‘mechanical engineering’
Engineer’s ultrathin device harvests electricity from human motion
Jul. 21, 2017—Imagine slipping into a jacket, shirt or skirt that powers your cell phone, fitness tracker and other personal electronic devices as you walk, wave and even when you are sitting down. A new, ultrathin energy harvesting system developed at Vanderbilt University’s Nanomaterials and Energy Devices Laboratory has the potential to do just that. Based on...
Alumni Home Features Mechanical Engineering Media News Research
Tiny circuit boards stay operational in warm water, dissolve when cooled
Jun. 26, 2017—Building transient electronics is usually about doing something to make them stop working: blast them with light, soak them with acid, dunk them in water. Professor Leon Bellan’s idea is to dissolve them with neglect: Stop applying heat, and they come apart. Using silver nanowires embedded in a polymer that dissolves in water below 32...
Three engineering faculty proposals earn Discovery Grants
Jun. 22, 2017—Vanderbilt University’s Office of the Provost has recognized three engineering faculty proposals with Discovery Grants, one of Vanderbilt’s primary means of investing in advancing the discovery of knowledge in its core disciplines and strengthening the university’s scholarly profile. A total of 13 faculty proposals have received funding. Discovery Grants are designed to support new ideas,...
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A cap full of coffee can improve nose, throat surgery
Jun. 20, 2017—Imagine plopping six cups of coffee grounds on the heads of patients just before they are wheeled into the operating room to have nose or throat surgery? In essence, that is what a team of Vanderbilt University engineers are proposing in an effort to improve the reliability of the sophisticated “GPS” system that surgeons use...
New AAU energy research webpage features VU engineering research
Feb. 8, 2017—Cary Pint, right, Andrew Westover and Nitin Muralidharan, who is holding the prototype junkyard battery they created in his left hand. He and Westover are holding bottles of the common household chemicals used in the process. (Vanderbilt University) Vanderbilt researchers who “MacGyvered” metal junkyard scraps and common household chemicals into high-performance batteries are featured in...
Engineering’s Çağlar Oskay named ASME Fellow
Jan. 30, 2017—Çağlar Oskay, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and mechanical engineering, has been selected to be a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for exceptional engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession. Of the more than 140,000 members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, fewer than 4,000 have attained the...
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VU Inside: Giving surgical robots a human touch
Oct. 31, 2016—A critical goal in modern surgery is to make procedures as safe and minimally invasive as possible, which often means using robotic tools. Vanderbilt University bioengineer Nabil Simaan says a negative side effect of doing surgery with tiny entry points into the body is that the surgeon loses his or her sense of touch and...
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Mechanical engineering graduate student collects national and international astronautical awards
Oct. 11, 2016—Christopher T. Lyne has won two prestigious awards hailing his work in astronautics. Lyne, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, has received the 2016 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation Abe M. Zarem Award for Distinguished Achievement in Astronautics. Lyne also received the Pierre Contensou Medal for first place in this year’s International...