October, 2013
Speaker creates game theory framework to tackle terrorism attacks
Oct. 31, 2013—A computer software system based on game theory was installed nine months ago at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – the eighth busiest ports in the world – to protect the area’s harbors against terrorism attacks. The anti-terrorism system, called Port Resilience Operational/Tactical Enforcement to Combat Terrorism system (Armor-Protect) and deployed by...
National Robotics Initiative grant will provide surgical robots with a new level of machine intelligence
Oct. 28, 2013—Nabil Simaan testing a surgical robot that he designed. (Joe Howell / Vanderbilt) Providing surgical robots with a new kind of machine intelligence that significantly extends their capabilities and makes them much easier and more intuitive for surgeons to operate is the goal of a major new grant announced as part of the National Robotics...
Adams uses sound waves for bomb detection
Oct. 24, 2013—Douglas Adams (John Russell / Vanderbilt) A remote acoustic detection system designed to identify homemade bombs can determine the difference between those that contain low-yield and high-yield explosives. That capability – never before reported in a remote bomb detection system – was described in a paper by Vanderbilt engineer Douglas Adams presented at the American...
New device stores electricity on silicon chips
Oct. 23, 2013—Silicon chip with porous surface next to the special furnace where it was coated with graphene to create a supercapacitor electrode. (Joe Howell / Vanderbilt) Solar cells that produce electricity 24/7, not just when the sun is shining. Mobile phones with built-in power cells that recharge in seconds and work for weeks between charges....
Goldfarb named to ‘Popular Mechanics’ top 10 innovators list
Oct. 22, 2013— Popular Mechanics has named Michael Goldfarb, H. Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, one of its “Ten Innovators Who Changed The World” for 2013. Goldfarb, who develops robotic adaptive equipment for people with disabilities, and his former graduate student Ryan Farris were recognized for the Indego, an exoskeleton they developed at Vanderbilt to help...
New technique tracks breast cancer subtypes, treatment effectiveness
Oct. 21, 2013—Ph.D. biomedical engineering candidate Alex Walsh and colleagues are studying new imaging techniques to distinguish breast cancer subtypes and determine if specific therapies are working against cancer cells. (photo by John Russell) A group of Vanderbilt researchers has used laser technology and a custom-built multiphoton microscope to distinguish breast cancer subtypes and determine if specific...
Mahadevan-Jansen elected a director of international optics society
Oct. 18, 2013—Anita Mahadevan-Jansen has been elected to the Board of Directors of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Her three-year term begins Jan. 1, 2014. Mahadevan-Jansen, an acknowledged leader in biomedical photonics, is the Orrin H. Ingram Professor of Biomedical Engineering and a professor of neurological surgery. As director of optical diagnostics research in...
Restoring surgeons’ sense of touch during minimally invasive surgeries
Oct. 17, 2013—A small, wireless capsule has been developed that can restore the sense of touch that surgeons are losing as they shift increasingly from open to minimally invasive surgery. During open surgery, doctors rely on their sense of touch to identify the edges of hidden tumors and to locate hidden blood vessels and other anatomical structures:...