Hike (Millstones/Brush Mountain)

• Start at 1:30 pm  (gather point at The Inn hotel lobby)
• Arrive at base of Brush Mountain at 1:45ish
• Goal is to be back at parking lot by 3:45 or 4 pm.

Costs and other info:

• $10 / person (if cancelled, refunds will go to scholarship fund)
• Minimum: 5 people. 
• Maximum: 24
• Weather-dependent

Want to go searching in the woods for some unique local history? Join us for a hike up Brush Mountain to visit a historic millstone quarry where you can experience a piece of unique and largely invisible local history, some of which lives on in recorded oral histories within Virginia Tech Library’s special collections.

Please note, this hike will be strenuous. Be sure to choose clothing and bring personal supplies to ensure your comfort and safety for a 2-hour round trip hike on (sometimes) steep and (always) uneven terrain.

AI and Systematic Reviews

• 12:30-3:30pm
• Professional Development Workshop 

Evidence synthesis methods, such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses, are vital to the translation of research to action, often informing policy, practice, and future research direction. Thus, it is expected that synthesizers follow a predefined, transparent, and reproducible protocol. Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly language models, offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve efficiency. This isn’t the first pivotal trend evidence synthesis (or the research ecosystem) has experienced - this work used to be done by hand! However, unlike moving from pen and paper to computers, the benefits of AI are accompanied by serious limitations in transparency, thus reproducibility and auditability.

Screening presents one of the most promising opportunities for harnessing the power of AI responsibly. While there has been significant evaluation of different AI-integrated screening workflows, the focus tends toward accuracy rather than the equally important characteristics of stability and transparency. In accordance with the Responsible Use of AI in Evidence Synthesis (RAISE, https://osf.io/fwaud/overview) guidelines, this gap must be addressed before widespread adoption is feasible. In this workshop, we

• Discuss the current landscape of AI in ES
• Demonstrate an in-progress AI-aided screening workflow using open source methods
• Practice evaluating output transparency, reliability of the workflow

 Bipasha Banerjee

Cozette Comer 

St. Lukes & Odd Fellows Hall

• 2pm (preferred start time) 
• Meet at the Inn Lobby at 1:40pm
• 15 minute walk to destination (Walking Directions from the Inn)

• Accessible parking spots available 

• Maximum: 40 

The St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall, built in 1905, is the only remaining original building of New Town, a once vibrant African American community in Blacksburg, first established by formerly enslaved persons. This building was the civic anchor for New Town and the wider African American community in Blacksburg, serving as a central, communal gathering place that supported its members both economically and socially from the early 20th century through the Jim Crow era.

Join us for a tour of the St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall from a former resident of New Town and learn about recent efforts to expand restoration efforts of this unique site of local history.

Hahn Garden Tour

• Meet at the Hahn Pavilion at 5pm (just before reception)
• No registration required

Stroll around the Garden to be introduced to some of the cute features in this Garden. The Hahn Horticulture Garden encompasses nearly six acres of teaching and display gardens on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Established in 1984 by Horticulture faculty, the garden serves undergraduate students and the local community as a learning resource for plant material, landscaping concepts, and environmental awareness.

Our garden features perennial borders, water gardens, shade gardens, a meadow garden, and the Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion (and plants, of course, lots and lots of plants).