Research

Biomedical engineering hits all-time high with 8 fellowship offers Thirteen engineering graduate students have been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship that provides a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 and a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees.  In total, 16 Vanderbilt students received NSF graduate fellowships. Read More

Kelsey Hatzell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant. Kelsey Hatzell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. The five-year, $515,600 grant— Understanding Interfaces in Solid State Energy Storage Systems and Cross-Disciplinary Education—begins June 1, 2019. Advanced lithium-ion batteries for vehicles and for… Read More

Ibrahim Ahmed presents his 3-Minute Thesis on March 29. (Joe Howell/Vanderbilt University) An electrical engineering graduate student took the top prize is this year’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition with a presentation on designing fault-tolerant control systems using data-driven methods. Without really saying it that way. Ibrahim Ahmed presented “Comfort… Read More

The Vanderbilt University students behind Zeno Power Systems, a clean energy company that could serve schools and hospitals in remote locations, will discuss their path to entrepreneurship Wednesday at The University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase in Washington, D.C. Hosted by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Association… Read More

Ethan Lippmann, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant. The five-year, $401,650 grant—Deconstructing Neurovascular Mechanobiology—begins July 1, 2019. Ethan Lippmann, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Lippmann studies changes in brain vascular physiology due to aging or disease. Read More

Photo courtesy of NASA Improved models of iceberg calving will reduce uncertainty in sea level rise projections An assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering has been awarded a $555,000 NSF CAREER grant to analyze Antarctic ice sheet fracture, improve models for ice mass loss and reduce uncertainty in long-term… Read More

Finding gives boost to fighting through cell metabolism NASCAR has nothing on cancer cells when it comes to exploiting the power of drafting, letting someone else do the hard work of moving forward while you coast behind. Building on the relatively new discovery that metastatic cancer cells leave tumors and… Read More

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