Centers & Facilities
From concept to mission-ready, VTNSI’s research capabilities and infrastructure accelerate the delivery of technologies that strengthen national security. Our centers and facilities bring together specialized labs, equipment, and technical expertise where researchers and partners collaborate to design, prototype, test, and validate advanced technologies designed to meet real-world mission needs.
Centers
Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology
The Hume Center leads Virginia Tech's research, education, and outreach programs focused on the challenges of cybersecurity, autonomy, and resilience for the national security community. Education programs provide mentorship, internships, scholarships, and seek to address key challenges in qualified US citizens entering federal and industry service. Current research initiatives include machine learning and artificial intelligence, assured and secure communications, space and undersea missions, and 5G security.
Point of contact: Ehren Hill, Director, Education and Student Outreach
Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems Testing and Research Center (CTRC)
The Virginia Tech Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems Testing and Research Center (CTRC) unites Virginia Tech’s strengths in autonomy, sensing, and spectrum expertise to develop and evaluate technologies that detect, track, identify, and defeat unmanned aerial systems. From controlled laboratories to 1,800 acres of open sky, the center provides government and industry partners with a trusted, instrumented environment to prove what works under real-world and augmented conditions.
Point of contact: Austin Phoenix, Director, Mission Systems Division
AI Test and Evaluation (T&E) Accelerator
The Virginia Tech AI Test and Evaluation (T&E) Accelerator strengthens mission-ready artificial intelligence (AI) adoption by evaluating how AI systems perform under realistic operational conditions. Led by VTNSI through the Systems Engineering Research Center’s network of 24 R1 universities, the accelerator executes pace-setting tests, develops new evaluation methods and tools, and advances the national test and evaluation workforce. These efforts reduce barriers to testing, advance assurance practices, and support the Department of War as they adopt AI systems that are effective, usable, secure, and aligned with mission needs.
Point of contact: Laura Freeman, Deputy Director, VTNSI
Center for Marine Robotics at Virginia Tech
The Center for Marine Robotics at Virginia Tech contributes broadly to the development of next-generation autonomous marine vehicle systems and the autonomy that allows them to operate in challenging environments without human intervention. The Center is a collaboration between the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, and VTNSI. Our students, staff, and faculty are pursuing both fundamental and practical advances in hydrodynamic design and analysis, system-level design, autonomy, navigation, and control.
Point of contact: Dan Stilwell, Co-director for Systems and Autonomy, Center for Marine Robotics at Virginia Tech
Facilities
Virginia Tech Hypersonic Wind Tunnel
The Virginia Tech hypersonic wind tunnel is a blow-down , high-speed wind tunnel. The wind tunnel is owned by the Aerospace & Ocean Engineering (AOE) department and is part of the PHASE research group directed by Dr. Liselle Joseph. This facility was obtained in the mid-1990s through collaborations with the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is now housed in the Advanced Propulsion and Power Lab of AOE. In general, the wind tunnel is capable of speeds ranging from Mach 2 to 7, high Reynolds numbers up to 10^8 1/m, and offers relatively long run times up to 10s at high Mach numbers with steady flow conditions. The wind tunnel is used for instrumentation development and fundamental scientific studies into hypersonic aerodynamics, turbulence, ablation effects, and aero-optics.
Point of contact: Liselle Joseph, Assistant Professor, Mission Systems Division
VTNSI Space Domain Awareness Telescope
The Virginia Tech hypersonic wind tunnel is a blow-down , high-speed wind tunnel. The wind tunnel is owned by the Aerospace & Ocean Engineering (AOE) department and is part of the PHASE research group directed by Dr. Liselle Joseph. This facility was obtained in the mid-1990s through collaborations with the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is now housed in the Advanced Propulsion and Power Lab of AOE. In general, the wind tunnel is capable of speeds ranging from Mach 2 to 7, high Reynolds numbers up to 10^8 1/m, and offers relatively long run times up to 10s at high Mach numbers with steady flow conditions. The wind tunnel is used for instrumentation development and fundamental scientific studies into hypersonic aerodynamics, turbulence, ablation effects, and aero-optics.
Point of contact: Kevin Schroeder, Associate Director, Mission Systems Division
AR/VR Lab
The Spectrum Dominance Division's RF AR/VR lab consists of multiple high-end GPU systems allowing for both virtual reality and augmented reality development and low-end CPU systems (e.g. Rasberry-PIs) for mobile testing. The lab currently leverages both HTC Vive Pro 2 and Metaquest 3 headsets as our hardware platforms as well as both Unreal Engine and Unity for software development. In addition, the lab space has an assortment of Ettus Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) for providing real-time spectrum captures for visualization.
Point of contact: William "Chris" Headley, Associate Director, Spectrum Dominance Division, and Elliott Rheault, Research Engineer II, Spectrum Dominance Division.
Measurement Labs
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute (VTNSI) maintains and is continuously enhancing its internal capabilities in radio frequency (RF), microwave, millimeter wave (mmW) and sub-Terahertz measurement capabilities for research in open and restricted access programs. This laboratory was established in 2020 through the generous support of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and later by US Army, furthering our research and educational activities with graduate and undergraduate researchers. We support our testing with two advanced vector network analyzers (80 MHz-115 GHz), vector signal generators (-32GHz), vector signal analyzers (-44 GHz) and a variety of wideband and tuned antennas, waveguide, cables and microwave/mmW/sub-THz hardware. A planar near-field scanner provides antenna measurement capabilities from 1.7 GHz to 40 GHz. Our chambers include a shielded, ferrite-lined ETS Lindgren anechoic chamber (80 MHz-40 GHz) and a smaller test chamber; a future chamber will support the near-field scanner. Each of these chambers is shielded and suitable for (restricted) antenna, scattering and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) measurements along with functions supporting our broader research and development areas. These focus areas include communication, radar and electronic warfare (EW) systems, electromagnetic material characterization, antenna measurements, electromagnetic structure evaluation (e.g., radomes), scattering measurements, and EMC.
Point of contact: Bradley Davis, Research Associate Professor, Spectrum Dominance Division
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The Virginia Tech National Security Institute (VTNSI) advances national security through mission-driven research, technology innovation, and workforce development. Unlike traditional academic research centers, the institute integrates interdisciplinary expertise across engineering, computing, policy, and national security disciplines to rapidly translate research into mission-ready capabilities.