mechanical engineering
Engineers’ groundbreaking discovery points to new route for creating thermal superconductors
Apr. 16, 2021—The relentless increase in heat loads imposed on devices in modern technologies is driving renewed interest among engineers and materials scientists in the area of heat transfer. A team of engineers led by Vanderbilt professor Deyu Li has shown experimentally that the thermal conductivity of a special kind of ultra-thin nanowire becomes divergent with the wire length.
Engineers’ groundbreaking discovery points to a new route to create thermal superconductors
Apr. 16, 2021—The relentless increase in heat loads imposed on devices in modern technologies is driving renewed interest among engineers and materials scientists in the area of heat transfer. A key challenge is finding approaches to enhance the materials’ capability of conducting heat. A team of engineers led by Vanderbilt mechanical engineering Professor Deyu Li and his...
Research Snapshot: Exosuit concept developed at Vanderbilt peeks at the future of wearable tech
Mar. 25, 2021—The idea Karl Zelik (Vanderbilt University) Erik Lamers (Vanderbilt University) Karl E. Zelik, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and recent Ph.D. graduate Erik P. Lamers revealed a new exosuit designed to bring back relief to workers who have been under high strain throughout the pandemic, including last-mile delivery drivers and essential workers. The suit can...
Research Snapshot: Exosuit concept developed at Vanderbilt peeks at the future of wearable tech
Mar. 25, 2021—Research snapshot: Study shows promise to bring back strain-relieving wearable tech to last-mile delivery drivers, heavy-lifting jobs and other essential workers, including those strained during pandemic. Est. reading time: 1.5 minutes
Photonics discovery portends dramatic efficiencies in silicon chips
Mar. 1, 2021—A team led by Vanderbilt engineers has achieved the ability to transmit two different types of optical signals across a single chip at the same time. The breakthrough heralds a potentially dramatic increase in the volume of data a silicon chip can transmit over any period of time. With this project, the research team moved...
Collaboration propels advancements in personalized cochlear implant procedures
Feb. 26, 2021—Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the busiest cochlear implant center in the U.S., performing more than 300 implant surgeries each year. A key driver is close collaboration among engineers, surgeons, audiologists, speech scientists and other experts. This interdisciplinary, trans-institutional work has enabled a truly customized approach for each patient. Research teams have developed image-guided surgery for...
New $2 million NIH grant advances less invasive procedure for TLE
Feb. 16, 2021—A Vanderbilt research team has received a $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to further develop a needle-size robotic surgery system with real-time MRI guidance for drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Such a procedure has the potential to reduce or eliminate seizures using a minimally invasive approach over the current standard of care,...
Vanderbilt researchers’ surgical robots could make radical prostatectomy safer, less invasive
Feb. 10, 2021—Researchers at the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering have developed a minuscule robot that could revolutionize surgical procedures for treating prostate cancer, which affects one in nine men in the United States. Using a lifelike model, the team demonstrated that the surgical robot could not only remove the prostate gland and tissues through the...
Surgical robots developed by Vanderbilt researchers could make radical prostatectomy safer and less invasive
Feb. 10, 2021—Surgery for prostate cancer—the most prevalent cancer in men—soon could no longer require cutting through healthy tissue and nerves. Surgeons instead may work with minuscule robots developed at the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering.
Trans-institutional collaboration receives $2 million BRAIN Initiative grant, developing brain organoids to map neurological development
Feb. 3, 2021—Vivian Gama, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, and Leon Bellan, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, have won a $2.3 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative. Vivian Gama Leon Bellan (Vanderbilt University) The researchers will be developing three-dimensional brain organoids and...
Trans-institutional collaboration receives $2 million BRAIN Initiative grant, developing brain organoids to map neurological development
Feb. 3, 2021—Vivian Gama, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, and Leon Bellan, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, have won a $2.3 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative. Vivian Gama Leon Bellan (Vanderbilt University) The researchers will be developing three-dimensional brain organoids and...
Trans-institutional collaboration receives $2 million BRAIN Initiative grant, developing brain organoids to map neurological development
Feb. 1, 2021—Researchers will combine expertise in developmental cell biology and tissue engineering/microfluidics to develop highly complex organoids, with the goal of understanding currently incurable neurological disorders.