October, 2020
Wearable sensor algorithms powered by machine learning could be key to preventing runners’ injuries
Oct. 28, 2020—A trans-institutional team of Vanderbilt engineering, data science and clinical researchers has developed a novel approach for monitoring bone stress in recreational and professional athletes, with the goal of anticipating and preventing injury. Using machine learning and biomechanical modeling techniques, the researchers built multisensory algorithms that combine data from lightweight, low-profile wearable sensors in shoes...
Former FBI special agent, cybercrime expert has advice on hacking risks—Schmidt Lecture Nov. 19
Oct. 27, 2020—The worldwide cost of cybercrime is expected to reach $6 trillion by 2021, according to CyberSecurity Ventures. The projections were made prior to COVID-19 and according to the FBI, cybercrime has increased 300% since the beginning of the pandemic. During his more than 30 years with the FBI, retired Special Agent Scott Augenbaum responded to...
Maker class adapts to COVID-19, innovates at the Wond’ry
Oct. 26, 2020—In the COVID-19 era, finding creative ways to solve problems has become more important than ever, especially when it comes to hands-on learning. The director of making at the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s Innovation Center, has adjusted his class on engineering and immersive design to help students create in all environments while making things that help people....
Team examines operating limits in solid-state batteries to improve driving range of electric vehicles
Oct. 22, 2020—There is huge momentum toward adoption of battery electric vehicles primarily because performances are meeting or exceeding the properties of traditional automobiles. Consumers want electric vehicles that have similar driving range (energy density) and charging styles and times (power density) to gasoline powered vehicles. “One pathway to improving the energy density of the battery, or...
Climate adaptation is a necessity and no longer an option
Oct. 19, 2020—This opinion piece by Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Mark Abkowitz originally appeared in The Hill, an American news website based in Washington, D.C. focused on politics, policy, business and international relations. Professor Abkowitz chairs a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Extreme Weather and Climate Change Adaptation. Wildfires, inland and coastal flooding, heat waves,...
Team receives $4 million NIH grant for rapid test of COVID-19, other respiratory infections
Oct. 13, 2020—Twice in 2019, Nick Adams and his colleagues applied for federal grant money to develop a rapid, precise, in-office test for respiratory infections. This test would skip the time-consuming and expensive steps of purifying the samples for testing or sending them to a lab. Doctors and their patients would not have to wait days, sometimes...
Student team takes top honors in data science challenge
Oct. 13, 2020—Using data sets that included population, commuter traffic, air quality and other measures of downtown Chicago, a team of graduate and undergraduate students recently took the top spot in a challenge organized by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Urban data analytics was one of seven topical challenges organized as part of the fourth annual Smoky Mountain...
BME student’s new sci-fi novel, written pre-COVID-19, imagines life in an epidemic
Oct. 12, 2020—Vanderbilt first-year student Morgan Butts was raised with a belief that having the “it” factor means far more than a popularity contest. For Butts, “it” stands for “independent thought.” The biomedical engineering major used this idea as a launching point for her newly published science fiction novel, Raeth Thower and the Four Princes. Vanderbilt first-year...