School of Engineering & Applied Science

Three students stand next to a poster entitled "Cleaning Up Philly's Streets" which describes their project

Helping Philadelphia tackle trash with technology

Last fall, a team of undergraduates developed a high-tech solution to help the city target one of its persistent problems: the illegal dumping of construction and trash debris.

rendering of an antibody about to go through the membrane of a cell

An easier way of sneaking antibodies into cells

Penn Engineers have found a plug-and-play solution that makes antibodies compatible with the delivery vehicles commonly used to ferry nucleic acids through the membrane of a cell without damaging either.

a legged robot walks down a mine past a dummy wearing a yellow vest and a red backpack that is hanging from a metal fence nearby

Robots to the rescue

Penn researchers created a fleet of robots to navigate unknown underground environments as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Subterranean Challenge.

After President’s Innovation Prize, InstaHub has even more spark

Since earning the award in April, Michael Wong hasn’t looked back. Each day he’s growing his startup to promote a greener tomorrow.

Engineers solve the paradox of why tissue gets stiffer when compressed

Tissue gets stiffer when it’s compressed. That stiffening response is a long-standing biomedical paradox, as common sense dictates that when you push the ends of a string together, it loosens tension, rather than increasing it. New research explains the mechanical interplay between that fiber network and the cells it contains.

a person sitting at a microscope looking at a computer screen surrounded by pipet boxes, chemicals, and cabinetry

From the classroom to the lab and back again

Senior Adithya Sriram is busy earning two degrees, researching new applications for graphene, and preparing physics courses for students in West Philadelphia.

A scan of a human body analyzed by AI tools.

Can the additive tree expand machine learning in medicine?

By combining elements of two widely used prediction models, the “additive tree” is a highly predictive model that is also easy to interpret.

The researchers showed that the new microwave imager chip could form images of simple objects such as this metallic Penn logo. Unlike light, microwaves can travel through certain opaque objects, making microwave imagers potentially useful in a wide variety of applications. (Image: Farshid Ashtiani)

New chip poised to enable handheld microwave imaging

Penn researchers show that the new microwave imager chip could form images of simple objects. Unlike light, microwaves can travel through certain opaque objects, making microwave imagers potentially useful in a wide variety of applications.

New topological insulator can reroute photonic ‘traffic’ on the fly

Penn researchers, who first discovered topological insulators in 2005, have shown, for the first time, a way for a topological insulator to make use of its entire footprint without wasted space throughout the material’s interior.

a group of 40 people posing on a staircase

A ‘quantum leap’ for quantum information science

By bringing together experts across campus and across disciplines, Penn is poised to lead ongoing efforts towards developing quantum applications using atomically-thin materials.

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