Research

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Frances Arnold delivered the School of Engineering’s fall 2020 Hall Lecture Sept. 15. Mixing chemistry, biology and engineering, Frances Arnold tweaks enzymes found in nature to perform new tricks by altering their DNA. Arnold, a Caltech chemical engineer with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, scads more… Read More

As the Arctic Ocean becomes less icy as a result of a warming climate, it could prove to be a viable—and more convenient—shipping route for global logistics companies. To determine the feasibility of navigating the challenging Arctic environment, Hiba Baroud, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and… Read More

Gabor Karsai, professor of electrical engineering, computer science and computer engineering at Vanderbilt University, is leading a $2.5 million project to develop advanced software to manage microgrids, the relatively small energy systems that rely on local energy generation and storage. This latest effort marks the continuation of an… Read More

NSF grant aligns with school’s Inclusion Engineering focus The National Science Foundation has awarded a highly competitive $5 million grant to Vanderbilt University that greatly expands a School of Engineering-led project for creating novel AI technology and tools and platforms that train and support individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in… Read More

Vanderbilt engineers have received a $1.4 million NIH grant to work toward a compact, silent, less expensive and potentially portable MRI device. The team, led by William Grissom, associate professor of biomedical engineering, will develop new hardware, including low-field radio frequency transmission coils and amplifiers, and software that will together… Read More

An assistant professor of electrical engineering has developed the first-ever opto-thermo-electrohydrodynamic tweezers, optical nanotweezers that can trap and manipulate objects as small as proteins and viruses. The technique, developed by Justus Ndukaife and two graduate students in his group, gives researchers a powerful new tool for the study and perhaps… Read More

Cynthia Reinhart-King is one of five Vanderbilt professors who received a Chancellor’s Award for Research at the Fall Faculty Assembly Aug. 27, 2020. This award recognizes faculty excellence in works published or presented in the last three calendar years. Honorees each receive a cash prize $2,000 and an engraved pewter… Read More

Nobel Prize-winning chemical engineer Frances Arnold will deliver the Vanderbilt School of Engineering’s fall John R. and Donna S. Hall Engineering Lecture Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. CT. Her lecture, “Innovation by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to Life,” is free and open to the public. It will be live streamed and… Read More

All software is not created equal. At one end are apps on a smartphone and consumer-facing programs for which periodic updates to fix bugs and security issues are routine, like replacing an air conditioning filter or getting an annual flu shot. At the other end are large, complex software systems… Read More

Developing atomically thin graphene membranes used to separate salt from water is extraordinarily complex and the effort grows more crucial as population growth, industrialization and climate change strain freshwater resources. Vanderbilt engineers have designed a simple defect-sealing technique to correct variations in pore size in graphene membranes. Vanderbilt engineering researchers… Read More