Class of 2026 President’s Engagement and Innovation Prize winners announced

University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson today announced the recipients of the 2026 President’s Engagement and Innovation Prizes. Awarded annually, the Prizes empower Penn undergraduate students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world. Since the establishment of the President’s Prizes, generous philanthropic support has ensured that each Prize-winning project receives $100,000, as well as a $50,000 living stipend per team member. Each team collaborates with a Penn faculty or staff mentor to implement their project.

Six fourth-year students have been named recipients of the 2026 President’s Engagement Prize. They are Chloe Chang, Darlene Leohansson, and Connie Ni for HAVEN, and Janine Haros, Eric Lee, and Justin Wang for Shared Vision. Fourth-year Margaret Zhu has received the President’s Innovation Prize for Serpent Robotics and fourth-year Nhlanhla Mavuso has received the President’s Sustainability Prize, a sub-category of the President’s Innovation Prize, for Fluid Silicon.

“This year’s recipients of the President’s Prizes exemplify the creative rigor and civic commitment that define Penn at its best,” said Jameson. “Through projects such as HAVEN, Shared Vision, Serpent Robotics, and Fluid Silicon, our students are translating bold ideas into real-world impact. I am deeply grateful to the faculty and staff mentors who helped bring these projects to life and proud of the lasting difference these students will make.”

The 2026 prize recipients—selected from an applicant pool of 67—will spend the next year implementing their projects:

• Chloe Chang, Darlene Leohansson, and Connie Ni for HAVEN: Chang, an English major with a concentration in creative writing in the College of Arts & Sciences from Manhasset Hills, New York; Leohansson, a neuroscience major in the College from Philadelphia; and Ni, a health and societies major in the College from Chattanooga, Tennessee, will focus on Home for Arts, Voices, Enrichment, and Nurturing (HAVEN), an in-shelter after-school program for families experiencing homelessness at Jane Addams Place, a family shelter in North Philadelphia. Designed to reimagine the shelter as a site for childhood, creativity, and growth, HAVEN addresses urgent gaps in literacy, prosocial play, and emotional development for children while creating leadership pathways for high-school youth and reducing caregivers’ barriers to employment. The HAVEN team is mentored by Caroline Watts, senior lecturer and director, Office of School and Community Engagement at the Graduate School of Education.

• Janine Haros, Eric Lee, and Justin Wang for Shared Vision: Haros, a health and societies major in the College from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania; Lee, a biochemistry and biophysics dual-degree major in the Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Molecular Life Sciences in the College; and Wang, a biology major in the College from Seattle, Washington, will work on Shared Vision, which aims to deliver free eye screenings, care coordination, and patient education directly within Philadelphia’s homeless shelters to holistically empower unhoused individuals. Shared Vision is mentored by Rithambara Ramachandran, assistant professor of ophthalmology in the Perelman School of Medicine.

• Margaret Zhu for Serpent Robotics: Zhu, a finance major in The Wharton School from Short Hills, New Jersey, will develop Serpent Robotics, an electric, rope‑climbing robotic system that allows arborists and tree care workers to cut branches and secure their descent to the ground, dramatically reducing injuries in one of the nation’s most dangerous industries. Its lightweight, portable platform improves safety, lowers costs, and supports utility vegetation management by helping prevent outages and wildfire risks caused by unmanaged tree growth. Serpent Robotics is mentored by Jeffrey Babin, professor and associate director of engineering entrepreneurship in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the engineering faculty director for Venture Lab.

• Nhlanhla Mavuso for Fluid Silicon: Mavuso, who is completing a coordinated-dual degree in physics and computer engineering and an accelerated masters in electrical engineering in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research a joint program in the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, from Simunye, Eswatini, will work on Fluid Silicon. Working in novel ways with modern computers’ core component, silicon, Fluid Silicon will enhance energy efficiency by allowing reconfigurable chips to monitor how their characteristics change over time and temperature to identify opportunities for adaptive compensation thereby lowering voltage, improving frequency, and further enhancing chip reliability. The platform exploits these opportunities to recover 30+% of silicon performance and energy waste to reduce data-center energy and improve reliability without the need to fabricate costly new chips. Fluid Silicon is mentored by André DeHon, Oliver C. Boileau Jr. and Nan Eleze Boileau Professor of Electrical Engineering.

This year’s finalists also included fourth-years Anmol Dash, Allison Li, and Claire Zhang for MOMENT; Maxfield Brody and Guadalupe Espinoza-Chavez for Reaching the Heartland; Brian Dinh for PEACH; Shailesh Senthil Kumar for Colab; and Andew Mao for Lucy.

“We are very proud of our great Penn students who aim to change the world by innovating new technologies and advancing health and wellbeing across our communities,” said Provost John L. Jackson Jr. “These exciting projects reflect the wide range of interests on our campus, from robotics and energy efficiency to vision care and childhood development. They also demonstrate the powerful ways that interdisciplinary connections shape research and education at Penn. We are grateful to their faculty advisors and the staff of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, who worked closely with them to develop these promising initiatives.”

The Prizes are supported by Trustee Emerita Judith Bollinger and William G. Bollinger, in honor of Ed Resovsky, and Chair of the Board of Trustees Ramanan Raghavendran.