors track usage, based on when the box\u2019s door opens and closes. The camera snaps a picture of the box\u2019s inventory a few seconds after the door closes. The camera never takes a photo of a person who is getting food from a Little Ram Pantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data feeds to an online dashboard<\/a> that provides a variety of insights into how the Little Ram Pantries are being used. For example, in the past three months, there have been 1,328 visits to the locations, with the busiest day occurring on Aug. 12. The Little Ram Pantry located at the School of Dentistry received the most visits, with 244 interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little Ram Pantries are Jones\u2019 ongoing research initiative to reduce food insecurity for VCU students. Food found in the pantries flows through donations and purchasing by the main Ram Pantry on Grace Street, and Jones\u2019 undergraduate students distribute it across both campuses on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individual administrative units \u201cadopt\u201d a pantry near their space. Generally, on Wednesdays, adoptees will restock the pantries and check to ensure the pantry is functioning as intended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Little Ram Pantries project often seeks feedback from students. Several have told the team that they are reluctant to take food when only one or two items remain, as they believe someone else might need it more. In response, Jones encouraged students to take the food if they need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they have that thought, they should just go ahead and take it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot in the last couple years to increase the supply of food coming onto campus to stock both the main Ram Pantry as well as the little pantries, and now that we have the cameras, we\u2019ll have a better sense of when they\u2019re empty so we can go refill them. If you feel you need it, it\u2019s for you. Take it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018This is an experiment\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jones\u2019 central research question behind the Little Ram Pantries is whether decentralized, anonymous food pantries can mitigate food insecurity among college students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an experiment,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to see: Does this work? Is this an effective way of connecting food resources with food insecure students?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2024 paper \u2013 \u201cSmart Little Campus Food Pantries: Addressing food insecurity at Virginia Commonwealth University<\/a>,\u201d published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development and led by Jones \u2013 found that users interacted with Little Ram Pantries roughly 7,700 times during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years. About 10% of users frequented the pantries in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For both technical and ethical reasons, data from the pantry sensors cannot identify unique users, but Jones believes the data pattern, as well as focus group data, suggests students are using the pantries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past several years, the program has expanded to more locations on both campuses. And in fall 2024, Jones launched Ram Fridges \u2013 essentially refrigerated Little Ram Pantries \u2013 in response to student requests for more fresh food, including fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supported by a three-year, nearly $500,000 grant from the USDA\u2019s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, the Ram Fridges mitigate food waste and help feed students by diverting unsold food from Shafer Court Dining Center to refrigerators in Cabell Library and the Cary Street Gym. Two additional Ram Fridges are planned: one on the sixth floor of the STEM Building and one in the College of Health Professions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ram Fridges do not currently have the upgraded sensor technology. Additionally, the Little Ram Pantry in Cabell Library does not yet have the new sensor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What and how to donate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anyone is welcome to donate shelf-stable food items into the Little Ram Pantries. Anything that can be stored safely in a cupboard for a long period of time is acceptable. Examples include canned goods; dry boxed food like pasta, rice and beans; bags of dry cereal grains as well as easily consumable snacks like granola bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals or groups interested in making larger donations are encouraged to make a donation to the Ram Pantry. For more information about how to assist with Ram Pantry\u2019s operations, visit the pantry webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Originally posted on VCU News: https:\/\/news.vcu.edu\/article\/little-ram-pantries-receive-upgraded-technology-to-help-address-student-food-insecurity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New sensors can show the inventory of each location and help monitor usage while preserving privacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":1748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1152],"class_list":["post-1747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-college","tag-smee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1749,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions\/1749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1744,"date":"2026-09-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1744"},"modified":"2026-09-15T17:57:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:57:05","slug":"driven-to-close-the-gender-gap-in-heart-research-vcu-student-takes-next-step-toward-a-ph-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/16\/driven-to-close-the-gender-gap-in-heart-research-vcu-student-takes-next-step-toward-a-ph-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Driven to close the gender gap in heart research, VCU student takes next step toward a Ph.D."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Simone Chapman, a summer internship is about more than research \u2014 it’s a step toward improving heart health for women.