Pratt News Releases
May 11, 2008
Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 230 undergraduate and 174 graduate students May 11 and engineering Dean Robert L. Clark said Pratt’s graduating seniors are ready to help tackle some of the many challenges facing the nation and the global society.
“You are about to accept ...
May 8, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has received a gift of $5 million from an anonymous donor to establish a new undergraduate curriculum that will encourage students to think critically about problems that lack obvious solutions, like those they will encounter after graduation, President Richard H. Brodhead ...
May 6, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. – The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance.
Engineers at Duke University believe that the results of feasibility studies conducted in their ...
April 24, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. – Using 3-D ultrasound technology they designed, Duke University bioengineers can compensate for the thickness and unevenness of the skull to see in real-time the arteries within the brain that most often clog up and cause strokes.
The researchers believe that these advances will ultimately improve the treatment of ...
April 17, 2008
SPIE, the international society for the science and application of light, has elected Duke biomedical engineering professor Joseph Izatt a fellow of the society. This year SPIE chose only 72 new fellows worldwide.
Fellows are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of ...
April 15, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. – The hunter-versus-hunted phenomenon exemplified by a pack of lionesses chasing down a lonely gazelle has been recreated in a Petri dish with lowly bacteria.
Working with colleagues at Caltech, Stanford and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Duke University bioengineer has developed a living system using genetically altered ...
April 11, 2008
For his contributions to the field of thermodynamics and the development of the constructal theory of design in nature, Adrian Bejan received the 2008 Donald Q. Kern Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
In selecting Bejan, the AIChE cited his “seminal contributions to heat exchange design based on ...
April 9, 2008
Justin Jaworski exemplifies the common belief that music and mathematics are not as distinct as they might appear on the surface.
The fourth-year graduate student whose interests lie in studying the phenomenon of flutter in flexible objects such as airplane wings or bridges is also a consummate singer, having spent his ...
April 5, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -- In a meeting in Cary Saturday with leaders of the local Indian community, Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead announced the school has established a fellowship in memory of slain Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato.
The Abhijit Mahato Memorial Fellowship will provide financial support to a Duke international ...
April 2, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -- Three Duke University students have been selected for Goldwater Scholarships in science, mathematics and engineering for the 2008-09 academic year.They were among 321 sophomores and juniors chosen on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,035 mathematics, science and
engineering students nationwide. Three of Duke’s four ...
March 25, 2008
When the severe drought in North Carolina precluded his scheduled monsoon rainwater project, Bob Malkin was forced to devise an alternative experience for his Design for the Developing World course.
In an attempt to simulate on the personal level the experience of poverty, he asked his students to live on $2 ...
March 25, 2008
A Pratt School of Engineering faculty member has been honored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) as one of the top 24 young researchers in the United States for 2008 for his proposal to develop energy generators that can power ocean sensor networks and detect submarines or other vessels.
The ...
March 19, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -– A new type of membrane based on tiny iron particles appears to address one of the major limitations exhibited by current power-generating fuel cell technology.
While there are many types of fuel cells, in general they generate electricity as the result of chemical reactions between an external fuel ...
March 17, 2008
Bioptigen, a spinoff company co-founded by Duke biomedical engineer Joseph Izatt, has won the Frost & Sullivan 2007 North American Optical Coherence Tomography Excellence in Research Award. Bioptigen was singled out for its work in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for ophthalmology.
"This recognition is validation of our vision for the ...
March 6, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -– Duke University has selected Thomas Katsouleas, professor of electrical engineering and electrophysics at the University of Southern California and the school’s former vice provost for information services, as the new dean of the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke Provost Peter Lange announced Thursday. He begins his new ...
March 3, 2008
Dear Members of the Pratt Community:
I spent two days in Washington as part of the ASEE Deans Public Policy Colloquium last week discussing issues important to science and engineering, and urging members of North Carolina’s Congressional delegation to support the commitment made in the America COMPETES Act. It was passed ...
February 27, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. – Assistant Professor Romit Roy Choudhury has received a 5-year, $437,000 National Science Foundation Early CAREER award. The distinction recognizes and supports the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become academic leaders, according to the NSF.
Roy Choudhury came to Duke in 2006 ...
February 12, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke University researcher says that his physics theory, which has been applied to everything from global climate to traffic patterns, can also explain another trend: why university rankings tend not to change very much from year to year.
Like branching river channels across the earth's surface, ...
February 1, 2008
A View into the Black Box: How Venture Capitalists Evaluate Technology Opportunities
John Glushik is a general partner with Intersouth Partners, one of the nation's most active and experienced early-stage venture capital firms. As one of the largest funds in the Southeast, Intersouth has invested in more 80 private companies ...
January 23, 2008
Open forum to be held Jan. 23 in CIEMAS
Monday, January 21, 2008
Dear Member of the Duke University Community,
I write to share my great sadness over the sudden and senseless death of Abhijit Mahato, a graduate student in the Pratt School of Engineering, who was murdered in his off-campus apartment this ...
January 19, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008 (Updated 3 p.m. Jan. 19)
Durham, NC -- A man identified as a Duke University graduate student was found shot to death at an apartment complex in the 1600 block of Anderson Street, several blocks south of the Duke campus, at about 11:30 p.m. Friday.
Friends and colleagues ...
January 9, 2008
Contrary to earlier predictions, Duke University engineers have found that a three-dimensional sound cloak is possible, at least in theory.
Such an acoustic veil would do for sound what the "invisibility cloak" previously demonstrated by the research team does for microwaves--allowing sound waves to travel seamlessly around it and emerge on ...
January 7, 2008
A high-energy form of ultrasound imaging developed by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering produces pictures of liver tumors that are better than those made with traditional ultrasound, according to results of a clinical study.
The study suggests that the imaging method known as Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse ...
December 17, 2007
Watch the video featuring a pedal-powered dirty water distiller designed and built by undergraduate engineers.
A team of four undergraduate mechanical engineers have entered an "Innovate or Die" Pedal-Powered Machine contest on YouTube. Their video features a pedal-driven dirty water distillation device originally designed and built in the course ME150: Heat ...
November 26, 2007
The Carolinas Photonics Consortium (CPC) has selected biomedical engineering postdoctoral researcher Quincy Brown of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering to receive $10,000 in seed funding for the development of a device aimed at dramatically decreasing the number of repeat surgeries for women with breast cancer.
"In the U.S., more than ...
November 21, 2007
DURHAM, NC -- Taken for granted by some, stolen by others, water is one of the world's most valuable commodities. In some places, a gallon of water is worth more than a gallon of petroleum, according to Miguel Medina, a specialist in hydrology and water resources at Duke's Department of ...
