Mechanical Engineering

Ayanna Howard is an internationally known roboticist, holds an endowed chair at Georgia Institute of Technology, and spent 12 years as a senior researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. An innovator with a proven track record, Howard nonetheless knew she had much to learn in making the leap to entrepreneur. Read More

Vanderbilt University has been named the 10th most innovative university in the world, according to a Thomson Reuters analysis of 100 educational institutions around the world doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and power new markets and industries. The ranking is based… Read More

The ubiquitous “elevator pitch” is a standard rite of career advancement. Whether or not it takes place in an elevator, job candidates are told they must be able to describe their awesomeness in two minutes or less. The Vanderbilt Career Center this year turned the tables on the recruiters. The… Read More

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