Skip to Content Skip to Content
Penn’s ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, turns 80
Jean Bartik (left) and Frances Spence operating the ENIAC’s main control panel in 1946.

Penn’s ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, turns 80

Housed in the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School Building, ENIAC—the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose computer—launched in 1946. ENIAC’s ability to be reprogrammed to solve a wide range of complex numerical problems was revolutionary and laid the foundation for modern digital systems.

4 min. read

Exploring the Declaration through ink and type
A hand preparing letterpress off a small paper with text.

Exploring the Declaration through ink and type

A typesetting workshop at Penn’s Common Press invited participants to reinterpret lines from the Declaration of Independence as part of the Typography of Independence project and Penn’s America 250 programming.

3 min. read

Raindrop-formed ‘sandballs’ that erode hillsides tenfold
High-speed images of raindrops rolling on a sandy slope, forming peanut-shaped sandballs (top) and donut-shaped sandballs with hollow centers (bottom).

Raindrop-formed ‘sandballs’ that erode hillsides tenfold

Penn geophysicists and colleagues have uncovered Earth-sculpting processes that result from the formation of snowball-like aggregates they call ‘sandballs.‘ Their findings provide fundamental insights into erosion and will broaden scientific understandings of landscape change, soil loss, and agriculture.

3 min. read

https://in-principle-and-practice.upenn.edu/
Students walk beneath The Covenant on Locust Walk at dusk

In Principle and Practice

Penn’s strategic framework

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 in the News

  • Some publications require a subscription to view full articles.
  • View All