Correspondent Tom Wilmer visits with John Provo, Executive Director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Economic and Community Engagement in Blacksburg, Virginia.
![John Provo, Executive Director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Economic and Community Engagement in Blacksburg, Virginia](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9408a9b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/800x800+0+0/resize/880x880!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F02%2Fb7%2Fedcd26a14d018dc74c4c43982d17%2Fjohn-provo.jpg)
Provo stewards the multi-disciplines that include Innovation, technology, helping industry harness the power of technological advancements for the State of Virginia’s common good, while engaging faculty and students in the art of place-based community problem solving.
![Traffic going down Main Street; downtown Blacksburg, Virginia](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c1ee321/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x857+0+0/resize/880x589!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb4%2F08%2F6c7181174911b984e5c8c309f0d7%2Fdowntown-blacksburg-va.jpg)
Come along and join the conversation to discover how a Virginia Tech partnership implemented the first aerial drone food delivery with their flying burritos, how a student led startup, Torc, grew to become a global leader with their autonomous truck control systems.
![John Provo at work in his office](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4c7daa5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1719x2292+0+0/resize/880x1173!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe3%2F45%2F5b4ba8ae4a9796d9b32376b8cf93%2Fjohn-provo-at-work.jpg)
Provo shares numerous other equally fascinating stories of how Virginia Tech’s Center for Economic and Community Engagement is not only transforming Virginia’s commercial enterprises but simultaneously the rest of America.
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You are invited to subscribe to the seven-time Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast Directory, Apple Podcast, and more than twenty other podcast hosting sites including iHeartRadio and Spotify
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