November 20, 2007
A Duke University Pratt School of Engineering senior has been chosen for a prestigious scholarship for postgraduate study abroad.
Lee Pearson, of Spokane, Wash., was one of 40 students selected for the Marshall Scholarship, which provides two years of graduate-level study in the United Kingdom.
Pearson, a double major in civil ...
November 20, 2007
Biomedical engineers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have captured three-dimensional images revealing microscopic changes to the inner workings of cells that occur at the earliest stages of cancer, suggesting a possible new way of disease detection.
Their findings in animals also suggest that so-called multi-photon fluorescence ...
November 12, 2007
The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University is a showcase of green design and a living laboratory. Designed by Duke students through a strategic partnership with The Home Depot, the 6,000-square-foot home features a variety of eco-friendly and high-tech elements and will house 10 students.
The public ...
November 10, 2007
Duke University’s new Home Depot Smart Home, a high-tech dorm and research laboratory, was officially opened Nov. 9 by the university president, the current and former deans of the Pratt School of Engineering, and some of the 10 students who will live there.
The $2.5 million, two-story building located on Duke’s ...
November 9, 2007
A gift of $7.85 million by a Duke alumnus and his wife will create a center to educate students to meet the world’s energy needs while also improving its environment, university President Richard H. Brodhead announced Nov. 9.
The Gendell Center for Engineering, Energy and the Environment is being established by ...
November 6, 2007
Adrian Bejan, J.A. Jones professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, and Sylvie Lorente, professor of civil engineering at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, France, will receive the James P. Hartnett Award at the ASME International Congress of Mechanical Engineering and Exposition in ...
October 30, 2007
Watch a video of 3-micron beads as they are magnetically separated from 1-micron beads using a new technique developed by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and Purdue University.
A magnetic separation technique developed by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and Purdue ...
October 3, 2007
Professor Ashutosh Chilkoti has been appointed director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems (CBIMMS), Pratt Dean Robert Clark announced on Oct. 2. CBIMMS is an interdisciplinary Duke center focused on bio-nano-manufacturing, biointerface science and nanomechanics, using designs found in nature as inspiration for engineering advances.
In his ...
October 1, 2007
David Fitzpatrick, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University, has been named the first director of the new interdisciplinary Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes, and Behavior, Provost Peter Lange announced Monday.
The institute, an outgrowth of the university’s latest strategic plan, is being created “to build on our existing strengths ...
September 28, 2007
Duke electrical engineering Professor Emeritus John Leslie Artley, Ph.D., of Hot Springs, N.C., died Sept. 27 on his 84th birthday from the effects of a stroke suffered on June 12, 2007, his family said.
Artley received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1955 and then ...
September 27, 2007
Using enzymes from E. coli bacteria, Duke University chemists and engineers have introduced a hundred-fold improvement in the precision of features imprinted to create microdevices such as labs-on-a-chip.
Their inkless microcontact printing technique can imprint details measuring close to 1 nanometer, or billionths of a meter, the Duke team reported in ...
September 7, 2007
John Board, associate professor and associate chair of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, has been appointed associate chief information officer, Duke Chief Information Officer Tracy Futhey announced today.
Board will provide strategic leadership for the university’s information technology environment through the collective resources of the schools, departments and Duke’s information ...
August 30, 2007
The sort of swelling that occurs when a joint is damaged by injury or degeneration is normally essential to the healing process, but when it comes to the knee, that inflammation can actually interfere with healing.
These findings in experiments with pigs may lead to treatments for injuries or osteoarthritis in ...
August 23, 2007
A new program called TechXcite, led by Professor Gary Ybarra of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering, will create an engineering after-school curriculum for 4-H supported middle schools across the nation. Middle school participants in the program will also receive virtual mentoring from engineers in the electronics industry.
The new ...
August 22, 2007
KANSAS CITY, MO. -- More than one million skilled immigrant workers -- including Indian and Chinese scientists and engineers -- and their families are competing for 120,000 permanent U.S. resident visas each year. This sizeable imbalance is likely to fuel a “reverse brain-drain” with skilled workers returning to their home ...
August 21, 2007
Stefano Curtarolo, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, is developing computational tools designed to predict the recipes for tomorrow's advanced materials. He aims to identify the best new materials for just about any high-tech job, from the automotive, aerospace or marine ...
August 17, 2007
Duke University remains in the eighth position in the latest annual ranking from U.S. News & World Report magazine of national universities that offer doctoral degrees.
U.S. News also singled out Duke in four of eight categories of “programs to look for,” which it called “outstanding examples of academic programs ...
August 7, 2007
Piotr Marszalek, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, has received a grant award from the National Science Foundation for his work in characterizing the fundamental mechanics of sugars and nucleic acids--the building blocks of complex carbohydrates, DNA and RNA--at the molecular level. The grant will provide $510,000 ...
August 6, 2007
An intense form of ultrasound that shakes a tumor until its cells start to leak can trigger an “alarm” that enlists immune defenses against the cancerous invasion, according to a study led by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.
The new findings from animal experiments suggest that once activated ...
August 1, 2007
In an assist in the quest for ever smaller electronic devices, Duke University engineers have adapted a decades-old computer aided design and manufacturing process to reproduce nanosize structures with features on the order of single molecules.
The new automated technique for nanomanufacturing suggests that the emerging nanotechnology industry might capitalize on ...
July 30, 2007
DURHAM, N.C. -- The National Institute for General Medical Sciences has awarded Duke University a $14.5 million, five-year grant to establish a new national center for systems biology in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP).
The center will bring together experimentalists and modeling experts from biology, statistics, computer ...
July 18, 2007
Kristina M. Johnson, dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has been appointed provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at The Johns Hopkins University.
Robert L. Clark, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Thomas Lord Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has agreed to become ...
July 12, 2007
Researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have uncovered a missing link in scientists' understanding of the physical forces that give DNA its famous double helix shape.
"The stability of DNA is so fundamental to life that it's important to understand all factors," said Piotr Marszalek, a professor of mechanical ...
July 12, 2007
Note: The following article was adapted from a news release issued by the University of Oxford.
Scientists at Oxford University and Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have used tiny water droplets to build a unique microscopic light sensor. Their approach turns water droplets into protocells: empty artificial cells that can ...
July 9, 2007
A multi-institutional consortium including Duke University has created startlingly crisp 3-D microscopic views of tiny mouse brains -- unveiled layer by layer -- by extending the capabilities of conventional magnetic resonance imaging.
"These images can be more than 100,000 times higher resolution than a clinical MRI scan," said G. Allan Johnson, ...
June 25, 2007
Getting photonics (light-based) technologies to the marketplace has just gotten easier.
Duke University has joined four Carolina universities in forming the Carolinas Photonics Consortium (CPC). Representatives of North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Western Carolina University, Clemson University and Duke University signed a CPC Inter-Institutional ...
