Research

The new ankle exoskeleton design integrates into the shoe and under clothing. Submitted photo. A new lightweight, low-profile and inexpensive ankle exoskeleton could be widely used among elderly people, those with impaired lower-leg muscle strength and workers whose jobs require substantial walking or running. Developed by Vanderbilt mechanical engineers, the… Read More

Two residents of Elmcroft Senior Living sat side-by-side facing a large screen, raising their hands in tandem as watch-style devices on their wrists controlled the avatars in front of them. Every so often, a squat little robot off to the side would remind them the object of the game: Get… Read More

Audrey Ellerbee Bowden has been named a Fellow of SPIE, international society for optics and photonics, “for achievements in optical coherence tomography.” Audrey Bowden Bowden, associate professor of biomedical engineering, has developed several new system designs that advance optical coherence tomography, an imaging technique that provides high-resolution imaging of subsurface… Read More

For any number of diseases involving the skin, research into causes and cures requires isolating and quantifying in a reliable way the proportion of affected skin, one research subject after another, the more the better. This is achieved with medical photography, computer monitors, and mouse-dragging by a research dermatologist to… Read More

Robert J. Webster III, whose work has led to tools and methods for surgeries that require little or no incision, has been named the Richard A. Schroeder Chair in Mechanical Engineering. He is among Vanderbilt University’s newest endowed chair holders. In all, eight recipients were celebrated for their path-breaking… Read More

Menachem Elimelech, an internationally recognized scholar of membrane-based technologies for next-generation desalination and water purification, will deliver the John R. and Donna S. Hall Engineering Lecture on March 13. Elimelech is the Roberto Goizueta Professor at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. His research… Read More

Dr. Rene Gifford works with patient Davy Hillis to program his cochlear implant at VUMC. (John Russell/Vanderbilt University) Researchers from the School of Engineering and Vanderbilt University Medical Center are working to improve outcomes for children with significant hearing loss by providing individualized, prescription-like programming for their cochlear implants. The… Read More

VINSE Director Sandra Rosenthal (Vanderbilt University) By Jane Hirtle Sandra Rosenthal, Jack and Pamela Egan Professor of Chemistry, will step down as director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) on June 30 following 12 years of service. “I am so grateful to Sandy for… Read More

Robert W. Pitz, professor of mechanical engineering, has been named a fellow of The Combustion Institute, an international educational and scientific society. He will attend the 38th International Symposium on Combustion in July 2020 in Adelaide, Australia, where he will be recognized along with 36 other fellow honorees from around… Read More

A new biomaterial-based bone graft extender created by Vanderbilt and U.S. Army researchers has the potential to improve treatment of critical orthopedic conditions. While a graft using a patient’s own bone  – typically from the pelvis or femur – for re-implantation is considered the standard technique to repair, replace or… Read More