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Sophie Tran<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Simone Chapman first became interested in cardiovascular research, they expected to learn how the heart works. What they didn’t expect was how often women’s hearts were missing from the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapman, a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University, first became interested in women’s health during their freshman year, when they wrote a research paper about disparities in pregnancy and childbirth complications between Black and white women. An applied physiology course later sparked their interest in the cardiovascular system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I learned more about the cardiovascular field, I realized even though the area is vast and has a lot of research, there is little research being done that specifically pertains to women,\u201d said Chapman, who is majoring in biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That interest has shaped Chapman’s plans for the future. They hope to pursue a Ph.D. focused on cardiovascular research, with an emphasis on women’s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer, Chapman took a step toward that goal through the Cardio4U program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, where they conducted cardiovascular research in partnership with the American Heart Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program gave Chapman a clearer picture of the questions they want to pursue in graduate school. One of those questions is how cardiovascular research can better account for differences in how heart disease affects women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis specific program is doing research in the cardiovascular area, which is the same topic that I want to pursue for my Ph.D. research,\u201d Chapman said. \u201cIt has been a very informative experience learning more about the different types of research being done in the cardiovascular area and has allowed me to narrow down my interest to cardiovascular research with an emphasis on women’s health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lab, Chapman helped researchers explore ways to keep blood vessels healthy and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Their work focused on designing and 3D-printing a specialized system that mimics blood flow, allowing researchers to study how different materials interact with the cells lining blood vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the lab initially expected her to leave behind only the foundation of a prototype during the 10-week program, Chapman and her team completed a fully functional, leak-proof system, allowing future implementations for research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were fully expecting me not to have a ready-to-use system by the time I left,\u201d Chapman said. \u201cThey’re very surprised and very happy that we were able to get a full system running.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapman will bring their research to the Biomedical Engineering Society’s annual conference in Orlando, where they will present a research poster at a national conference for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also hope to connect with faculty and potential Ph.D. advisors as they prepare to apply to doctoral programs during their senior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity almost didn’t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike many summer research programs, Cardio4U covers most participant expenses but requires students to pay for their own housing. Chapman had already been accepted when they applied for VCU’s Internship Funding Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My parents told me we’d find a way to make it work,” Chapman said. “But there would have been a lot of sacrifices. The Internship Funding Program made it possible for me to accept this opportunity without putting that kind of strain on my family.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Chapman, the internship represents more than one summer of research. It’s a chance to gain experience in the field they hope to dedicate their career to while building connections that will help shape the next chapter of her education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These programs are highly competitive, Chapman said, but persistence often pays off. They have applied to more than a dozen research programs over the past two years and have earned opportunities both summers. Some programs even remembered their previous application and encouraged them to apply again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapman\u2019s advice to other students is simple: \u201cDon’t count yourself out before you’ve even applied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if you get rejected, you’ve shown that you’re interested,\u201d they said. \u201cSometimes that’s enough to open the door the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VCU\u2019s <\/em>Internship Funding Program<\/em><\/a> is funded by a combination of VCU funds from the <\/em>Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success<\/em><\/a> and the<\/em> School of Business<\/em><\/a>, donor funds from the <\/em>Student Life and Learning Fund<\/em><\/a>, and grant funds from the <\/em>State Council for Higher Education of Virginia<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Originally posted on VCU News: https:\/\/news.vcu.edu\/article\/driven-to-close-the-gender-gap-in-heart-research-vcu-student-takes-next-step-toward-a-phd<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Simone Chapman, a summer internship is about more than research \u2014 it’s a step toward improving heart health for women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":1745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13,1127],"tags":[1190],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bme","category-students","category-ugrad","tag-internships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1746,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/1746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1739,"date":"2026-09-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1739"},"modified":"2026-09-14T14:23:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:23:28","slug":"vcu-to-celebrate-15-notable-alums-at-biennial-alumni-stars-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/15\/vcu-to-celebrate-15-notable-alums-at-biennial-alumni-stars-event\/","title":{"rendered":"VCU to celebrate 15 notable alums at biennial Alumni Stars event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Honorees will be recognized at an Oct. 9 event at the Science Museum of Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mark Newton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia Commonwealth University will honor 15 of its most accomplished alumni at the 2026 Alumni Stars ceremony. The biennial event, hosted by VCU Alumni<\/a>, celebrates alumni from across the university\u2019s academic units for their extraordinary personal and professional achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honorees are selected through faculty recommendations and alumni committees. Recipients will be honored Oct. 9 at the Dewey Gottwald Center at the Science Museum of Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Alumni Stars are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n