Mechanical Engineering

The IPEMS robot is fully dressed in a standard individual protection ensemble protective gear. For the first time, the military can conduct high-quality and reproducible tests of protective equipment without using a human subject. Photo courtesy of MRIGlobal. The completion of a human-like robot designed to provide data on the… Read More

Barry D. Lichter, 82, professor of mechanical engineering and professor of materials science and engineering emeritus, died Feb. 1 in Nashville. Barry D. Lichter Lichter, a native of Chelsea, Mass., received his bachelor’s degree in 1953 and his doctorate in 1958, both in metallurgy from MIT. Following research positions at… Read More

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jason Valentine has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant. Valentine The four-year, $400,000 grant – All-Dielectric Optical Metasurfaces For Controlling Wave Fronts – will allow Valentine to continue research that will lead to a new class of ultra-compact optical elements that… Read More

Vanderbilt NASA Student Launch Team: (Front, L-R ) William Emfinger, Andrew Voss, Brandon Dimmig, Shivaprem Bernath, Chris Twedell, Fred Folz, Dexter Watkins, Mitchell Masia, (Back, L-R) Patrick Foran, Jordan Salik and Kevin Bush. Organizers of the NASA Student Launch Program (SLP) have announced a final field of 27 collegiate… Read More

Two Vanderbilt School of Engineering graduates — the co-founder of an alternative energy company and the co-inventor of a portable exoskeleton that helps paraplegics to walk — are among five Vanderbilt alumni who have been named to Forbes magazine’s  30 Under 30. The… Read More

Mechanical engineering senior Khairul Kamarulzaman's video - Postcard - won InternationalStudent.com’s grand prize and a viewer’s choice award in the website’s 2013 Travel Video Contest. Khairul Kamarulzaman has taken advantage semester and holiday breaks at Vanderbilt to travel west and east, north and south across United States. A… Read More

  Brandon Dimmig steadies a fan cart for a cluster of eager fifth graders. The fan cart looks like a toy and students are instantly attracted to the straight grey track and the small black cart with a movable fan. Brandon Dimmig, Vanderbilt Aerospace Club president, readies… Read More

Silicon chip with porous surface next to the special furnace where it was coated with graphene to create a supercapacitor electrode. (Joe Howell / Vanderbilt)   Solar cells that produce electricity 24/7, not just when the sun is shining. Mobile phones with built-in power cells that recharge in… Read More

Mechanical engineering alumnus J. Robert Sims Jr. (BE’63) will serve as president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for 2014-2015. Bob Sims Sims, of Basking Ridge, N.J., is a senior engineering fellow with Becht Engineering Company Inc. He is a renowned authority in risk-based technologies, high pressure equipment, mechanical… Read More

Engineer Tracie Prater stands next to the nose cone for the Delta IV heavy rocket that will launch NASA’s Orion Crew Capsule on its first test flight in 2014. Tracie J. Prater has been selected to participate at the 2013 Emerging Space Leaders Grant Program during the 64th International Astronautical… Read More