Spotlights:
Faculty | Grads | Undergrads
 

Faculty (Back to Top)

	Robert W. Pitz Fast Times: It isn’t easy keeping a flame going in a 4,000-mile-an-hour wind. And that’s just one problem with aircraft propulsion at super-fast speeds. If you want hypersonic flight—and who wouldn’t want to travel to any place on the globe within 2-3 hours?—you’d better get the mix just right: Chemical kinetics, pressure, mixing rate, temperature and stream velocity are just some of the factors affecting combustion at extremely high speeds. (more)
	Nilanjan Sarkar In Search of Communication: Robots and Autism: One in 150 children in the United States will be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a complex neuro-developmental condition whose cause isn’t completely understood. The degree to which a child with ASD is affected varies widely. What is clear, says Nilanjan Sarkar, associate professor of mechanical engineering and computing engineering, is that those with autism have difficulty communicating. (more)
	Deyu Li Making DNA Personal: When the Human Genome Project announced it had “cracked the code” of human DNA in 2002, the announcement sparked a worldwide flurry of predictions that the achievement would usher in a new era of personalized medicine. Physicians would be able to diagnose and treat illness more precisely because they could consult the patient’s DNA directly to determine the exact nature of the problem and the medical intervention most likely to treat it. (more)
	Michael Goldfarb Strong Arm Tactics: “We have the technology,” TV doctors and engineers intoned more than 30 years ago as they turned Steve Austin into the Six Million Dollar Man. But that was science fiction back in the seventies. The truth is that, even today, bionic reality falls far short of that sci-fi fantasy. (more)
	Greg Walker Hot Spots at the Nanoscale: It's murky territory, down at the bottom of physical reality, where sound waves are really warmth-carrying particles and protons from the sun can make atoms scatter like fans fleeing a fat rock singer trying to crowd surf. (more)
	Eric Barth Rescue Robots: A free-piston engine system created at Vanderbilt gives search-and-rescue robots the freedom to move. (more)

Graduate Students (Back to Top)

	Vishnu Mallapragada Research area: Medical robotics and robotic rehabilitation. I am working to develop robotic devices that can help aged and disabled people during therapy sessions. I am also working on ultrasound imaging technology that can guide needle insertion during breast tumor biopsies to increase precision and decrease pain and tissue damage. (more)
	Amber Perkins Research area: Hydroxyl Tagging Velocimetry in a Jet Engine Exhaust. (more)
	Xianshi Xie Research area: Medical robotics and device design. I am working to develop a novel steerable needle device that can reduce trauma and reach the target (e.g. a tumor) more accurately during minimally invasive surgical procedures. I consider many factors in my modeling work, including tissue deformation, needle flexion, and obstacle avoidance, among others. (more)
	Caleb Rucker Research area: Medical Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgical tools - I am working to develop a new minimally invasive robotic device called an Active Cannula.  An Active Cannula is a thin, dexterous, snake-like, robotic appendage which will enable surgeons to remotely access “hard to reach” regions in the body (such as deep inside the lungs) to perform medical procedures without the complications associated with major surgical operations (See the MED lab webpage for more details).   The technical aspects of my research include system modeling, control, and numerical techniques. (more)
	Tracie Prater Research area: Friction Stir Welding. (more)

Undergraduate Students (Back to Top)

	Jonathan Goff Outside interests/activities: Captain Vanderbilt University Football
	Alisha Davis Outside interests/activities: Member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, President of Society of Women Engineers, V2 mentor, ENGAGE member.  In my free time, I enjoy traveling and spending time outdoors with friends and family.
	Nick Gordon Outside interests/activities: Beta Upsilon Chi, President, Campus Crusade for Christ, Leadership team VSVS, Vandy Fanatics
	Emma Dyer Outside interests/activities: Campus Crusade for Christ, Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, Society of Women Engineers.
	Thomas Carroll Outside interests/activities: Vanderbilt University Football Team, Campus Crusade for Christ, Kappa Alpha Order Fraternity, all sports and the outdoors.