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Penn Electric Racing’s comeback
Penn Electric Racing’s REV11 car racing on a track.

Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering

Penn Electric Racing’s comeback

The team behind the fully electric REV11 race car overcame technical challenges to successfully compete in this year’s Formula SAE Electric competition, placing 15th overall and earning first place in the Business Presentation event.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

When design meets engineering, students solve the right problems
Sarah Rottenberg lecturing.

For Sarah Rottenberg is the executive director of the Integrated Product Design Program at Penn Engineering and adjunct assistant professor at the Weitzman School of Design.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering)

When design meets engineering, students solve the right problems

In Sarah Rottenberg’s studio course, engineering and design students are taught to rethink the earliest stage of design: understanding the problem itself.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

Latest awards and appointments for Penn faculty
The Back entrance of College Hall.

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Latest awards and appointments for Penn faculty

A roundup of recent awards for faculty members in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, Penn Carey Law, Graduate School of Education, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Perelman School of Medicine.

Penn Today Staff

2 min. read

Turf war: Artificial versus real grass
View of a pile of artificial turf of a soccer field.

Image: aire images

Turf war: Artificial versus real grass

In conversation with Penn Today, mechanical engineer, tennis player, and soccer fan Paulo Arratia discusses the material differences between natural grass and synthetic turf.

3 min. read

Shujie Yang: Harnessing sound to build the next generation of microrobotic medicine
Shujie Yang

Shujie Yang is at the frontier of single-cell acoustic manipulation, an emerging field that blends physics, mechanobiology, and medicine.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering)

Shujie Yang: Harnessing sound to build the next generation of microrobotic medicine

Yang’s lab at Penn Engineering uses precisely-controlled ultrasound waves to develop microscale tools that can manipulate cells, viruses, and soft materials without physical contact.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

When bone behaves like a sponge
Three members of the Tertuliano lab looking at a computer in the lab.

To visualize the nanoscale structures, the Tertuliano lab often uses large-scale models like the one pictured.

(Image: Sylvia Zhang)

When bone behaves like a sponge

Penn Engineers in the Tertuliano Lab have developed a nanoengineered 3D-printed scaffold for observing how cells feel force.

Melissa Pappas

2 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).

High-speed laboratory images capture two distinct “sandball” shapes formed when raindrops strike dry, sloped sand and roll downhill. (Top) Peanut-shaped sandballs, where grains coat the surface of a liquid core. (Bottom) Donut-shaped sandballs, which densify into rigid, wheel-like structures with a hollow center, enabling far more efficient sediment transport than splash erosion alone.

(Image: Daisuke Noto)

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

Powering AI from space, at scale

Powering AI from space, at scale

A new design for solar-powered data centers reduces weight, power consumption, and overall complexity, making large-scale deployment more feasible.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read