Biomedical Engineering

A team of engineering seniors has designed an embedded thermoelectric generator to convert that wavy shimmer of heat that rises from hot asphalt—waste heat radiation—into electrical energy. To protect soldiers’ hands from heat burns while rappelling from helicopters, another team has created ‘fast rope’ insertion gloves. These design projects and 52 more will be on display at the Vanderbilt School of Engineering’s Design Day 2023, Monday, April 24. Read More

An innovative exosuit developed by a team of Vanderbilt engineers comes full circle this semester with a pilot implementation in the Division of Administration. The pilot test includes the use of 27 Apex 2 suits over six weeks. During the pilot test, users will wear the suits in actual work conditions and provide feedback throughout the duration of the study. Read More

Meet some members of the Class of 2023 whose inspired collaborations—within Vanderbilt, across the Nashville community and beyond—are making the world better.  Read More

Class of 2023: Read how biomedical engineering major and head resident advisor Namrah Ajmal is creating unique spaces for community and belonging. Read More

Working across every continent and time zone, the Vanderbilt Office of Global Safety could be called the office that never sleeps. The office works to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff as they travel beyond the borders of Davidson County. Read More

Four Vanderbilt engineering students working in the fields of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and biomedical engineering won best paper awards out of hundreds of papers presented at the 2023 SPIE Medical Imaging conference held Feb. 19-23 in San Diego. SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics and the week-long conference showcases... Read More

Vanderbilt professors Abhishek Dubey, Jonathan Brunger, and Carlos Silvera Batista have won National Science Foundation CAREER Awards. The prestigious five-year award honors early career faculty who have the potential to serve as role models in research and education and lead advances in their fields. Read More

Vanderbilt University engineering professor Jonathan Brunger has won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to understand how cells and biomaterials can work together to improve tissue regeneration. Read More

Project will be led by Mechanical Engineering Professor Nabil Simaan, a globally renowned expert in robotic surgery A multidisciplinary team from the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering has received a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to develop a low-cost simulation tool to train medical personnel in Kenya to perform minimally invasive laparoscopic procedures. The project will... Read More

Biomedical engineering graduate student Ismael Ortiz has been awarded a fellowship in the Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs competition administered at the Fellowships Office of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Ford Predoctoral Fellowships are highly competitive with a typical overall success rate of only 4% to 5%. Fellowships provide three years of support at... Read More

Led by Nabil Simaan, professor of mechanical engineering and a globally renowned expert in robotic surgery, a multidisciplinary team from the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering has received nearly $4 million to develop a low-cost simulation tool to find solutions that allow safer, minimally invasive surgeries for a wider swath of the global population.  Read More

Mikail Rubinov has been awarded $600,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop new computational methods for analysis of large-scale brain activity data. Read More

Mikail Rubinov, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has been awarded $600,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop new computational methods for analysis of large-scale brain activity data. The three-year project is funded by the NSF Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS). It was awarded alongside a companion project from the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation... Read More

Vanderbilt University and the School of Engineering offer undergraduates numerous summer research opportunities to expand their classroom knowledge and gain valuable practical experience. The Institute for Software Integrated Systems is hosting a virtual open house for interested students on Feb. 22 from 3 to 6 p.m. The registration deadline is Feb. 21. The School of... Read More

Technology driven by deep-learning model delivers 4D video-rate imaging, improves precision A multidisciplinary team of engineers and clinicians at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has advanced its work to develop new tools for intraoperative imaging during ophthalmic surgery. The team recently presented a novel, automated instrument tracking method that leverages multimodal imaging and deep learning to... Read More

Maizie (Xin) Zhou, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and computer science, is the recipient of a $1.9 million award from the National Institutes of Health. She has also received $120,000 from Complete Genomics, a leader in human genome sequencing. The Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA)(R35) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH) will... Read More

Vanderbilt University engineering professor Michael R. King has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors. Read More

Vanderbilt University engineering professor Michael R. King has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. The NAI Fellows Program recognizes academic inventors who have created or facilitated outstanding inventions that make a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. Election to NAI Fellow is the highest... Read More

While diabetes is already associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer, a new Vanderbilt study published in Science Advances on November 18 indicates that presence of the disease may increase tumor growth and stiffness. Researchers also found that diabetes treatments could reduce the tumor growth and stiffness to levels comparable with non-diabetic ones.... Read More

Biomedical engineering doctoral student Sarah Goodale has been awarded a National Institute on Aging Transition to Postdoc Fellowship for her proposed work on investigating fatigue and sleep disturbance symptoms in Alzheimer’s Disease and their relationship with functional and structural properties of the brain and intellectual decline. The National Institutes of Health NIA F99/K00 award supports... Read More