June 21, 2007
WASHINGTON, June 19, 2007 – The White House today announced the appointment of 15 outstanding individuals from across the country to serve as White House Fellows, including 1996 graduate in electrical engineering, Kristine Singley, of Celebration, Florida. The 2007-2008 Class of White House Fellows represents a diverse cross-section of professions ...
June 20, 2007
Biomedical engineers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have adapted a three-dimensional ultrasound scanner that might guide minimally invasive brain surgeries and provide better detection of a brain tumor’s location.
The “brain scope,” which is inserted into a dime-sized hole in the skull, may be particularly useful for the bedside evaluation ...
June 11, 2007
DURHAM, N.C. -- Why does a railway network look like a river? Why do the streets of old Rome look like a leaf? Because whether their shape is determined by the interactions of molecules or the choices made by individual humans, all of these systems of flow are governed by ...
June 5, 2007
In an early step toward nonsurgical screening for malignant skin cancers, Duke University chemists have demonstrated a laser-based system that can capture three-dimensional images of the chemical and structural changes underway beneath the surface of human skin.
"The standard way physicians do a diagnosis now is to cut out a ...
May 30, 2007
Brain "pacemakers" that have helped ease symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders seem to work by drowning out the electrical signals of their diseased brains.
Despite the clinical success of the devices, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and can be found in ...
May 10, 2007
Slowing tropical deforestation is an essential and cost-effective way to avert severe climate change, according to a new study published in the May 10 Science Express, an advanced online publication of the journal Science.
An international team of 11 top forest and climate researchers, including civil and environmental engineer Roni Avissar ...
May 9, 2007
Before the missions began, Pratt writer Kendall Morgan sat down with civil and environmental engineer Roni Avissar to find out what operating the Duke Helicopter Observation Platform is really like.
Helicopters are strictly limited in the amount and balance of weight they can carry. In order to help pack more in, ...
May 8, 2007
Pei Zhong’s tireless efforts to technologically fine-tune the shock wave therapy used to pulverize kidney stones are not only leading to better treatment for that painful condition but also opening up surprising new avenues for medical advances, such as by manipulating genes and unleashing genetic assaults against tumors.
These are all ...
April 24, 2007
Parents-to-be might soon don 3-D glasses in the ultrasound lab to see their developing fetuses in the womb "in living 3-D, just like at the IMAX movies," according to researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.The same Duke team that first developed real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound imaging says it has ...
April 17, 2007
Rebecca Willett of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering is creating tools that could be used to make sense of a diverse set of scenarios -- from the blackout that left New York City in the dark in 2003 to the bottlenecks and vulnerabilities that can plague transportation systems to ...
April 10, 2007
The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative today announced that Warren Grill, of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, and David Martin, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, are recipients of a 2006 Futures grant to support their work on smart prosthetics. The competitive seed grants aim to fill a critical ...
April 6, 2007
Antioxidant chemicals, including one produced by aquatic life during times of stress, may have a hand in the fate of mercury in watersheds, potentially influencing the toxic metal's entry into the food chain, according to a report by a researcher at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.
The researcher reports in ...
March 27, 2007
John Davis, off-road wheelchair racing champion and pioneer, and John Castelano, his wheelchair designer, will speak at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering on Monday, April 2.
The talk begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Nello L. Teer Building, room 203, and is free and open to the public. Parking is ...
March 26, 2007
Listen to Adam Wax's answers to questions about the new device:
--Why would you want to look at organ surfaces?
--What is Barrett's esophagus and how is it linked to cancer?
--Who is at risk of Barrett's esophagus?
--How do doctors check for early cancer in the esophagus now?
--What are the advantages of the ...
March 9, 2007
Dean Kristina M. Johnson of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering told an International Women’s Day audience March 8 that the nation needs more women and minorities in engineering so they will be able to help solve some of the increasingly complex challenges she said the world will face in years ...
February 16, 2007
Duke University biomedical engineering researchers have moved a step closer to a "smart bladder pacemaker" that might one day restore bladder control in patients with spinal cord injury or neurological disease.
The team's latest findings show that a device that taps into the urinary "circuit" in the spinal cord could selectively ...
February 13, 2007
A new molecular "fishing" technique developed by researchers at Duke University and Duke's Pratt School of Engineering lays the groundwork for future advances in hand-held sensing devices.
Hand-held devices used for medical testing or environmental and food-safety monitoring could quickly and precisely measure concentrations of virtually any chemical substance, including blood ...
February 12, 2007
Using a method that allows precise measurement of the biomechanical properties of the hip joints in mice, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have found new evidence that an ingredient of joint fluid called lubricin plays a significant role in keeping joints limber.
The researchers say the finding offers ...
February 5, 2007
Using a unique weaving machine of their design, Duke University Medical Center researchers have created a three-dimensional fabric "scaffold" that could greatly improve the ability of physicians to repair damaged joints with the patient's own stem cells.
"If further experiments are successful, the scaffold could be used in clinical trials within ...
January 4, 2007
Note to Editors: "America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs" is available online.
Durham, NC -- Immigrant entrepreneurs founded 25.3 percent of the U.S. engineering and technology companies established in the past decade, according to a new study from Duke University. What's more, foreign nationals -- those living in the United States who are ...
January 2, 2007
Scientists at Duke University Medical Center and Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have harnessed the much maligned fat particle to serve a higher purpose: battling human cancers. The researchers have engineered microscopic fat bubbles into "smart bombs" by packing them with anticancer drugs and dispatching them on a mission to ...
December 14, 2006
A new Duke University institute is asking what makes people think, feel and behave the way they do -- and its researchers say the answers may not only advance scientific understanding but also provide insight into societal problems and help patients who have a variety of disorders or diseases. One ...
November 19, 2006
A pair of high school students from the N.C. School of Science and Math received regional honors in the nation’s top high school science competition Nov. 17.
Sagar Indurkhya of Charlotte and Nicholas Tang of Cary earned top honors at the regional finals of the 2006-07 Siemens Competition in Math, Science ...
November 6, 2006
Two researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have been named to the "Scientific American 50" for their work on developing an "invisibility cloak."
Compiled by Scientific American magazine, the roster of leaders in research, business and public policy will appear in the December 2006 issue, expected on newsstands Nov. ...
October 30, 2006
Duke University engineers have shown that a three-dimensional ultrasound scanner they developed can successfully guide a surgical robot.
The scanner could find application in various medical settings, according to the researchers. They said the scanner ultimately might enable surgeries to be performed without surgeons, a capability that could prove valuable in ...
October 30, 2006
Lingchong You, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has won a fellowship from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation for his research into the information processing speed of bacteria that have been “reprogrammed” to perform new, and potentially useful, tasks.
