Mechanical Engineering

Kelsey Hatzell studied the performance of a promising electrolyte for solid-state lithium batteries under real-world conditions. Read More

Nabil Simaan’s Advanced Robotics and Mechanism Applications Laboratory at Vanderbilt leads the way in advancing several robotics technologies for medical use, including miniature robots for single small-incision, cochlear implant and minimally invasive throat surgeries. Read More

Falling is no joke when you're a senior citizen or have other balance issues. Vanderbilt engineers are working on a 'smart cane' that could help physical therapists spot and treat problems sooner. Read More

A fundamental advance in the quality of an optical material used to make hyperlenses makes it possible to see features on the surface of living cells in greater detail than ever before. Read More

Collaboration between a mechanical engineer at Vanderbilt University and a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has resulted in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant that will be used to develop a steerable robotic needle to safely biopsy hard-to-reach lung nodules. Read More

A new energy harvesting system developed at Vanderbilt University can generate electrical current from the full range of human motions and is thin enough to embed in clothing. Read More

Leon Bellan made a dissolving circuit board that, so far, just turns on an LED light. Its potential applications are far more promising. Read More

Vanderbilt engineers have designed a “granular jamming cap” filled with coffee grounds that can improve the accuracy of the sophisticated “GPS” system that surgeons use for nose and throat surgery. Read More

An interdisciplinary materials science graduate student has been selected for a prestigious entrepreneurship program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to scale and commercialize a revolutionary method of carbon nanotube production. Read More

Artificial kidneys, gay-straight alliances and junkyard batteries captured readers' attention in 2016. Read More

Expect the unexpected when you walk into Kit Parker’s biophysics lab at Harvard. From cuttlefish skin camouflage to cotton candy machines used for wound dressings, his science is anything but ordinary. In fact, the young scientists inside are just as likely to be playing with crayons to visualize solutions… Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered how to make high-performance batteries using scraps of metal from the junkyard and household chemicals. Read More

A team of engineers and psychologists have developed a virtual reality driving simulator designed to help teenagers with autism spectrum disorder learn to drive, a key skill in allowing them to live independent and productive lives. Read More

Vanderbilt seniors have designed a new method that improves the accuracy of magnetic strip placement during the manufacture of payment cards. Read More

Undergraduates taking Amanda Lowery’s Material Manipulations course have redesigned a toy car so a two-year-old with cerebral palsy can drive it. Read More

Scientists from Vanderbilt and George Washington universities have worked out a way to make electric vehicles that not only are carbon neutral but carbon negative. Read More

Vanderbilt engineers have modified a cotton candy machine to create complex microfluidic networks that mimic the capillary system in living tissue and have demonstrated that these networks can keep cells alive and functioning in an artificial three-dimensional matrix. Read More

Vanderbilt engineers have discovered that adding quantum dots made from fool's gold to the electrodes of standard lithium batteries can substantially boost their performance. Read More

Area Girl Scouts will have the opportunity to earn their “Engineering Day” patches at an event hosted by Vanderbilt University engineering students on Saturday, Oct. 3. Read More

Invention of the first integrated circularly polarized light detector on a silicon chip opens the door for development of small, portable sensors that could expand the use of polarized light for drug screening, surveillance, etc. Read More