VT Center for Autism Research

The Virginia Tech Autism Clinic & Center for Autism Research has proudly served rural southwest Virginia for almost 20 years. Guided by the Virginia Tech motto Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) and our mission to merge science with service, we are dedicated to providing neuro-affirmative care, advocating for ethical, high-quality research, and protecting our clients’ and collaborators’ privacy. We oppose unprincipled practices such as punishment, violation of consent, misinformation, harmful rhetoric, disregard for science, ableism, coercion, and unlawful demands for private data. We stand in solidarity with autistic self-advocates and are committed to research and services rooted in mutual respect, trust, and human rights.

We strongly support neurodiversity and acknowledge varying preferences regarding language among self-advocates within the autism and broader community.  Please let us know your preference for identity-first (i.e., "autistic individual") or person-first language (i.e., "individual with autism/ASD") when we meet.

The VT Autism Clinic operates as a training clinic for graduate students.  Our research is conducted through the VT Center for Autism Research.  Our current research efforts are:

• Develop and test the feasibility of a model for autism service provision by offering assessments and professional development for educators            
• Development of a hybrid mentoring program for autistic STEM undergraduate students and establish a pipeline from-graduation-to-work with industry partners
• EmotionAIze - Empathy-Driven Interactive Human-AI System for Countering Negative-Self Talk for Autistic Individuals
• Machine learning in AI to better understand collaboration between autistic and non-autistic individuals in the workplace
• Designing AI as a Mental Health Resource for Autistic Adults: Enhancing Therapeutic Approaches with Multimodal Interactions
• Piloting a Parenting Mobile App to Reduce Treatment-time for Families in Virginia
• Mobile Autism Clinic (MAC), one of our signature initiatives, which supports our work on accessible autism services for rural Virginians.