Engineering

All it took to rip the roof off Aloha Airlines Flight 243 in 1988 was the gradual corrosion around rivet holes that had, over time, created tiny cracks in the Boeing 737‘s fuselage that suddenly combined with fatal results. Read More

William B. Akers and Fred J. Cassetty Jr. received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering during the Engineering Celebration Dinner held at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel Thursday, Oct. 19. Read More

Hundreds of lives could have been saved from Hurricane Katrina's rampage in Louisiana if the powers-that-be had followed their own crisis plans, believed the hurricane experts and communicated to residents in graphic terms the devastation that was coming their way. Read More

Vanderbilt's Peabody College of education and human development was ranked 5th in the nation for the second consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking of the leading graduate and professional schools. Peabody's Special Education program was ranked first in the nation for the fourth straight year, and, overall, the school saw seven of its programs ranked in the top 10. Read More

Last year, the amount of external funding that Vanderbilt University researchers received from peer-reviewed contracts and grants increased by 15 percent to reach an all-time high of $444 million. Read More

Doug Fisher, associate professor of computer science and computer engineering at Vanderbilt University, talks about the state of the art in artificial intelligence and robotics in this interview by Adelyn Jones of WRLT FM radio in Nashville. The interview was aired Sunday, March 19, and was co-produced by Dan Buckley. Music by John Scofield. (Used with permission from Tuned In Broadcasting and John Scofield.) Read More

Henry Petroski, the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University, will speak on "The Paradox of Design: Success through Failure" on Wednesday, April 12, at Vanderbilt University in the final presentation of the 2005-06 Chancellor's Lecture Series. Read More

Educators and researchers have reacted with both enthusiasm and skepticism to President Bush's State of the Union call to improve America's competitiveness in math and science. Vanderbilt education and science experts are available to discuss what it will take to stop the United States' slide towards scientific and mathematic irrelevancy on the global stage. Read More

"Cast in concrete" is not all it's cracked up to be. Concrete structures from bridges to condominium complexes are susceptible to cracks, corrosion and other forces of natural and man-made chemical assault and degradation. Aging structures can be repaired, but at significant cost. Read More

Soccer-ball-shaped "buckyballs" are the most famous players on the nanoscale field, presenting tantalizing prospects of revolutionizing medicine and the computer industry. Since their discovery in 1985, engineers and scientists have been exploring the properties of these molecules for a wide range of applications and innovations. Read More

Credited with launching the fields of sustained drug delivery and tissue engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Institute Professor Robert S. Langer will give the John R. and Donna S. Hall Engineering Lecture at Vanderbilt at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11. Read More

Thomas R. Harris, Vanderbilt chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department and Orrin H. Ingram Distinguished Professor of Engineering, has received a distinguished service award from the major scientific and professional society in the field of biomedical engineering. Read More

Dr. Andre' Lemont Churchwell, a Vanderbilt University cardiologist whose distinguished career has included extensive professional and community service and support for aspiring minority faculty, is the recipient of the 2005 Walter R. Murray Jr. Distinguished Alumnus Award. Read More

Tamara Baynham, a senior research scientist for the Guidant Corporation, will speak to encourage engineering majors Oct. 13 during her presentation "Survive and Thrive in Engineering School: It Takes a Village." The talk will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center as part of the Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series sponsored by the center. Read More

Dongqing Li -- an international leader in "lab-on-a-chip" biotechnology who is joining Vanderbilt as the new H. Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering -- dreams of creating a miniature, portable laboratory the size of a business card, capable of on-the-scene diagnosis of diseases and rapid detection of biochemical warfare agents. Read More

Hurricane Katrina has left most of New Orleans a virtual toxic wasteland, and a Vanderbilt University professor says that perhaps this once great city that is below sea level should not be rebuilt, at least in its present form. Mark Abkowitz, professor of civil and environmental engineering, says "imagine the infrastructure expense required to rebuild the levees that can withstand far more than what was included in the original design, installation of a pumping system with greater capacity and less prone to failure, and add to that the knowledge that the climate change will increase the frequency and severity of hurricanes in the region." Read More

Peter Eisenman, an internationally recognized architect and educator who has designed projects ranging from NFL stadiums to unique private homes, will speak Sept. 23 at Vanderbilt University as part of the Chancellor's Lecture Series. Read More

Vanderbilt experts are available to discuss a variety of issues related to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, including emergency response planning, police response, looting, economic impact, impact on universities, mass casualties, infectious disease and medical problems facing children. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are two of the authors of a research study released today that revealed seafood from the area close to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska currently is not threatened by radioactive materials resulting from underground nuclear tests carried out at Amchitka Island between 1965 and 1971. Read More

An international team of biomedical engineers has demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to grow healthy new bone reliably in one part of the body and use it to repair damaged bone at a different location. Read More