Packaging is all around us. And at Virginia Tech, a team of researchers and students are taking it to the next level in the university’s Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design.

The lab performs a litany of tests for companies local and international, said Laszlo Horvath, director of the center.

On any given weekday, students can be seen performing tests on a litany of items. Packaging for office furniture, Gatorade bottles and rabbit food is just some of what students have tested.

“This is a place where students can get real experience,” Horvath said. “We’ve created an industrial environment for them.”

The center, located near the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center away from most of Tech’s Hokie Stone-clad campus, is a real world packaging testing facility. The center employs dozens of students over the course of a year to do actual packaging testing for actual companies who pay for the tests, which in turn funds equipment maintenance and student employees.