Research

A commonly used brain scanning technique can map electrical activity under the skull as precisely as more invasive methods that rely on probes or electrodes, according to a research team led by John Gore, director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science and professor of biomedical engineering. The study… Read More

Professor Akos Ledeczi and Ph.D. student Brian Broll work with their NetsBlox intuitive visual programming platform. (Vanderbilt University) Vanderbilt University Professor of Computer Engineering Akos Ledeczi doesn’t want everyone to become a programmer. But understanding how computers think, interact, and do what we want them to do – those are 21st century skills, he said. In NetsBlox, a visual programming environment, Ledeczi and an interdisciplinary team are developing a teaching tool that introduces the basics and a high-level view of distributed computing. The team has worked with students as young as middle schoolers and has several upcoming camps and workshops with young learners as well as high school students. NetsBlox is built on top of Snap!, an environment created at the University of California at Berkeley. Snap! is based on Scratch, the best-known programming tool for kids from the MIT Media Lab. Young students use Scratch to create basic Pong-like games, animations or virtual stories. Snap!, a visual drag-and-drop programming language, picks up where Scratch leaves off, making it an appropriate introduction to computer science for high school and college students. Public data sets expand possibilities NetsBlox adds message passing, a way computers communicate with each other; access to a set of online data sources in the public domain – maps, weather, movies, trivia, and earthquakes are a few; and introduces distributed programming. The goal is to make writing a distributed computer program much like solving a simple puzzle. With NetsBlox, for example, an average high school student can create a simple multiplayer game, run it on her phone and play against a friend over the internet after just a few weeks of instruction. The popularity of massively multiplayer online role-playing games made this approach a “no-brainer,” Ledeczi said. The jump to distributed programming and the computational thinking behind it is significant. A distributed program is actually multiple programs running on different computers communicating and synchronizing with each other. Think of the difference between going out to dinner alone or organizing a wedding reception, including picking the date and time, confirming the most important guests can make it, sending invitations, organizing transportation, reserving the place, ordering catering and booking a band. Distributed programming can be far more complex than simple two-person games, but a game introduces the concepts and forces students to program information to send somewhere else plus consider delays and response times. With the data sets, students can create movie quiz games and trivia contests to play with each other. Data on earthquakes, air pollution, astronomy, and weather can be the foundation for a school science project. Read More

Three of seven scholars in the first cohort of Vanderbilt’s Academic Pathways Fellows will be working with School of Engineering faculty members. The postdoctoral program addresses the acute need for greater diversity in the professoriate by offering a specialized experience for new Ph.Ds from underrepresented backgrounds. They will receive enhanced… Read More

An interdisciplinary materials science graduate student has been selected for a prestigious entrepreneurship program to scale and commercialize a revolutionary method of carbon nanotube production. Anna Douglas is one of five entrepreneurs selected for the inaugural cohort of the Department of Energy Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory… Read More

Twenty-nine projects have been selected to receive seed grants to support pilot research or developmental projects on equity, diversity and inclusion. The Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion awarded the grants, with support from Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs… Read More

Vanderbilt University is one of 40 academic partners in a new robotics manufacturing institute in Pittsburgh that will be funded with $80 million from the Department of Defense and $173 million in matching funds from more than 200 participating partners, including companies, local governments, academic and nonprofit organizations. The Defense… Read More

A biomedical engineering graduate student at Vanderbilt University has received a young investigator award for her work on heart valve disease. Meghan Bowler Doctoral student Meghan Bowler won the Allan D. Callow Young Investigator Award for best poster presentation at the 15th biennial meeting of the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular… Read More

Lauren Branscombe and Joshua Fleck have much in common. Both are juniors in mechanical engineering, focused on medical robotics. Both work in Biomedical and Assistive Technology (BAT) lab with Karl Zelik, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and biomedical engineering. Both plan to pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical… Read More

John Wilson, assistant professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering, has received an Innovative Research Grant from Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). (photo by John Russell) An assistant professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering has received an Innovative Research Grant from… Read More

Researchers from Vanderbilt and two other universities charged with reinventing and protecting America’s power grid are taking their first solutions on a demonstration tour. Their idea is to build an underlying, open-source software platform to support decentralized applications that boost the power grid’s resilience and protect it from dangers ranging… Read More