Class of 2026 welcomed to campus during Move-In
Returning students, faculty and staff at Vanderbilt University greeted the Class of 2026 and their families with smiles, cheers and high-fives as they arrived on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons for Move-In Day on Aug. 20. The annual tradition, in which upper-division students help carry the first-year students’ belongings to their rooms, aims to make the newest members of the Vanderbilt community feel at home from day one. Among the other highlights of Move-In Weekend was the opening of Rothschild College in the West End Neighborhood. In addition to housing upper-division students, Vanderbilt’s newest residential college features a dining hall, great room, study lounges and a reservable black box theater for performances. MORE
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FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
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National Institutes of Health—Jeffery working with VU, VUMC and VA on substance use disorder prediction technology
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Assistant Professor Alvin Jeffery is a biomedical informatics expert, lending his expertise in developing back-end computational work to problems across health care. Here, Jeffery details studies funded by two recently awarded grants, including a grant of more than $2.3 million over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. [That] work will focus on developing technology that can identify through the electronic health record people who are likely to have substance use disorder, with the specific application of supporting genetic research across multiple organizations. Opioid and substance use disorders are not well documented, which gives geneticists a lot of trouble conducting research at the scale that they want to. MORE
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National Institutes of Health—Vanderbilt research shows how a gel that “melts” at cold temperatures can be used to start chemical reactions
A new study by Vanderbilt researchers demonstrates the ability to initiate chemical reactions by cooling materials instead of heating them—a counterintuitive process that could open new vistas for applications ranging from monitoring shipping conditions to developing smart clothing that guards against dangerously low temperatures. The paper . . . describes several experiments in which a material (methylcellulose) known for converting from a gel to a solution as temperatures drop was used to initiate mixing of two different agents embedded within. Once the material “melted” from a gel to a solution at lower temperatures, the embedded agents combined to start a chemical reaction. This research was supported by the National Institute of General Medicinal Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. MORE
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Vanderbilt professor to use portion of $2.3 million grant on robot technology to help patients avoid invasive colectomies
Robert J. Webster III, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of medicine and urology at Vanderbilt University, is part of a collaborative team that has received a more than $2.3 million grant to further develop technology that seeks to prevent patients from having invasive colectomies by using steerable robot-like instruments. Under his second startup company, EndoTheia, Webster and members of his team at Vanderbilt have developed sheaths about the size of a needle that can bend and extend like tiny octopus tentacles. They help surgeons perform precise surgical procedures deep inside the human body without making any incisions in the skin. He said the grant will also create four jobs for doctoral students at Vanderbilt as well as the University of Tennessee and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which are sharing the grant. [Webster's lab has received NIH funding in the past.] MORE
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Bridging the gap: Clear expectations are instrumental for employees with autism
In addition to combating stigma in the workplace, employees with autism are challenged with navigating systems developed for the neurotypical. This means that supervisors and employees have fundamentally different understandings of what makes a good or even ideal employee. These gaps in understanding (referred to as the “double empathy problem”) can undermine effective job performance and lead to unnecessary turnover. Efforts to solve the double empathy problem can be transformational for autistic individuals, neurotypical supervisors, and their broader organizations. Job coaches can also play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of employee-supervisor relationships. A new study . . . finds that clarifying job expectations holistically and creating and sustaining high-quality relationships between supervisors and employees plays a crucial role in creating positive employment outcomes for employees with autism. MORE
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Q&A: Why Labor Day is a chance to contemplate economic inequalities in America
Working people have shaped much of what the United States is known for. Not only have they built America, they have supported the country through its most difficult times—as essential laborers during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated. Labor Day in 2022 provides a chance to reflect on the past and the future of labor, while examining the economic inequalities that are still prevalent. [ Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology, the Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies and the founding director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University], whose research expertise includes themes related to economic justice, . . . spoke to MyVU about why economic justice should be a focus of Labor Day. MORE
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Vanderbilt No. 1 for best financial aid; find out other 2023 rankings by Princeton Review
Vanderbilt University claimed the top spots in the “Great Financial Aid” and “Their Students Love These Colleges” categories of The Princeton Review’s latest Best Colleges rankings. The annual rankings are based on how students across the country rate their overall satisfaction with their schools. Opportunity Vanderbilt, which promises to meet the financial needs of every undergraduate who attends the university, contributed to Vanderbilt’s No. 1 overall ranking in the “Great Financial Aid” category. Vanderbilt’s admissions process is need-blind, the university meets 100 percent of a family’s demonstrated need, and financial aid awards do not include loans. MORE
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Vanderbilt named No. 1 in Fortune’s 2022 Best Online Master’s in Computer Science Programs
The online master’s program in the School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science ranked No. 1 in Fortune magazine’s inaugural survey of online CS graduate programs. The 2022 list was released July 8. Fortune ranked 13 online CS master’s across the U.S. based on three components: selectivity (50%); successful completion (30%); and demand (20%). Vanderbilt’s 30 credit-hour program had one of the highest average undergraduate GPAs and among the most students enrolled of any schools in the ranking. MORE
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Informatics made easy for educators, thanks to Vanderbilt University School of Nursing experts
Nursing educators from across the United States traveled to Nashville this summer to attend the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing’s three-day, intensive Vanderbilt Informatics Summer Teaching Academy (VISTA). The workshop was created to help nursing schools incorporate informatics knowledge in curriculum required by the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essential Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. Three Vanderbilt nursing informatics experts . . . developed, implemented and evaluated VISTA to teach nursing educators how to integrate informatics content related to data, information and technology into their nursing programs and accommodate the new requirements. The VISTA team created and gave attendees a resource book with a table of clearly defined requirements and ideas how to teach each concept. MORE
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