News

A symposium out of Vanderbilt University’s newest institute will provide participants a first look at medical technology coming out of our labs and a recap of tech unveiled at conferences around the world this year. The research to be presented at the Dec. 16 Vanderbilt Institute in Surgery and Engineering… Read More

Dance Central kept users moving at Vandy_LAN. (Heidi Hall/Vanderbilt University) It’s important to realize that Dance Central rates users based on how accurately a motion-sensing camera believes they’re mimicking what they see on the screen, not on their finesse. So the first sight that visitors to Friday… Read More

  Anna Douglas holding one of the batteries that she has modified by adding millions of quantum dots made from iron pyrite, fool’s gold. (John Russell / Vanderbilt) If you add quantum dots – nanocrystals 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair – to a… Read More

The U.S. Department of Transportation aired a series of "Vince and Larry" public service announcements on seatbelt use from 1985-1999. Today’s undergraduates were in preschool during the “You Could Learn a Lot from a Dummy” series of PSAs encouraging seatbelt use, but the ads were memorable for… Read More

Researchers in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries long have used cells as mini-factories to produce fuels, medication and other products. They know what goes into cells and what comes out — for instance, yeast cells take in sugar and produce alcohol. What researchers don’t know is what is happening inside… Read More

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

James Hill, an associate professor of computer and information science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has become one of the youngest African Americans to become a tenured professor in computer science at a research university in the United States. Hill gained that distinction in August, when his tenure appointment in… 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