"Virginia Tech is amassing professors to start up its new Alexandria campus under construction.

Virginia Tech Innovation Campus is scheduled to open its 11-story Academic Building One in fall 2024, after three years of construction, to replace the school’s Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church.

'If you’re building a campus, the heart and soul of it is to have an outstanding faculty,' Collins said. 'We’re a startup and at this early stage, we want to be building off of strength.'

He said Virginia Tech is hiring professors whose research focuses on artificial intelligence and data analytics, next generation wireless networking, quantum algorithms and software, intelligent interfaces for virtual and augmented reality, and more.

Once fully developed with two other buildings, the Innovation Campus could host close to 1,000 students pursuing year-long master’s and doctoral degrees, supported by 50 faculty in 2029, according to university information," reports The Roanoke Times.

Photo: A rendering of the first academic building that will be built on Virginia Tech’s new Innovation Campus in Northern Virginia. Courtesy of Virginia Tech