The Packard Fellowship for Science ...
October 24, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.The university and The Home ...
October 19, 2006
A team led by scientists at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has demonstrated the first working "invisibility cloak." The cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a "hidden" object inside with little distortion, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all.
Cloaks that render objects essentially ...
October 16, 2006
Researchers at Duke University have devised a new way to significantly prolong the effects of an anti-inflammatory drug, potentially making it useful for providing longer-lasting treatment for osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis.The modified drug, which would be injected directly into arthritic joints, could last for several weeks rather ...
September 29, 2006
Duke University biomedical engineers have developed a computer tool they say could lead to improvements in topical microbicides being developed for women to use to prevent infection by the virus that causes AIDS.
Providing women with improved microbicides is a pressing challenge because women now account for a growing number of ...
September 25, 2006
Duke University will honor outstanding students, faculty, employees and alumni at its annual Founders’ Day Convocation in Duke Chapel at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28. Among the winners are six members of the Pratt School of Engineering faculty.
Honorees at the service, which is open to the public, include philanthropists Russell ...
August 17, 2006
Adrian Bejan, J. A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has received the Luikov Medal for his contributions to the field of thermal sciences, including his development of the constructal law of design in nature. The awards ceremony was held at the International Heat ...
August 7, 2006
Persistence paid off for Duke student members of the Robotics Club at the 9th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition held in San Diego, Calif., from Aug. 2-6. Their enhanced version of the robot “Charybdis” took second place and $5,000.
Twenty undergraduate teams and one high school team participated in the event, ...
August 1, 2006
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —M. Katherine Banks, who received her Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Duke University in 1989, has been named head of Purdue University’s School of Civil Engineering.
Banks, a Purdue civil engineering professor, assumed her new post on Aug. 1.
"Kathy's vision, creativity and energy, combined with a ...
July 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An engineer and two other Duke University faculty members have won the highest honor that the U.S. government bestows on young scientists and engineers.
Silvia Ferrari, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering; Jonathan Mattingly, an associate professor of mathematics; and Tannishtha Reya, an ...
July 25, 2006
Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has received two “People, Prosperity, and the Planet” (P3) grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed at sustainable technologies for use in regions crippled by natural disaster.
One of the $10,000 awards will support students in the identification and development of technologies relevant to ...
July 19, 2006
Last week’s tunnel ceiling collapse in Boston that killed a motorist has taught us more about the “Big Dig” ceiling system than all the years of apparently successful operation, says a Duke University civil engineer and author of “Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design.”
“For years the ceiling design appeared ...
July 19, 2006
Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has won a second Technology for Teaching Leadership grant from Hewlett-Packard (HP). This project, led by Assistant Professor of the Practice Lisa Huettel, will provide 40 tablet computers and supporting equipment for use in courses across Pratt.
The grant, valued at more than $120,000, was ...
July 18, 2006
A custom-built reaching assist device developed and built by a team of students at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering won an award at the design competition of the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) in Atlanta.
The students created the device -- called “BRAD” for Biomimetic Reaching Assist ...
July 12, 2006
Ranjith Vasireddy, a Pratt School of Engineering doctoral student from India, drowned July 10 in a swimming pool in Basking Ridge, N.J., where he had a summer internship.
Vasireddy, who was 25, had just finished his first year as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He ...
July 6, 2006
Durham, N.C. – Mark R. Wiesner, former director of the Environmental and Energy Systems Institute at Rice University, has joined Duke’s faculty as a professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Wiesner's research focuses on membrane processes, nanostructured materials, transport and fate of nanomaterials in the environment, colloidal and interfacial processes, environmental ...
June 29, 2006
Phillip L. Jones, Duke University associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, died Saturday, June 24, at Duke Hospital in Durham after a brief battle with cancer. He was 56.
"Phil had a natural talent and passion for teaching. His students and colleagues loved him and he loved them," said ...
June 23, 2006
Emily Mugler, who graduated last month from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, has won a 2006 Fulbright Scholarship to study neuroscience in southwestern Germany.
The award will take her to the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen for up to 12 months of ...
May 25, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Using a new design theory, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and Imperial College London have developed the blueprint for an invisibility cloak. Once devised, the cloak could have numerous uses, from defense applications to wireless communications, the researchers said.Such a cloak could hide any ...
May 24, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University electrical and computer engineering Professor Hisham Massoud has been elected a fellow of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) in recognition for his contributions to the understanding of silicon oxidation kinetics, ultrathin gate dielectrics, and the Si-SiO2 interface.
Massoud’s pioneering contributions in the field of silicon oxidation in ...
May 11, 2006
ATLANTA – Duke mechanical engineer Robert Clark will present a keynote talk on the challenges and benefits of establishing a vibrant interdisciplinary research program on Friday, May 12, at the International Symposium for Biologically-inspired Design and Engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
Clark, senior associate dean at the Pratt School of ...
May 8, 2006
Professor Hisham Massoud of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering has been awarded the 2006 Electronics and Photonics Division Award of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) for his work on ultrathin silicon dielectric films. Such ultrathin films are a basic component in silicon microelectronics, and increasingly thinner films improve the performance of ...
May 8, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- After an exhaustive data search for new compounds, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have discovered a theoretical "metal sandwich" that is expected to be a good superconductor. Superconductive materials have no resistance to the flow of electric current.
The new lithium monoboride (LiB) compound is ...
April 29, 2006
Henry Petroski, Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and professor of history, was elected April 29 to the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States.
The society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.” It supports research, discovery and ...
April 23, 2006
PhotoGenesis launches as a not-for-profit after winning Duke student business plan competition
DURHAM, N.C. – A team led by Duke University engineering graduate student Vijay Anand has developed an affordable LED-based jaundice treatment for newborns that will cost roughly 95 percent less than currently available technology. The technology, called Photogenesis, won ...
April 18, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. –- Physicians who have struggled for years to monitor and treat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa could soon have a low-cost solution thanks to a team of students at Duke University. These students, and others with unique ideas to improve health care technology in developing countries, are vying ...
April 14, 2006
Biomedical engineer Jingdong Tian of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering has been named a Beckman Young Investigator by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Tian will receive $264,000 over three years to pursue research titled “High-Throughput Forward Engineering of Novel Biological Systems Using Microfluidic DNA Microchip.”
Tian aims to develop new ...
April 12, 2006
Two research teams led by Duke faculty have been granted $75,000 each from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative in support of interdisciplinary research on genomics and infectious disease. Duke won two grants out of a total of 14 awarded.
Debra Schwinn, professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology/cancer biology and surgery at the ...
