Strategic Research Areas

Research activity can be grouped in nine intellectual neighborhoods that characterize our distinctive culture of collaboration within and beyond the traditional walls of departments, schools, institutions and disciplines. Our neighborhood model increases the already strong collaborative nature of the school and adds to the nimbleness of how we solve real-world societal and technological problems with worldwide impact.

The ability to capitalize on interdisciplinary research radically advances this mission, particularly given the many important alliances inside and outside the university among School of Engineering faculty; colleagues from other Vanderbilt schools; medical center researchers and physicians; and other research centers such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, DARPA, National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies.