UW-Madison engineering professor Tom Lipo was leading a conference seminar on the Virginia Tech campus while a gunman was opening fire just two buildings away.
Lipo and the other UW students and faculty at that conference are now back in Wisconsin unharmed but with vivid memories of the tragedy.
At first, Lipo says, their building was locked down following the dorm shooting that left two dead. They were told not to leave and stay away from the windows.