Engineering and Technology

Tumors cause the intracellular material surrounding them to stiffen. Softening this protective layer could make existing cancer treatments more effective, according to new research.

Kenny Tao, a new assistant professor of biomedical engineering, brings his innovations in the field of optical coherence tomography and his wry sense of humor to Vanderbilt's laboratories and classrooms.

Vanderbilt University’s William Grissom and Charles Caskey are throwing open doors with a do-it-yourself, open-source software and hardware guide to enabling existing imaging machines with focused ultrasound technology.

A startup veteran and investor whose ventures range from retail to manufacturing joined Vanderbilt University this spring as the inaugural executive director of the newly created Innovation Center. Robert Grajewski joined Vanderbilt as the Evans Family Executive Director of the Innovation Center on April 1. The Innovation Center, set to open late summer, will support a maker culture that encourages innovation and creativity and bolsters implementation of the four intersecting themes that make up the university’s Academic Strategic Plan.

A number of exciting projects are among the 74 design projects featured at the School of Engineering’s annual Design Day, including zero-energy home designs and a solar-powered desalination system.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given clearance to market and sell the powered lower-limb exoskeleton created by a team of Vanderbilt engineers and commercialized by the Parker Hannifin Corporation for both clinical and personal use in the United States.

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.