Electrical Engineering And Computer Science

How did you spend your summer? Anna Wolfe, a BME senior, designed a point-of-care test for a thyroid stimulating hormone. More than 60 engineering undergraduates have quite detailed answers to that standard question, though their answers are anything but routine. They worked for 10 weeks under the direction of faculty… Read More

As one of the nation’s most recognized female roboticists, Ayanna Howard has designed SnoMote robots to study the impact of global warming on Antarctic ice shelves and created artificial intelligence-powered STEM apps to teach children with autism how to play Angry Birds. Ayanna Howard She has overseen nearly 50 projects… Read More

Learning is layered, with cognitive, physiological, emotional and societal components. Technology, especially the increasing use of new sensing devices and interactive machines, adds complexity as well as opportunity – yet little research has been done on how best to measure what works. A collaboration between Vanderbilt School of Engineering and… Read More

A computer on the third floor of Vanderbilt’s Featheringill Hall scans geometric patterns, deciding which missing shapes would most likely fit in. It fills in those blanks about as well as a human 17-year-old would, and it’s getting smarter, thanks to a study of the way certain people on the… Read More

Three School of Engineering professors will join colleagues from across Vanderbilt University and the Medical School in analyzing the directions for new university big data and data science initiatives. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Susan R. Wente named the 20-member Data Science Visions Working Group this week. Hiba Baroud Joining… Read More

Illustration of the triangular pattern formed by the two-dimensional material chalcogenide that allows the creation of dual-function devices. (Yu-Yang Zhang / Chinese Academy of Sciences) Two-dimensional materials that can multitask. That is the result of a new process that naturally produces patterned monolayers that can act as a base… Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Office of the Provost has recognized three engineering faculty proposals with Discovery Grants, one of Vanderbilt’s primary means of investing in advancing the discovery of knowledge in its core disciplines and strengthening the university’s scholarly profile. A total of 13 faculty proposals have… Read More

WIPER will be the first use of ballistic shockwave detection in anti-poaching efforts. The sensors will be integrated into GPS-enabled collars, as shown on the large tusker above. (Photo by Save the Elephants) Anti-poaching authorities will soon have a powerful new weapon in their arsenal – high-tech ballistic shockwave sensors… Read More

Professor Akos Ledeczi and Ph.D. student Brian Broll work with their NetsBlox intuitive visual programming platform. (Vanderbilt University) Vanderbilt University Professor of Computer Engineering Akos Ledeczi doesn’t want everyone to become a programmer. But understanding how computers think, interact, and do what we want them to do – those are 21st century skills, he said. In NetsBlox, a visual programming environment, Ledeczi and an interdisciplinary team are developing a teaching tool that introduces the basics and a high-level view of distributed computing. The team has worked with students as young as middle schoolers and has several upcoming camps and workshops with young learners as well as high school students. NetsBlox is built on top of Snap!, an environment created at the University of California at Berkeley. Snap! is based on Scratch, the best-known programming tool for kids from the MIT Media Lab. Young students use Scratch to create basic Pong-like games, animations or virtual stories. Snap!, a visual drag-and-drop programming language, picks up where Scratch leaves off, making it an appropriate introduction to computer science for high school and college students. Public data sets expand possibilities NetsBlox adds message passing, a way computers communicate with each other; access to a set of online data sources in the public domain – maps, weather, movies, trivia, and earthquakes are a few; and introduces distributed programming. The goal is to make writing a distributed computer program much like solving a simple puzzle. With NetsBlox, for example, an average high school student can create a simple multiplayer game, run it on her phone and play against a friend over the internet after just a few weeks of instruction. The popularity of massively multiplayer online role-playing games made this approach a “no-brainer,” Ledeczi said. The jump to distributed programming and the computational thinking behind it is significant. A distributed program is actually multiple programs running on different computers communicating and synchronizing with each other. Think of the difference between going out to dinner alone or organizing a wedding reception, including picking the date and time, confirming the most important guests can make it, sending invitations, organizing transportation, reserving the place, ordering catering and booking a band. Distributed programming can be far more complex than simple two-person games, but a game introduces the concepts and forces students to program information to send somewhere else plus consider delays and response times. With the data sets, students can create movie quiz games and trivia contests to play with each other. Data on earthquakes, air pollution, astronomy, and weather can be the foundation for a school science project. Read More

Awards and honors were presented by Dean Philippe Fauchet May 11, 2017, to seniors at the School of Engineering’s annual Commencement Reception. Duncan Matthew Morgan, from Woodstock, Georgia, is Founder’s Medalist for the School of Engineering and is graduating with a bachelor of engineering in… Read More