Mechanical Engineering

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

Johnny Hall Dunlap, a Vanderbilt University alumnus and professor emeritus of mechanical engineering known for his devotion to students, died June 17 in Nashville. He was 85. Dunlap earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Vanderbilt in 1953, graduating magna cum laude. He was offered a teaching position in 1955… Read More

Building transient electronics is usually about doing something to make them stop working: blast them with light, soak them with acid, dunk them in water. Professor Leon Bellan’s idea is to dissolve them with neglect: Stop applying heat, and they come apart. Using silver nanowires embedded in a polymer that… 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

Imagine plopping six cups of coffee grounds on the heads of patients just before they are wheeled into the operating room to have nose or throat surgery? In essence, that is what a team of Vanderbilt University engineers are proposing in an effort to improve the reliability of… Read More

Karl Zelik, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has received top awards from the International Society of Biomechanics and the American Society of Biomechanics for early career research. Both awards recognize Zelik’s body of work on improving and unifying the understanding of human locomotion, and translating this understanding to advances… Read More

Team led by Vanderbilt researchers develops new, quicker method to measure energy transfer between assistive devices and people wearing them That robotic exoskeletons can improve mobility of people with disabilities and enhance human performance is widely understood. The same has not yet been true for how to best measure and… Read More

Two School of Engineering researchers represented Vanderbilt in Washington D.C. this week at a showcase on Capitol Hill exhibiting projects that were funded by the National Science Foundation. Cary Pint, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Anna Douglas, an interdisciplinary materials science Ph.D. student, also met with staff from six… Read More