April 4, 2006
A novel growth factor significantly improves the ability of specialized stem cells derived from human fat to be transformed into cartilage cells, according to Duke University Medical Center and Pratt School of Engineering researchers.
Such growth factors are crucial to the bioengineering of tissues for clinical use in humans, the researchers ...
March 30, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Three-dimensional ultrasound probes built by researchers at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering have imaged the beating hearts of dogs. The engineers said their demonstration showed that the probes could give surgeons a better view during human endoscopic surgeries in which operations are performed through tiny “keyhole” incisions.
If ...
March 30, 2006
ATLANTA -- A Duke University engineer is “herding” tiny lenses with magnetic ferrofluids, precisely aligning them so that they focus bursts of light to excavate patterns of cavities on surfaces.
Such photolithographically produced “nanocavities” -– each only billionths of a meter across – might serve as repositories for molecules engineered as ...
March 29, 2006
ATLANTA -- New evidence to explain how the body’s natural joint lubricant prevents the wear and tear that can lead to osteoarthritis has been uncovered by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering The findings may lead to new methods for treating arthritis, the researchers said.
The team found in ...
March 29, 2006
ATLANTA -- A Duke University engineering group is doing pioneering work at very diminutive dimensions. Their basic studies could lead to genetically engineered proteins that can form erasable chemical detectors; self-grown forests of molecular "bottlebrushes" that keep themselves contamination-free; and auto-assembled DNA "towers" that could become anchors for the tiniest ...
March 28, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Professor Barry Myers has been appointed senior associate dean for industrial partnerships and research commercialization at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Myers will lead the school’s efforts to increase industry involvement in engineering education, research, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.
A member of the Duke faculty since 1991, Myers ...
March 17, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Three researchers at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering have won Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation, its most prestigious honor for junior faculty members.
The awards went to assistant professors of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) Adrienne Stiff-Roberts, Jungsang Kim and Sule ...
March 17, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Tuan Vo-Dinh, a pioneer in the field of photonics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has joined the biomedical engineering department at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics.
Vo-Dinh said he plans to establish Duke as a ...
March 9, 2006
A novel device that could use light to harmlessly and almost instantly probe for early signs of cancer has been developed by researchers at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. The device would allow physicians to search for cancer in epithelial cells that line body surfaces, including the skin, lungs and ...
March 2, 2006
Scientists have devised a blueprint for boosting anti-cancer drugs' effectiveness and lowering their toxicity by attaching the equivalent of a lead sinker onto the drugs. This extra weight makes the drugs penetrate and accumulate inside tumors more effectively.
Chemotherapy drugs often fall short of achieving their full impact because the drugs ...
February 24, 2006
Professor and prolific author Henry Petroski of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has won the 2006 Washington Award, one of the oldest and most prestigious engineering awards in the country, for his accomplishments in making engineering theory and practice understandable to the general public.
Petroski is Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor ...
February 21, 2006
Kam Leong, a national leader in drug and gene delivery at Johns Hopkins University, has joined the department of biomedical engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the school’s Bioengineering Initiative.
Leong said he plans to focus on the emerging field of "nanotherapeutics," ...
February 16, 2006
Note to editors: High-speed video of a lightning-generated sprite is available in Quicktime format at http://quicktime.oit.duke.edu/news/sprites.mp4 and in RealPlayer format at
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/mmedia/video/sprites.ram. Still photos are also available upon request. Steve Cummer can be reached at (919) 660-5256 or cummer@ee.duke.edu.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering have captured ...
February 13, 2006
Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have created a new breast scanner that will dramatically improve their ability to visualize small tumors while also reducing radiation exposure to one-tenth that of normal mammograms. Moreover, the new device does not compress the breast, as do traditional mammograms.
The new scanner uses computed ...
February 9, 2006
A unifying physics principle that describes design in nature predicts, in surprisingly straightforward fashion, the basic features of global circulation and climate, according to researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and the University of Evora in Portugal. They said the new approach to climate may have important implications ...
February 4, 2006
Note: Video of electrical activity in engineered heart tissue is available as a Quicktime file or as a Realmedia file. In the movie, voltage sensitive dyes cause the cells to fluoresce in proportion to their electrical activity level. The colors, ranging from red to blue, denote the level of cell ...
February 2, 2006
Duke University has received a record-setting 19,282 applications for just 1,640 places in the class that will enter Duke this fall, meaning that students seeking to become Blue Devils will face the most selective admissions process in the university’s history.
The university has seen a steady increase in applications during the ...
January 24, 2006
Associate professor Nimmi Ramanujam of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering is a recipient of the 2005 Global Indus Technovators Award for her work developing minimally invasive, light-based technologies for early cancer detection. An awards reception was held on Jan. 24, 2006, in Boston.
The honor is bestowed on top scientists and ...
January 24, 2006
In a discovery that could greatly accelerate the search for genetic causes of heart disease, a multi-disciplinary Duke University research team has found that the common fruit fly can serve as a powerful new model for testing human genes implicated in heart disease.
The finding is important, the Duke team said, ...
January 18, 2006
John Finan, a graduate student at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has won a $10,000 scholarship and new car from Motorola Inc. for an essay proposing a “Mood Phone” that may be able to interpret the mood of the people speaking by analyzing variations in tone and speech patterns.
Finan ...
January 16, 2006
A component of many proteins has been found to constitute one of the most powerful and resilient molecular “springs” in nature, researchers have discovered. The engineers and biologists from Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute say their discovery could lead to a new understanding of mechanical processes within ...
December 31, 2005
A single unifying physics theory can essentially describe how animals of every ilk, from flying insects to fish, get around, researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and Pennsylvania State University have found. The team reports that all animals bear the same stamp of physics in their design.
The researchers ...
December 24, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University scientists have used the self-assembling properties of DNA to mass-produce nanometer-scale structures in the shape of 4x4 grids, on which patterns of molecules can be specified. They said the achievement represents a step toward mass-producing electronic or optical circuits at a scale 10 times smaller ...
December 22, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Growing tree plantations to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to mitigate global warming -- so called "carbon sequestration" -- could trigger environmental changes that outweigh some of the benefits, a multi-institutional team led by Duke University suggested in a new report. Those effects include water and ...
December 7, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- In order to function stably over long periods, brain-operated devices such as neural prosthetic limbs for paralyzed people will require brain signals fed from hundreds of infinitesimal recording electrodes in the brain, Duke University researchers have concluded.
Their findings in studies with monkeys are defining the requirements for ...
December 3, 2005
Associate Professor David R. Smith of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering and a team of European researchers have won a Descartes Research Prize for their work in developing left-handed metamaterials, artificial composites that reverse the usual properties of light. The awards ceremony was held at the Royal Society in London ...
