Mechanical Engineering

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

Jason Valentine, associate professor of mechanical engineering, was one of five Vanderbilt professors who won a Chancellor’s Award for Research this week. The award recognizes excellence in works published or presented in the last three calendar years. Recipients also received $2,000 and an engraved pewter julep cup. Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos, Chancellor’s… Read More

https://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/videos/31121969-221337.mp4 A second high-altitude weather balloon rose yesterday from a Vanderbilt garage rooftop to the edge of space to live-stream video of the first total solar eclipse in the United States since 1979. Eclipse team readies the second balloon. (Vanderbilt University/Steve Green) After losing the first balloon to high… Read More

TV infomercials offer a world of potential solutions for back pain, but most of them have at least one of three problems — they’re unproven, unworkable or just plain unattractive. A team of Vanderbilt University engineers is changing that with a design that combines the science of biomechanics and advances… Read More

Students from the Whites Creek High School’s Academy of Alternative Energy, Sustainability and Logistics on a recent field trip to the Love Circle energy park. On Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017, the renewable energy pilot facility atop Nashville’s Love Circle will complete five… Read More

Imagine slipping into a jacket, shirt or skirt that powers your cell phone, fitness tracker and other personal electronic devices as you walk, wave and even when you are sitting down. A new, ultrathin energy harvesting system developed at Vanderbilt University’s Nanomaterials and Energy Devices… Read More

Build and use microscope systems that do not exist commercially to unlock deeper insights in biomedicine. Design and develop a space-based platform to study Earth’s evolving ecology from an elevated vantage point. Create a research hub for development and testing of durable, sustainable infrastructure materials. All big ideas with widespread… Read More

A mechanical engineering Ph.D. student will spend two weeks using some the most advanced X-ray and neutron equipment in the world and learning the techniques from top experts. Marm Dixit was among 60 graduate students selected for the 2017 National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering. As a part… Read More

When the Nashville Public Art Program commissioned a series of artistic bicycle racks, city officials did not expect vandals to remove one and stick it up in a tree. Outright theft was another problem. Maintenance presented still others. When a rack needs attention, workers have had to break up concrete… Read More

William Frances Flanagan, who taught at Vanderbilt University for more than 30 years and was renowned for his research on the causes of stress corrosion cracking in alloys and metals, died June 15 in Maryland. He was 90. Bill Flanagan (Walden S. Fabry/1975) “Bill” Flanagan was recruited from General… Read More