Engineering the Future of Virginia Tech with GIFT

The Team 

The Giving Innovative Futures with Technology team, better known as GIFT, is helping engineer a better future for Virginia Tech. GIFT is a community service-oriented design team, similar to a think tank. 

The members look for technical problems around campus and work to engineer solutions. It was founded in the spring of 2025 by Jia Xi Lin, Alexander Ibacache, and Jamie Christen Osmeña. It has since grown to around sixty active members, with a very promising projected growth. GIFT is open to all majors, especially engineers. The founders created GIFT with the hopes of creating an outlet for students passionate about service. GIFT intends to help the immediate community as well as improve the professional development of its members. GIFT currently has a collection of projects at different phases of planning, prototyping, and proposing. The team does not have set deadlines for projects to finish, unlike other design teams, and instead focuses on member involvement and development. All members have the opportunity to be involved in the design and development process, regardless of experience.

Ad

The Process

GIFT'S process can be divided into three major categories: planning, prototyping, and proposing.

1. The first step is recruitment. The team attends events such as Gobblerfest and CEED’s O-Show to search for genuinely interested students. Around the same time as recruitment, the leadership chooses a project they believe the team will be interested in. The team posts surveys around campus to help determine what problems students want to see fixed. Once a few project options have been chosen, they are given to the members to begin brainstorming. In particular cases, in which there is a client, there are meetings before brainstorming. After the members generate ideas, they discuss feasibility and decide on the best project. They typically will choose projects that can be done within one generation of leadership and by inexperienced students. The next step is determining the best solution for the chosen project. This involves sub-team discussion and internal proposals for each solution. The subteams are flexible and in full control over each project.

2. Once the team has chosen a project and potential solutions, prototyping begins. In some cases, this entails using CAD or coding software such as Onshape and Visual Studio Code. The team members will compare different prototypes and determine the most feasible solution. The goal is not only to solve the problem and satisfy the client, but also to allow the students to learn. It is more valuable for the members to have the full experience, even if a prototype is not accepted. The prototypes undergo extensive testing through virtual simulations and physical experimentation. New iterations of the prototype are made until a sufficient solution is found.

3. A well-developed prototype is chosen before the proposal phase is reached. The proposal phase involves reaching out to the relevant stakeholders and showing them the written proposal and prototype. This is a major part of the learning process, and its primary focus is for the members to understand how project proposals work.

The Projects

Currently, the team has four major projects.

Better Bathrooms

The first project is the Better Bathrooms project. Better Bathrooms is the first project the team took on after founding. It is focused on improving residence hall bathrooms throughout campus by adding shelving in the showers. There were a variety of issues the team was interested in tackling based on survey results, but shelving was determined to be the most feasible. The Better Bathrooms project also focuses on helping improve accessibility. The project is now in its proposal phase and looking to wrap up soon.

Food Robot

The Food Robot project has the biggest team within GIFT. It has three subteams: electrical, mechanical, and computer science. It is also meant to improve accessibility.

Securitas Website

The Securitas Website project is currently working to improve the Securitas LLC website. They are adjusting the website to advertise events, show contact information, and more. They are creating a new website framework and improving the cybersecurity.

GIFT Website

The GIFT Website project is similar. They are planning to add outreach information, newsletters, and a digital portfolio to show their project history. This project is set to finish this semester. The outreach team ties all of the teams together. They plan meetings, recruitment events, and run the social media to connect current and new members. The finance team works to find funding, such as grants from local companies. They also work to educate the team about financial literacy and useful soft skills.

If you are interested in joining GIFT, resources can be found on their GobblerConnect, Instagram, gift.vtorg, or LinkedIn. There is no interview process, and the team is open to all students. Additionally, the team typically is present at events such as Gobblerfest and CEED O-Show towards the beginning of the semester.

More on LinkedIn