November 22, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Three Duke University seniors were among the 32 recipients selected this weekend for prestigious Rhodes Scholarships.
The Duke recipients -– Adam D. Chandler of Burlington, N.C.; William L. Hwang and Rahul Satija, both of Potomac, Md. -- were chosen from among 903 applicants at 333 colleges and universities ...
November 19, 2005
Note to editors: A high-resolution digital photo of Fan Yuan posed with visual evidence for his findings can be accessed at http://www.dukephoto.duke.edu/pages/Duke_News_Service/Yuan114205029.jpg. The evidence shows glowing viruses concentrated in the liver of a "control" animal not receiving the poloxamer mixture. In contrast, the viruses stayed in the tumor of an ...
November 11, 2005
DURHAM, NC – The Biomedical Department at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering is one of only nine departments selected nationally to receive a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Partnership Award in Biomedical Engineering. This Award will provide $580,000 each year for the next five years.
Through this Award, the ...
November 5, 2005
Durham, N.C. -- Duke University engineers are developing technology that may enable physicians to someday use high frequency ultrasound waves both to visualize the heart's interior in three dimensions and then selectively destroy heart tissue with heat to correct arrhythmias.
"No one else has developed a way for ultrasound to combine ...
November 2, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have developed a new way to measure microbes' exposure to ultraviolet light. The tool could bolster efforts to use UV light to improve the quality and safety of tap water in the U.S.
The novel "microsphere dosimeter" technique is the first ...
October 13, 2005
Brad Fox, executive director of the Master of Engineering Management Program at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has been elected to the IEEE Engineering Management Society’s Board of Governors. Fox will serve a three-year term, beginning Jan. 1.
“Brad Fox’s appointment to the EMS Board of Governors is an opportunity ...
October 13, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing.
"The process works like stacking Legos to make a ...
October 12, 2005
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering has appointed Michael Gustafson an assistant professor of the practice.
“We are very pleased to announce the newest addition to our faculty, Dr. Mike Gustafson,” said department Chair April Brown. “Gus has been a leader at Duke in ...
October 11, 2005
Durham, N.C. -- Tyler Brown, a Duke senior engineering student who recently went to help rebuild tsunami-ravaged Sumatra, was killed in San Francisco late Sunday when the taxicab in which he was riding was hit by a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup was apparently drunk and has been ...
October 10, 2005
PRIMM, Nev. – A modified, driverless Humvee using a radar system developed by Duke students finished second by 11 minutes Oct. 8 in a demanding seven-hour, 131.6-mile desert race sponsored by the Defense Department to pave the way for autonomous military vehicles for future warfare.
The 1986 robot truck called Sandstorm ...
October 1, 2005
Note to editors: A photo of Kimberly Jenkins is available at: http://photo1.dukenews.duke.edu/pages/Duke_News_Service/Jenkins.jpg.
DURHAM, N.C. -– Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has appointed information technology entrepreneur Kimberly J. Jenkins as executive-in-residence in the Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program.
Jenkins is now serving, on a volunteer basis, as a mentor to students ...
September 30, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering is hosting the Sally Ride Science Festival on Saturday, Oct. 15, on Duke's East Campus. The festival is designed to encourage girls in grades 5-8 to pursue careers in science, math and engineering.
The day's events will include a street fair with ...
September 29, 2005
September 28, 2005, Research Triangle Park, NC – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) today announced that Kristina Johnson, Ph.D., Dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will deliver featured comments at CED’s InfoTech 2005 conference. Scheduled for October 12 at the ...
September 28, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Twenty-two Duke University graduates and graduate students have been awarded J. William Fulbright Scholarships to study abroad for one year and otherwise benefit from living in a foreign culture.
The Fulbright program, founded in 1946, is the U.S. government's premier scholarship program. It was created by Congress shortly ...
September 27, 2005
Durham, N.C. -- Duke engineering student Le (Lucy) He was stunned to discover that the lights in the operating room of her adopted Rosales, El Salvador, hospital flickered off and on during the day. Similarly, upon her first visit to the hospital, she saw patients in beds everywhere but few ...
September 24, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- A 2.5-pound robot named "Wallter" designed by Duke University Pratt School of engineering students has won for the second year in a row an international wall-crawling robotics competition held in London.
Wallter, now a two-year-old, competed against university teams from the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy this year ...
September 23, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University will honor outstanding students, faculty, employees and alumni at its annual Founders' Day Convocation in Duke Chapel on Thursday, Sept. 29, one day before the university's Board of Trustees opens its fall meetings.Honorees at the 4 p.m. service, which is open to the public, include ...
September 17, 2005
Durham, N.C. -- Lingchong You's Duke University research team makes and programs circuits, although not the kind that work in electronics devices. His are "synthetic gene circuits" that can regulate cell populations with molecular signaling and intentional extermination.
Such biocircuits have great potential for applications in biotechnology, computation, environmental engineering and ...
September 16, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University materials scientists have developed a computer model of how a "quasicrystal" metallic alloy interacts with a gas at various temperatures and pressures. Their advance could contribute to wider applications of quasicrystals for extremely low-friction machine parts, such as ball bearings and sliding parts.
Quasicrystals, like normal ...
September 14, 2005
by Mike Bettwy, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Today, scientists estimate that between one-third and one-half of our planet's land surfaces have been transformed by human development.
Now, a new study is offering insight into the long-term impacts of these changes, particularly the effects of large-scale deforestation in tropical regions on the ...
September 13, 2005
The pumping of New Orleans floodwaters into Lake Pontchartrain will create "long-term, harmful implications for the lake ecosystem and future human use of the area," warns Duke University environmental engineer Karl Linden.
The possibility of even more serious harm may be avoided by extensive testing of waters in the industrial zone ...
September 10, 2005
Durham, N.C. -- Duke environmental experts and civil engineers have responded to Hurricane Katrina devastation with a broad range of insights. They are criticizing the failure to heed computer models that warned of disaster; pondering how to rebuild the city to avoid future catastrophe and examining the potential for ecological ...
September 10, 2005
Durham, N.C. -- While much of the world this week is riveted by images of natural destruction along the American Gulf Coast, several Duke students and alumni returned to the United States with memories of another recent disaster.
It’s been nine months since a tsunami surged over the land in Sumatra ...
September 7, 2005
Note to editors: Henry Petroski can be reached for additional comment at (919) 660-5203 or petroski@duke.edu.
When civil engineers start planning for rebuilding New Orleans, there are few historical examples to guide them. Duke University engineering professor Henry Petroski says the closest example he can think of is the 1900 Galveston, ...
September 7, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering will accommodate up to 10 graduate students studying for Master of Engineering Management and related degrees who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina and wish to continue coursework while their home institutions are closed.
Eligibility and Enrollment
Incoming students must be enrolled and ...
