For their parts, both Virginia Tech and U.Va. recognize this weakness and are trying to push research entrepreneurship. Virginia Tech, for instance, is liberalizing its rules to let professors moonlight more and is encouraging private research labs in such fields as wireless communications, fiber optics and mechanical engineering. One example is Wireless Valley, a private, for-profit wireless research firm made up of students and professors, It holds about 20 patents. In Charlottesville, the University of Virginia Foundation is building wet laboratories in office parks so for-profit research centers associated with the university can bloom. The Old Dominion is the middle of the pack as far as average earnings per job toxic air and water emissions and infant mortality rates.
Housing prices are reasonable and there are growing problems with traffic congestion.
And despite high levels of concern regarding teenage driving deaths, Virginia's highways are still among the safest in the country. In any event, our snapshots are meant as a service so residents and those interested in the Old Dominion can have a clearer idea of how the state stacks up. Use of this website is subject to certain terms and conditions . We may collect personal information on this site, as described in our privacy policy.