February, 2018
Creativity, curiosity, community on display during E-Week 2018
Feb. 25, 2018—New events, student organizations, and challenges highlighted E-Week 2018, a lineup designed to spark interest in engineering and remind students what got them excited about studying engineering in the first place. The Engineering Council, which pulls the week together each year, added daily scavenger hunts with prizes on Snapchat. Themed Entertainment Association at Vanderbilt, a new...
VINSE director Rosenthal honored for achievements in chemistry, STEM education
Feb. 22, 2018—Sandra Rosenthal, the Jack and Pamela Egan Professor of Chemistry and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, has been named the winner of this year’s Charles H. Herty Medal by the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. The award is given to recognize outstanding chemists in the Southeast U.S. who...
Spinach protein and blackberry dye give juice to biohybrid solar cells
Feb. 20, 2018—Berries really do pack extra punch – increasing the voltage of spinach-derived biohybrid solar cells developed by Vanderbilt researchers by up to a factor of 20. The interdisciplinary team discovered that combining a natural dye from blackberries with photosynthetic proteins extracted from spinach leaves creates a device that can produce vastly more voltage than a...
Engineering’s Deyu Li named ASME Fellow
Feb. 20, 2018—Deyu Li, professor of mechanical engineering, has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a distinction awarded to ASME members who have made significant engineering achievements. Li has made significant contributions in nanoscale energy transport as well as microfluidics and nanofluidics. He is internationally recognized for his pioneering work in thermal...
New recyclable resin makes wind turbine blades much more sustainable
Feb. 16, 2018—Fields of spinning wind turbine blades inspire thoughts of earth-friendly energy, but until now, generating wind power hasn’t been as sustainable as people may have thought. It generally requires a great deal of time and energy to cure the type of resin that makes the 150-foot-wide fiberglass blades strong and durable. When they finally wear...
Visionary Italian architect, engineer to show how sensing technologies can reshape cities
Feb. 15, 2018—MIT Senseable City Lab Director Carlo Ratti to deliver Vanderbilt’s Hall Lecture Feb. 22 Carlo Ratti creates technological solutions that respond to citizens of cities. He makes cities senseable. “In the midst of rapid urbanization, the concept of smart cities — or senseable cities — as we prefer to call it, is simply the manifestation...
Two engineering professors named American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics fellows
Feb. 15, 2018—Robert W. Pitz and Sankaran Mahadevan are members of the 2018 class of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics fellows. They join 20 other members from academia, industry and government honored by the AIAA. AIAA confers the distinction of Fellow in recognition of an individual’s notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences or technology...
The Wild Bunch Library Design Challenge: Engineering a better experience
Feb. 14, 2018—Design shapes processes and experiences as well as physical products. That mindset served Vanderbilt engineering undergraduates well during a student design competition to make the resources in university libraries more accessible and meaningful for users. The teams from across Vanderbilt’s schools and disciplines that produced the three top ideas all included engineering undergraduates. The Wild...