Mechanical Engineering

Instead of looking at space atmosphere as a toxic vacuum, look at it as an asset, said Les Johnson, who handed a silver 4-inch square of solar sail material as light as small bird’s feather to an audience member. As the piece of sail traveled through a standing-room-only crowd in… Read More

From left, Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Director Frank Dobson, Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos, Professor Carolyn Morgan, Professor Morris Morgan III, Provost Susan Wente and School of Engineering Assistant Dean Burgess Mitchell. (Anne Rayner/Vanderbilt University) A couple of memorable laboratory disasters, a few disappointing test scores, and… Read More

Addisu Taddese, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship recipient, holds a medical capsule robot. (Heidi Hall/Vanderbilt University) Researchers around the globe who want to customize medical capsule robots won’t have to start from scratch – a team from Vanderbilt University School of Engineering did the preliminary work for… Read More

Physicist, science writer to speak Nov. 5 at engineering school, University Club of Nashville A physicist by day and a science author and editor by night, Les Johnson – Senior Technical Advisor for NASA’s Advanced Concepts Office, Marshall Space Flight Center – shares his passion… Read More

For well over a decade, Vanderbilt Engineering alumnus Brock Smethills (BE’13) and his family have been driving to a picturesque spot just south of Denver, envisioning the futuristic wonderland it would become. Houses where the residents pay mere pocket change for utilities thanks to solar power and a one-of-a-kind system… Read More

Brock Smethills is COO of Sterling Ranch. (Heidi Hall/Vanderbilt University) A recent alumnus who distinguished himself in the aerospace field returns this week to talk about his latest big challenge — launching a 20-year, 12,050-unit sustainable community just south of Denver. Brock Smethills (BE’13) is chief operating… Read More

By the end of the five-hour GM Ride & Drive event, 220 registered drivers had taken 693 total test drives.   Three gleaming, new Corvette convertibles – Torch Red, Arctic White and Laguna Blue – are in a nose-to-tail line at 10 a.m. on a sunny Friday waiting for Vanderbilt… Read More

Invention of the first integrated circularly polarized light detector on a silicon chip opens the door for development of small, portable sensors that could expand the use of polarized light for drug screening, surveillance, optical communications and quantum computing, among other potential applications. The new detector was developed by a… Read More

Vijay Kumar and his students at the University of Pennsylvania build small, agile flying robots that swarm, sense each other, and form ad hoc teams that could be used for search and rescue in large-scale disasters. Penn Engineering Dean Kumar Kumar, recognized around the world for his groundbreaking work on… Read More

  (Vanderbilt University) VISE is keeping its acronym but changing its name. The Vanderbilt Initiative in Surgery and Engineering will become the Vanderbilt Institute in Surgery and Engineering. The promotion from a three-year trial program to an established institute is the consequence of a Vanderbilt… Read More