Virginia Tech Innovation Campus Moves Opening Date For First Building

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Virginia Tech's Innovation Campus in Alexandria's Potomac Yard will open on a delayed timeline.

The school announced that its first academic building will now open in spring 2025 rather than fall 2024. Virginia Tech cited construction supply chain issues for the delay.

“Our vision remains unchanged," said Lance Collins, vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus. "We are building a community perfectly positioned to connect talented students with Northern Virginia’s growing tech ecosystem."

Graduate students who were supposed to attend the Innovation Campus in fall 2024 will continue taking classes at Virginia Tech's Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church. Innovation Campus students have been enrolled and attending classes at the Northern Virginia Center since fall 2020. An estimated 376 graduate students are pursuing master's degrees in computer science and computer science.

In four years, Virginia Tech has grown its number of computer science and computer engineering master’s degree students based in the D.C. area to 376. This cohort of Virginia Tech Innovation Campus graduate students – part of Virginia’s Tech Talent Investment Program – will help the commonwealth’s efforts to close the tech talent gap in the region.

Virginia Tech broke ground on the Innovation Campus in September 2021. The campus was announced along with Arlington's Amazon second headquarters as a strategy to develop more tech talent for employers in the region.

Since the groundbreaking, the Potomac Yard Metro station opened on the Blue and Yellow Lines in May 2023, and an entertainment district with a Washington Capitals and Wizards arena was proposed for Potomac Yard late in 2023. The entertainment district, if approved, would be next to the 3.5-acre Virginia Tech Innovation Campus.

Virginia Tech's Innovation Campus is accepting graduate student applications through March 1 for fall 2024 admission. The campus offers full-time and part-time options, with the full-time program taking as little as one year.