Open@VT

The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of Strength of Materials (2026), by James K. Lord, Amy Richardson, Sneha Davison, and David A. Dillard.

Strength of Materials offers a peer-reviewed introduction to vital foundational engineering concepts such as internal loading, stress, strain, material properties, and more. This book helps engineers understand structures to prevent critical breakage and deformation of the smallest to largest designs. This book explains why this occurs and how engineers can prevent it from happening to their designs. This book explains why this occurs and how engineers can prevent it from happening to their designs.

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The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of Lecture Notes on Configuration Aerodynamics (2026), by William H. Mason, edited by Pradeep Raj. 

Practical applications of aerodynamic theory are critically important for aerodynamic design of aircraft configurations, but are often omitted from aerospace engineering curricula. Lecture Notes on Configuration Aerodynamics is an incredible resource for educating the next generation of aerospace engineering students who aspire to engage in the aerodynamic design of aircraft configurations. It shows how aerodynamic theory is applied in practice, giving students insight into what a career in aerodynamics entails. This book offers a design-oriented perspective of the development and analysis of aircraft aerodynamics.

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The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of Significant Statistics: An Introduction to Statistics (2025), adapted by J. Morgan Russell.

Significant Statistics is a peer-reviewed open textbook  intended for a one-semester introduction to statistics course for students who are not mathematics or engineering majors. It focuses on the interpretation of statistical results, especially in real world settings, and assumes that students have an understanding of intermediate algebra.

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The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Immunology for Pre-Clinical Students (2025), adapted by Jennifer L. Cleveland; Andrew P. Binks; and Renée J. LeClair.

Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Immunology for Pre-Clinical Students is a peer-reviewed open textbook designed to fill a gap in undergraduate medical education (UME) and support medical school pre-clerkship education. It covers the areas of immunology, microbiology, systems-based infections, and global mechanisms of treatment. It is aligned to USMLE® (United States Medical Licensing Examination) and modified from OpenStax Microbiology.

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The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of open textbook Introduction to Earth Science, Second Edition (2025), adapted by Laura Neser, Ph.D.

Introduction to Earth Science, Second Edition is an 548-page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical university-level introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses.

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