Research

Irfan Ibrahim The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has awarded an Integrated University Program fellowship grant of $161,000 to environmental engineering graduate research assistant Irfan Ibrahim to further his work on nuclear reactor safety. The office’s awards provide 50 scholarships and 31 fellowships for nuclear scientists… Read More

The relentless increase in heat loads imposed on devices in modern technologies is driving renewed interest among engineers and materials scientists in the area of heat transfer. A key challenge is finding approaches to enhance the materials’ capability of conducting heat. Deyu Li A team of engineers led by Vanderbilt… Read More

INCA enables robust metabolic tracer studies A software tool for metabolic analysis developed by a Vanderbilt chemical engineer recently passed 1,000 total academic licenses and is the most licensed software on the university’s online licensing and e-commerce platform. Additionally, it was the third highest revenue generator on the platform,… Read More

Warning: This video has graphic images of surgical procedures. An interdisciplinary fellowship with the Data Science Institute has resulted in a promising machine-learning technology that can effectively track complex surgical activity, thus having the potential to improve patient outcomes, safety and documentation. TingYan Deng TingYan “Nicholas” Deng,… Read More

THE IDEA A team of researchers led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory microscopist Miaofang Chi and Vanderbilt theoretical physicist Sokrates Pantelides has used a new Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope technique to image the electron distribution in ionic compounds known as electrides— especially the electrons that float loosely within… Read More

The idea Karl Zelik (Vanderbilt University) Erik Lamers (Vanderbilt University) Karl E. Zelik, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and recent Ph.D. graduate Erik P. Lamers revealed a new exosuit designed to bring back relief to workers who have been under high strain throughout the pandemic, including last-mile… Read More

Vanderbilt engineers used  a drop of rubbing alcohol, an office laminator and creativity to develop scalable processes for manufacturing single atom thin membranes. Their membranes outperformed state-of-the-art commercial dialysis membranes and the approach is fully compatible with roll-to-roll manufacturing. Details of the imaginative experiment are recently published in the… Read More

Researchers devised a hybrid, hyperbolic-silicon photonic waveguide platform that transmits mid-IR and near-IR light at the same time, on the same chip, demonstrating dual-band optical processing.  Illustration: Caldwell Lab A team led by Vanderbilt engineers has achieved the ability to transmit two different types of optical signals across a single chip… Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the busiest cochlear implant center in the U.S., performing more than 300 implant surgeries each year. A key driver is close collaboration among engineers, surgeons, audiologists, speech scientists and other experts. This interdisciplinary, trans-institutional work has enabled a truly customized approach for each patient. Read More

A steerable, MRI-guided needle-size robot would access the hippocampus through the foramen ovale, a natural opening in the cheek. A team of engineers and neurosurgery faculty is taking the next steps to develop this less invasive procedure for treating temporal lobe epilepsy. A Vanderbilt research team has received a $2… Read More