Most modern highways and roads are primarily funded through taxes paid at the gas pump, but with the increasing popularity of electric and hybrid vehicles, how will roads be funded in the future? Drew P. Melusen ’22 proposed alternative solutions in his senior thesis.

This year's Honors Week showcased research and scholarship across all disciplines by 34 cadets who presented their research to the wider VMI community. The annual event also saw a large number of cadets inducted into academic honor societies.

In his senior thesis “Unearthed Contributors: African-Americans at Virginia Military Institute, 1839-1851,” Christopher M. Hulbert ’22 argues that enslaved African-Americans and free people of color in Rockbridge County were equally influential as Smith and Preston.

There are so many uses for soybeans. In fact, soybean yield was the subject of the senior thesis “Performance of Soybean Cultivars in Varying Rural Virginia Sites: Effect of Site Characteristics on Shoot Structure and Yield” presented by Rachael Dickenson ’22, during Honors Week at VMI.

Has the Army improved since the Vietnam war? Has it acknowledged and corrected the mistakes made? Michael M. Hoffmann ’22, who commands the 1st Battalion within the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Military Institute, believes it has and defended his thesis during Honors Week.

Where does an author get his inspiration to write a fictional novel? How does an author develop character traits and personalities? Are writers and the work they create influenced by philosophers? Carson Knox ’22 explored the relationship between writing and philosophy in his senior thesis.

Crowdsourcing, which is enlisting the help of a large pool of people, has historically been a valuable way to help with disaster relief. Tanner Mallari ’22 researched that subject in his senior thesis, “Evaluation of Crowdsourcing Applications in Disaster Relief”, during Honors Week at VMI.

Nineteen cadets presented their research during Honors Week, with many choosing projects informed by the communities in which they grew up.

Drew Borinstein ’17 has spent much of the past year digging into a real-world problem that’s likely to have serious implications in the decades ahead – the declining U.S. birthrate.