October, 2021
Meet the new faculty
Oct. 22, 2021—The School of Engineering hired 10 new CS faculty in the first year of Destination: Computer Science, a multi-year recruitment initiative.
Decarbonization of U.S. waterways poses unique challenges
Oct. 21, 2021—Landmark study looks at alternative fuels, future propulsion technologies Compared to rail and truck, the U.S. inland waterway system is the least carbon-intense and most fuel-efficient mode of moving cargo and freight—by several orders of magnitude. Even then, the inland shipping sector contributes an estimated 6.2 million tons of C02 each year. The UN International...
Headband device developed for home use with young ADHD patients
Oct. 21, 2021—A Vanderbilt biomedical engineering professor has developed a prototype headband to measure brain activity that could have widespread application in studying and ultimately treating ADHD and other neurological disorders. The device is lightweight, portable, and inexpensive to construct. Prototype components cost less than $250, compared to costs exceeding $10,000 for commercial systems. Audrey Bowden Dorothy...
Immersive clinical training elevates engineering PhD programs
Oct. 21, 2021—VISE alumni positioned to transform medical procedures In working with clinicians, Winona Richey gained big-picture knowledge of workflow, patient experience and existing technology in the operating room. The interactions sparked ideas to improve tumor marking and surgery for breast cancer. Carli DeJulius shadowed a rheumatologist and multiple orthopedic surgeons at Vanderbilt University Medical Center clinics...
Novel advanced light design and fabrication process could revolutionize sensing technologies
Oct. 21, 2021—Vanderbilt and Penn State engineers have developed a novel approach to design and fabricate thin-film infrared light sources with near-arbitrary spectral output driven by heat, along with a machine learning methodology called inverse design that reduced the optimization time for these devices from weeks or months on a multi-core computer to a few minutes on...
BME alumnus Ash Jayagopal named Chief Scientific Officer of Opus Genetics
Oct. 21, 2021—Opus Genetics, a patient-focused gene therapy company developing treatments for orphan inherited retinal diseases, has announced a key appointment to its founding executive team. Ash Jayagopal has joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer. Jayagopal, BE’03, MS’05, PhD’08, is a biomedical engineering graduate who also served as an assistant professor in the departments of ophthalmology...
Team to engineer algae for more productive biofuel potential
Oct. 19, 2021—Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, holds great promise for biofuel production because the free fatty acids they secrete are more easily recovered than those typically produced by green algae. Such fatty acids, or lipids, are readily converted into fuels. With a new $1.5 million Department of Energy grant, a three-institution team led by Professor of Chemical...
Biomedical engineers demonstrate potential for first clinically successful osteoarthritis drug
Oct. 19, 2021—Vanderbilt biomedical engineers have demonstrated the potential for the first clinically available osteoarthritis drug that interrupts the disease process rather than solely managing the pain it causes. The group used “packages” of engineered nanoparticles to sustainably deliver a type of RNA to the cells in the joint over time after treatment. With this technique, a...