August 26, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has appointed technology entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa as executive-in-residence in the Master of Engineering Management program. Wadhwa will serve as a mentor to students in the program and assist faculty interested in commercializing technology developed at Duke.
Wadhwa is the founder and ex-CEO ...
August 24, 2005
By Geoffrey Mock
Durham, N.C. -- Pratt School of Engineering officials had three years to prepare for a trustee-approved enrollment increase of 50 undergraduates per incoming class. This summer, however, they had scarcely one month to prepare for an unplanned enrollment increase of nearly another 50 students.
The unexpected rise in enrollment ...
August 12, 2005
* Watch rockets go up and monkeys fall down at the InnoWorks week at Duke (RealPlayer)
* Quicktime version
Durham, N.C. -- This month, more than 40 Durham middle school students spent a week on campus solving scientific problems in a program run entirely by Duke students.
The theme for this year’s InnoWorks ...
August 11, 2005
Durham, NC - The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) awarded a five year, five million dollar grant to further research on microvascular autonomic composites to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UCLA, Duke University and Harvard Medical School.
More commonly known as “self-healing plastic,” this is an ...
August 5, 2005
Note to editors: High-resolution images will be available on request at the end of the trip. David Schaad and Jean Foster will have intermittent email access during the trip and can be reached at david.schaad@duke.edu and jean.foster@duke.edu.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Five engineering students from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering later ...
July 26, 2005
Marion L. Shepard, professor and associate dean emeritus at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, died of cancer July 22 at Beaufort County Hospital in Washington, N.C. He was 67.
Shepard joined the Duke faculty in 1967 as an assistant professor of materials science in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials ...
July 6, 2005
Duke University engineering students have designed an onboard radar system to give Red Team vehicles a competitive edge in the upcoming DARPA Grand Challenge race. In that contest, vehicles must run across a desert entirely self-guided without human intervention.
The Red Team is an alliance of students, corporations and volunteers led ...
June 24, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has purchased a new Bell JetRanger helicopter to give the university and nation a new platform of research sensors to bridge a gap in airborne studies of natural and man-made environmental processes.
The turbine-powered Bell 206B-3, painted in Duke blue with black ...
June 21, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Engineers have introduced a new magnetic shepherding approach for deftly moving or positioning the kinds of tiny floating objects found within organisms, in order to advance potential applications in fields ranging from medicine to nanotechnology.
The authors of a new research article said their method avoids pitfalls of ...
June 20, 2005
Every two years, the EPA and its 40 partners from industry, Non-Governmental Organizations, and other government agencies, hold a student design competition for sustainability called the P3 Award. This year, the Duke Engineering Living Technology Advancement (DELTA) Smart House Project was selected as one of the 50 teams to compete ...
June 17, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. – Researchers from Duke University's Medical Center and Pratt School of Engineering have demonstrated that they can grow new human blood vessels from cells taken from patients who especially need such assistance – older adults with cardiovascular disease.
The researchers said the results of their latest experiments represent a ...
June 17, 2005
Assistant Professor Daniel J. Sorin of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering has won a National Science Foundation CAREER award of $400,000 over the next 5 years to develop new approaches to reliable computer architecture design.
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the federal agency’s most prestigious award for early ...
May 27, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Biomedical engineers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have created a new three-dimensional ultrasound cardiac imaging probe. Inserted inside the esophagus, the probe creates a picture of the whole heart in the time it takes for current ultrasound technology to image a single heart cross section.
The ...
May 16, 2005
Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 300 undergraduate and graduate engineering students Sunday in a series of ceremonies starting with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and winding up with an inspiring ceremony in Duke Chapel.
Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of ...
May 11, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Monkeys that learn to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are not just learning to manipulate an external device, Duke University Medical Center and biomedical engineers have found. Rather, their brain structures are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own ...
May 10, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering is hosting the first International Symposium on Biointerface Science in New Bern May 12-14.
The conference, which is open to the public, will focus on the challenges that researchers face in the silicon electronics industry when pairing soft, wet biological substances with ...
May 3, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University engineers have led the most detailed analyses of links between some lightning events and mysterious gamma ray emissions that emanate from earth's own atmosphere. Their study suggests that this gamma radiation fountains upward from starting points surprisingly low in thunderclouds. Counter-intuitively, these strong gamma outbursts ...
April 29, 2005
DURHAM, NC - Duke University was selected as one of 31 colleges and universities nationwide to receive the 2005 HP Technology for Teaching grant, which is designed to transform and improve learning in the classroom through innovative uses of technology. Duke University will receive an award package of Hewlett-Packard products ...
April 24, 2005
Duke’s Engineering Alumni Association April 23 honored 1974 graduate Capers McDonald of Potomac, Md., with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and 1990 graduate Edward L. Trimble of Atlanta with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.
Professor F. Hadley Cocks of the Pratt School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), ...
April 23, 2005
The Pratt School of Engineering broke ground April 21 for the Duke Smart House, a two-story residence-laboratory that will house 10 undergraduates and allow them to try out the latest systems and gadgets for a more efficient, environmentally friendly home of the future.
Located at the corner of Faber and Powe ...
April 20, 2005
Note to editors: Design renderings of the Duke Smart House are available on request to Deborah Hill, communications director for the Pratt School of Engineering, at (919) 660-8403.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering will break ground Thursday, April 21, for the Duke Smart House -- a 4,500-square-foot ...
April 13, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University student Brian Diekman has been selected to receive a 2005 Fulbright Scholarship from the Irish Fulbright Commission. The award will provide Diekman support for up to 12 months of research and coursework at the National University of Ireland in Galway.
Diekman, from West Lafayette, Ind., is ...
March 31, 2005
William (Billy) Hwang, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering, physics, and electrical and computer engineering, is one of three Duke students awarded Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for their achievements in the sciences, mathematics or engineering.
In addition to Hwang, who is from Potomac, Md., this year's winners are Peter Q. Blair, ...
March 30, 2005
Note to editors: News media are invited to attend without charge. An agenda is available at: http://asme.pratt.duke.edu/conference/agenda.php
DURHAM, N.C. -- Engineering students from universities throughout the Southeast will compete April 1-3 in a robot stair-climbing contest and other competitions at an American Society of Mechanical Engineers regional conference held at Duke ...
March 26, 2005
The Duke University Graduate School is giving its Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring to Professor of Biomedical Engineering William Reichert; Linda K. George, professor of sociology and psychology; and Alexander Rosenberg, R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy and professor of biology.
"This year's award recipients have diligently applied themselves in ...
