Engineering

An animated computer program created by a Vanderbilt University professor of computer science and computer engineering is being used in Nashville public school classrooms to teach science to middle school students. But the teachable agent called Betty‘s Brain does much more; it also teaches students how to learn. Read More

Combine a mechanical arm with a miniature rocket motor: The result is a prosthetic device that is the closest thing yet to a bionic arm. Read More

Vanderbilt engineers have won an award from Microsoft Corp. to develop a real-time, online, detailed and accurate picture of air quality in large metropolitan areas like Nashville. The mobile air quality monitoring system will make it possible to monitor air quality more accurately than the current system of fixed stations performing low-resolution sampling by including car-mounted sensors that measure, process and report emission levels. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers, in conjunction with colleagues at several other institutions, are working on a project that promises significant improvement in the control of proteins for a number of uses, including the detection of chemical and biological weapons. Read More

There is a dark side to even the humble raindrop. A single drop is harmless, but when billions of raindrops from a cloudburst fall on bare soil they strike like billions of tiny hammers, dislodging tons of soil per acre which is carried away by surface runoff. Read More