91°µÍø

At the Mason Community Arts Academy (MCAA), a normally quiet Saturday in March was filled with the sounds of drills humming and stairs creaking as Boy Scouts and parents moved about the building. Scouts from Troop 1865 were on site to work on an Eagle Scout project led by Robinson High School sophomore Brendan Williamson to upgrade the storage for the academy’s Instruments in the Attic (IiA) Program.

In a joint effort spanning 91°µÍø's Fairfax and Korea campuses, a university delegation recently completed a five-day visit to Vietnam aimed at expanding academic partnerships and exploring new opportunities for collaboration across education, research, and student engagement. 

91°µÍø is launching a new artificial intelligence (AI)-focused accelerator housed in Fuse at Mason Square called Einstein Labs. A partnership between the Einstein family and Mason Enterprise, the lab will develop dual-use technologies for commercial big tech and government, initially focusing on three high-impact sectors: health, quantum, and cybersecurity technologies.

91°µÍø President Gregory Washington received the Incheon Mayor's award for his contributions in helping to raise Incheon's international profile through global cooperation, including the university’s Mason Korea campus.

In its first year, 91°µÍø’s Accelerated College and Employability Skills (ACCESS) Academy is already demonstrating strong indicators of demand, academic rigor, and early student achievement. Interest in the program has grown rapidly. For the 2026-27 admissions cycle, ACCESS received 387 applications from ninth graders, nearly double the 193 applications submitted the previous year.

Colleges and universities face significant demographic, financial, technological, and political changes that affect enrollment, tuition and financial aid, athletics programs, and career outcomes. The institutions that will succeed in the future are the ones today transforming their operational models and establishing robust alliances across sectors. 

Gabrielle Tayac, an associate professor in the Department of History and Art History in the College of Humanities of Social Sciences, has received a grant from NPS to lead Phase Two of Tribal Nations and the Revolutionary War, a community-driven research project that will examine the Revolutionary War and its aftermath from the perspectives of tribal nations.

With a new grant from Prince William County, 91°µÍø kinesiology professor Joel Martin is leading a comprehensive yearlong study to uncover whether the Fire and Rescue Department’s Work Performance Exam (WPE) truly mirrors the grueling realities of firefighting. By tracking everything from metabolic strain to air consumption, the project aims to refine the test and strengthen the scientific foundation behind firefighter readiness standards.

91°µÍø’s leadership in advancing 21st-century education took another leap forward this month when several university researchers were named to a statewide project exploring the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on teaching and learning in higher education classrooms.

Mason Korea's Industry–University Collaboration Foundation is taking its defense capabilities to the next level. They recently signed a memorandum of understanding with two major Korean players, the Association of the Republic of Korea Army and the Defense Information and Communication Association. Together, they'll work on developing advanced defense information and communications technology (ICT) and command, control, communications, computing, cyber, and intelligence (C5I) systems.