March 25, 2005
Note to editors: A photograph of Bakhtian is available online at http://www.dukephoto.duke.edu/pages/Duke_News_Service/Bakh018905042.jpg.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University student Noël Bakhtian has been selected as a 2005 recipient of the Winston Churchill Scholarship to conduct graduate study for a year at Cambridge University in England.
Bakhtian, a senior from Fort Myers, Fla., is ...
March 24, 2005
Duke University engineering professor emeritus Fredrick L."Fritz" Thurstone, a pioneer of diagnostic ultrasound, died of cancer March 17 in Kissimmee, Fla. He was 73.
Thurstone moved to Duke in 1967 as one of the founding members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is credited with playing a key role in ...
March 22, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University senior Patrick Crosby has been selected to receive a 2005 Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission. The award will provide Crosby support for up to 12 months of research and coursework at the University of Melbourne.
Crosby, from Abbeville, S.C., is double majoring in ...
March 8, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Students from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering are partnering with Carnegie Mellon University's "Red Team" in an effort to win a $2 million prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). All they have to do is complete the toughest ground course ever devised for ...
February 28, 2005
Ten years ago there were no black doctoral students in engineering at Duke and few in the other math and science departments at the university. Biomedical Engineering Professor William “Monty” Reichert decided to see what he could do about that.
With funding from the engineering school and the Graduate School at ...
February 15, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program have agreed to establish a partnership that will enable nuclear-trained Navy officers to enroll in Pratt's Master of Engineering Management degree program.
The agreement signed Feb. 9 formalizes a cooperative effort that began last semester. ...
February 10, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and Saudi Arabia's Effat College, a privately funded women's college, will collaborate on the first undergraduate engineering curriculum for women in Saudi Arabia.
Pratt Dean Kristina Johnson and Dr. Haifa Jamal Al Lail, dean of Effat College, signed a cooperative agreement Jan. ...
January 28, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Biomedical engineers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have demonstrated for the first time that stimulating a specific nerve in the pelvis triggers the process that causes urine to begin flowing out from the bladder, refuting conventional thinking that "bladder emptying" requires signals from the brain.
Their ...
January 21, 2005
The controversy sparked by Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers’ recently reported remarks about why more women may not become engineers and scientists "is missing an important point," says the dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.
"The nation desperately needs more women and minorities in technical fields, and we ...
January 20, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. -- Mechanical engineer Marshall Jones will present an inspirational talk as part of Duke's celebration of Martin Luther King week on Wed. Jan. 19, 2004 from 4:00 to 5:30 in the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences, Auditorium B.
Jones, a Ph.D. African American mechanical engineer, ...
December 18, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. -- Engineers pushed the limits of technology in the past century to accomplish things that were not even dreamed of in the 19th century.
"And so it will be in the 21st century, with the contents of any list of engineering achievements that will be compiled in the late ...
December 16, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, in collaboration with RTI International, has launched a new program designed to identify, evaluate and bring research products to market.
Unlike traditional technology transfer processes found at most universities today, the new program, named TechEval, pairs researchers with experienced business leaders and ...
December 4, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University’s Board of Trustees has named the Pratt School of Engineering’s new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) for Duke alumni Michael and Patty Fitzpatrick, President Richard H. Brodhead announced Dec. 3.
The Fitzpatrick Center naming came just two weeks after the $97 million, ...
November 20, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University dedicated its $97 million Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) Nov. 19 following a symposium that highlighted the teaching and research potential of engineers and scientists working together in a place that ignores traditional departmental boundaries.
The four-building, 322,000-square-foot complex more than doubles ...
November 16, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. -- Imagine a puzzle whose pieces can change shape, and whose picture can even morph from one image to another. Now imagine that puzzle in three dimensions.
Now imagine that puzzle formed of 19,000 cubic yards of concrete, 230 tons of structural steel, 1,700 tons of rebar, occupying nearly ...
November 9, 2004
Note to editors: Media-only sessions of the interactive “soundSense” music engineering demonstration will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17, and 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 18. Contact Deborah Hill at (919) 660-8403 for directions and to reserve space.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University community members, key donors and industry leaders ...
November 5, 2004
Note to editors: A high-resolution, downloadable photo of the Duke robot is available at http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/images/robot1104.jpg. The students pictured are: top left, Andrew Meyerson; top right, Julien Finlay; bottom center, Kevin Parker.
DURHAM, N.C. -- A wall-climbing, book-sized autonomous vehicle made by a Duke University team drove up a challenging vertical course ...
October 12, 2004
MILWAUKEE, Wis., October 13, 2004 – The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) announced today that Dr. Kristina M. Johnson, dean of Duke University’s Edmund T. Pratt School of Engineering is the recipient of the 2004 SWE Achievement Award, the highest award given by the Society for her outstanding contributions to ...
October 1, 2004
Christopher Clarke is joining Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering as the associate dean for development and principal giving, Dean Kristina M. Johnson announced Thursday.
Clarke comes to Duke from Purdue University where he was director of development and leadership gifts for the School of Mechanical Engineering.
"We are very fortunate to ...
September 14, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. -– A National Science Foundation grant to Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering will allow the school to launch a new undergraduate curriculum that focuses on the most important emerging applications in electrical and computer engineering today.
The new curriculum will integrate four key fields of electrical and computer ...
August 27, 2004
Duke University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) opened on schedule Aug. 16 and a week later the first classes were taught in the four-building, 322,000-square-foot complex.
The sprawling center, facing Hudson Hall to the north across the new Engineering Quadrangle, cost $97 million and more than doubles ...
August 26, 2004
As the fall semester begins, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering welcomes three new faculty members.
“We are very excited about the new faculty additions,” said April S. Brown, ECE Chair. “The department is continuing its growth with emphasis on the Pratt School’s strategic initiatives. Each of the new faculty ...
August 26, 2004
At the start of the fall semester, Pratt’s Department of Biomedical Engineering welcomes three new tenure track faculty members.
Jean-Marc Fellous, previously a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute, became an assistant professor in the BME department and a core member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in September 2004. Fellous ...
August 21, 2004
A translucent, blue flying-saucer-shaped underwater robot created by Duke students whirled and skimmed its way to a prize for the most innovative design at a recent competition.
Dubbed Charybdis -- after a mythical Greek sea monster that gulped and spewed seawater to create deadly whirlpools -- the robot won the $1,000 ...
August 12, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. – Sandra P. Connolly has joined Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering as the associate dean of finance and administration.
Connolly comes to Duke from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where she held the post of assistant vice provost for academic administration. She began Aug. 9.
"Sandra’s extensive experience ...
August 10, 2004
The National Academy of Engineering has announced that Duke engineering professor Robert Clark is among 86 of the "nation's brightest young engineers," who have been selected to participate in the NAE's tenth annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Clark was also selected to participate in the Fourth Japan-America Frontiers Symposium. Clark 
