[This story from Virginia Tech describes how a professor teaching a computer science course there is using a Global Learning Course Grant to take her students to Egyptian (and soon other) heritage sites via virtual reality and then build databases for real-world clients to use as they work to preserve endangered monuments at those sites. See the original version of the story for six more images and the five mentioned videos. –Matthew]

[Image: Students in Sally Hamouda’s database course were able to “tour” endangered Egyptian monuments from their Blacksburg classroom by using virtual reality headsets, purchased through a Global Education Office grant. Credit: Tonia Moxley for Virginia Tech]

Global education grant takes students virtually anywhere

Students in Collegiate Associate Professor Sally Hamouda’s database class worked with an Egyptian official and ‘visited’ ancient monuments using virtual reality tools funded by a grant from the Global Education Office.

By Tonia Moxley
July 7, 2025

What if students could tour ancient Egyptian monuments without leaving their Blacksburg classroom? This spring at Virginia Tech, dozens did.

More than 95 computer science students in Collegiate Associate Professor Sally Hamouda’s Database Globalization class got access to virtual reality (VR) to “explore” ancient Egyptian heritage sites from their Torgersen Hall classroom. Then two student teams built databases for an Egyptian government effort to preserve monuments endangered by extreme weather.

The initiative was funded through a Virginia Tech Global Learning Course Grant from the Global Education Office, a part of Outreach and International Affairs, which gives undergraduate students access to global topics, issues, contexts, and concerns. The grants encourage faculty to incorporate new technologies or use familiar technologies in new ways in their courses to promote intercultural learning.

Hamouda was one of six faculty to receive a spring course grant from the Global Education Office. The others were:

• Pitchayaporn “Peach” Tantihkarnchana, Department of Economics
• Anne Irrera, Department of Music
• Jared Gragg, Department of Mathematics
• Hulya Dogan and Mariah Henderson, Department of Engineering Education
• Sharon Johnson, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, French
• Hyesoo Yoo, Department of Music

In their own words

[Watch two videos in the original version of this story to] hear how and why Collegiate Associate Professor of computer science Sally Hamouda developed the plan to globalize her database fundamentals class through a grant from Virginia Tech’s Global Education Office, and watch Ayda Haydarpour, Hamouda’s undergraduate research assistant, explain how virtual reality technologies can expand students’ perspectives beyond the classroom.

[Watch more videos in the original version of this story to see three] students in Hamouda’s database globalization class talk about why they chose to work on the endangered monuments project and their hopes for it.

In Hamouda’s class, the grant supported a guest speaker from Egypt, provided access to shared data sets for the class, purchased VR headsets, and funded an undergraduate research assistant to work with the students.

Two teams of students constructed databases and user interfaces that contained a range of government data on the monuments, including:

• Preservation materials used, their expected lifespan, and cost
• Monument name, location, status, photo, label, category, longitude, latitude, and history
• Preservation job descriptions, start and end dates, and results
• Archeologists’ data

“I want students to know that databases can solve global problems,” Hamouda said. “Extreme weather has a huge impact on monuments in Egypt, so I wanted students to see that we can gather data and use it to help solve the problem.”

Hands-on learning

Building easy-to-use databases that store, organize, and quickly retrieve a range of information is an important skill for computer science students going into industry jobs, Hamouda said. She has taught database development at Virginia Tech and other institutions for about a decade, constantly refining the course. Today it is a growing project-based learning experience for all students in the major.

“They begin looking for a real client on day one,” Hamouda said. “They then submit a project proposal to serve that client.”

In the past, most students chose U.S.-based projects, she said. Some have worked for family members who own businesses or for Virginia Tech labs or programs. But the global course grant allowed students to work on a project from another country and “visit” that country using virtual reality tools.

Omer Ahmed, a junior computer science major who helped build one of the Egyptian monuments databases in Hamouda’s class, said it “was really exciting because I got to combine my passion for technology and computer science, and also my curiosity about history, specifically Egyptian heritage.”

Undergraduate research assistant Ayda Haydarpour, also a junior in computer science, got another level of experiential learning by researching and leading implementation of VR headsets in the course.

“Using a VR headset, we can explore and experience different things that right now we cannot explore with a computer alone, and we get to have this immersive experience,” Haydarpour said.

It went so well, Hamouda said she plans to expand future classes to tackle preserving endangered heritage sites in China, India, and other places around the world. Her work can inspire other faculty to bring a global perspective to their students.

“Sally’s innovative approach to integrating global learning into engineering curricula sets a powerful example of how the campus curriculum can connect students with the world,” said Theresa Johansson, director of global education. “Her commitment to student success and to mentoring colleagues is shaping the future of Virtual Global Collaboration at Virginia Tech.”

For her part, Hamouda continues to experiment with new ways to engage students.

“It’s no longer like a lecture where I stand in front of them and talk for an hour and then just leave them to do the project by themselves,” Hamouda said. “We actually do the project in class. So once we cover a concept, we sit in class and they apply the concept on their project.”