Alumni Category
Engineers advance efforts to speed blood test results
Jan. 13, 2020—Vanderbilt engineers are working on a process that ultimately may allow patients to get blood test results fast. The process involves automating the duplication process of a person’s DNA to bring DNA levels up to the point where they can be detected. Identified by Mindy Leelawong, biomedical engineering research assistant professor, unconventional dyes eliminate certain...
Kidambi receives NSF Early Career Award to support atomically thin membrane research
Jan. 10, 2020—Piran Kidambi has received a 2020 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant. The five-year, $500,000 grant—Deconstructing Proton Transport through Atomically Thin Membranes—begins July 1, 2020. Kidambi, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, will use the award to support his research on membrane technology. His work focuses on atomically-thin two-dimensional materials that allow...
TEDx Talk highlights Frist Center for Autism work
Jan. 9, 2020—This past November, Frist Center for Autism and Innovation communications coordinator Claire Barnett spoke at TEDxVanderbilt about autistic employment. Her talk, titled “Why autistic unemployment is so high – and what we can do about it,” explores several reasons that autistic adults struggle to obtain meaningful work. Barnett also discusses the steps that both businesses...
Experiments into amorphous carbon monolayer lend new evidence to physics debate
Jan. 8, 2020—Plastic, glass and gels, also known as bulk amorphous materials, are everyday objects to all of us. But for researchers, these materials have long been scientific enigmas – specifically when it comes to their atomic makeup, which lacks the strict ordered structure of crystals found in most solids such as metals, diamonds and salts. Although...
Engineering alumnus and Uber product leader named to 2020 Forbes’ list of 30 Under 30
Jan. 7, 2020—Engineering alumnus Nikhil Goel, BE’13, has been selected for the 2020 Forbes “30 Under 30.” The list highlights “600 revolutionaries in 20 industries changing the course—and the face—of business and society.” Goel is the head of product at Uber Elevate, a division that he co-founded after working on Uber’s emerging markets team. According to Forbes, he...
Music takes engineering major into the lab and across the country
Dec. 18, 2019—When biomedical engineering major Brett Koolik first started learning piano as a child, he wasn’t motivated solely by his love of music. He also wanted to figure out how a piano works. The Boca Raton, Florida, native has been passionate about making music and making discoveries in science and engineering ever since. At Vanderbilt, he...
57 students complete coding, data analytics boot camps
Dec. 16, 2019—On December 9, 57 students celebrated their completion of Vanderbilt University boot camps in coding and data analytics. The Trilogy-powered boot camps are a partnership between Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management and its School of Engineering. The ceremony covered classes that have graduated since July: 32 students from coding and 25 from data analytics. M....
Vanderbilt mechanical engineers earn top materials research awards
Dec. 13, 2019—Vanderbilt mechanical engineers took home top awards at the Dec. 6 meeting of the Materials Research Society in Boston, Massachusetts. Mechanical engineering professor Kelsey Hatzell received the Materials Research Society Nelson “Buck” Robinson Science and Technology Award for Renewable Energy. Hatzell was selected from more than 25 candidates for her research contributions to renewable energy....