Learn the five steps to making paper as it was done in the Revolutionary era, part of a Common Press semiquincentennial project, alongside a class from the Weitzman School of Design.
Specialized RNA molecules could counter ALS neurodegeneration
Researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered short RNA chaperones that bind to the primary target of ALS, restore its function, and protect motor neurons in a preclinical model, pointing toward a new RNA-based therapeutic strategy.
Fourth-year Glynn Boltman set out to explore why many young Americans intentionally disengage from politics. Her findings, which she turned into a podcast, challenge common assumptions about political disengagement—and suggest a need for more empathy.
Sacrifice versus suffering: Examining unheard stories of the past
Fourth-year Rafaella Lambrinos traveled to London to study archival records about the Bengal famine of 1943 and British food rationing, gaining greater insight into the study of the past.
President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso’s Fluid Silicon platform helps computer chips monitor their own performance in real time, reducing wasted energy and improving efficiency as demand for AI-scale computing grows.
How population changes are impacting primary education worldwide
Research from Penn sociologist Emily Hannum and colleagues reveals regional trends in whether school-age populations are increasing, plateauing, or decreasing—and shows how different countries are responding.
Boosting Infrastructure Investment for Global Cities
Susan Wachter, co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research (IUR) and William Glasgall, Volcker Alliance Public Finance Adviser and Penn IUR Fellow, will speak with a panel of global public finance experts about how global cities and other subnational governments could adopt attributes of America’s municipal market structure. The conversation will cover how a credit-driven culture may help meet the demands of population growth and climate change. Free and open to the public. Register to attend.
To honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—which was typeset and printed within 12 hours starting on July 4, 1776—the Common Press will host a 12-hour, two-day community typesetting event during which all are invited to hand-set metal type to help create a historically accurate replica. The final product will remain available for printing through September 2026. Part of America 250 at Penn programming, this event is free and open to the public. Register to attend.
Penn’s guiding principles are the University’s enduring values and distinctive strengths: anchored, inventive, interwoven, and engaged. The practices support and strengthen Penn’s core educational mission.
At Penn Today, we focus on some of the ways the University is putting this framework into action. From student, faculty, and staff profiles to research updates and event coverage, Penn Today highlights the latest examples of the University’s principled approach to excellence.
Penn’s community engagement progress at the turn of the century
The third installment in the limited series ‘Chapters of Change’ explores how Penn has led community engagement efforts in public education, economic development, and neighborhood prosperity during a time of widespread change in the nation’s cities.
Students test one way to combat extreme heat in Philadelphia
Third-year students Nafisa Bangura and Angelica Dadda expanded upon a multidisciplinary research endeavor to evaluate a reflective pavement coating as a tool to mitigate extreme heat. Their work may inform policy efforts to improve urban heat resilience.
Delivery robots still learning from ‘edge cases,’ scientists say
Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science compares delivery robots to self-driving cars, saying, “It’s really hard for robot software developers, for folks like me [in] academics to predict because the environment is indeed very unstructured.”
New AI method tackles one of science’s hardest math problems
Researchers in the School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a smarter AI method for solving notoriously difficult inverse equations, which help scientists uncover hidden causes behind observable effects.
6 lifestyle habits to try before turning to unauthorized peptides, according to experts
“There’s no doubt that peptides are important, but it's not news. We’ve known about insulin, for example, for 106 years,” says PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel of the Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School.
