Arizona Tech Council Members are invited to join Steward Observatory for a VIP reception featuring hands-on virtual reality activities, plus scientific talks in the Flandrau Planetarium. This event celebrates the launch of an international NSF PIRE project that will revolutionize worldwide efforts to study black holes. The project will support the Event Horizon Telescope in its aim to obtain the first-ever images of black holes and to test Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. It will integrate researchers in the U.S., Germany, Mexico, and Taiwan; usher astronomical projects into the era of big and distributed data science; and train the next generation of STEM students.