Virginia Tech engineering researchers lead day-long workshop addressing the next generation of human-centered edge systems

A Virginia Tech faculty leadership team gathered researchers, industry partners, and public-sector stakeholders from across the greater D.C. area for a day-long workshop, Friday, April 3, to explore the next generation of intelligent, secure, and human-centered edge systems. 

The RISE-IoT Convergence Workshop - held at Virginia Tech’s Academic Building One in Alexandria – focused on aligning technical capabilities, application needs, and testbed strategies to support emerging research in sensing, communication, computing, and system design. The participants took a deep dive into how emerging technologies can help optimize environmental monitoring, smart health, and transportation systems, and then assessed the corresponding workforce development needs. 

“We have incredible expertise at Virginia Tech in wireless communications, and in water and environmental engineering. This workshop is bringing together people across different disciplines and different sectors to address pressing needs of the general public,” said David Knight, interim dean, Virginia Tech College of Engineering, who gave a welcome address at the workshop. “I appreciate that workforce development is part of today’s conversation – thinking about that component alongside the technology and partnership elements is essential.”

RISE-IoT stands for the Resilient Intelligent Sensing and Edge Internet of Things research initiative at Virginia Tech, which aims to connect the researchers and stakeholders in order to scale important research so it will be applicable to the needs of businesses, governments, and more. The core technical focus areas of RISE-IoT are Neuromorphic Sensing and Computing, NextG Connectivity, hardware-software co-design, and federated learning. 

The workshop featured three plenary panels: Grant Challenges for RISE-IoT in Environmental Monitoring, Smart Health, and Automotive; Enabling Technologies for RISE-IoT: Sensing, Computing, and Communication; and Workforce Development. It was led by Yang (Cindy) Yi and Lingjia Liu, Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty based at the Institute for Advanced Computing in the D.C. area, and Peter Vikesland, from the Charles E. Via, Jr., Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 

Through panels, breakout sessions, and collaborative discussions, participants identified shared research priorities and explored application areas such as digital healthcare and water quality monitoring.  

“For IoT devices, sensing, computing, and communication can’t be treated as separate pieces anymore,” said Yi, who is also a Bradley Senior Faculty Fellow. “They have to work together as one system, and neuromorphic computing – a brain-inspired approach to computing – gives us a practical way to achieve that level of integration and efficiency."

The more than 35 participants included engineering and environmental experts and scientists from area government agencies, academic institutions, and tech companies. Participants were from the FDA, National Science Foundation, Inovectrum, and the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, as well as the University of Florida, George Washington University, George Mason, Johns Hopkins, Northern Virginia Community College, North Carolina State, and Marymount University. A number of additional Virginia Tech colleges and units were represented – DC Area K-12 Education, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Pamplin College of Business, and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI).  

“Our hope is that the panels and conversations today lay the groundwork for future center/large-scale research efforts in these areas,” said Vikesland, Pryor Professor of Engineering, in the Charles E. Via, Jr., Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 

This workshop was hosted as part of the College of Engineering's Major Grants Initiative. Yi, Vikesland, and Liu are one of nine teams that have been awarded funding to support innovative and interdisciplinary collaborations.