$1.2 million goes to SEAS for connectivity in Ghana
The School of Engineering and Applied Science’s efforts to close the global digital divide have been recognized with a $1.12 million grant in Hewlett-Packard equipment and services. Touted as the most extensive and concrete undertaking by an American institution of higher education, SEAS’ grassroots project will lay the foundation for a high-speed information and communication infrastructure in Ghana. In three years, SEAS has already founded computer laboratories in four developing nations, including Ecuador, India and Mali. The Hewlett-Packard award is to be jointly administered by Penn and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
The Dutch Graduate School Polymers at Eindhoven University of Technology has selected Professor of Chemistry Virgil Percec to be the awardee of the 2002 Dutch Polymers PTN Award. Awarded annually to an internationally renowned scientist for achievement in the study and research of polymer science and engineering, it includes a painting and a cash award. Percec and his family are invited to the Netherlands in recognition of his honor.
Professor of Art History Cecil L. Striker has been elected honorary director for life of the American Research Institute in Turkey. Striker has been associated with the American Research Institute since its founding in 1965 and served as president from 1977 to 1984.
Dr. Steven Bird has been elected to a three-year term on the Committee on Endangered Languages. Bird, associate director and senior researcher of the Linguistic Data Consortium, focuses his research on formal and computational models for linguistic information.
The Polyhedral Structures Laboratory is housed at the Pennovation Center and brings together designers, engineers, and computer scientists to reimagine the built world. Using graphic statics, a method where forces are mapped as lines, they design forms that balance compression and tension. These result in structures that use far fewer materials while remaining strong and efficient.
From ancient tombs and tiny robots to personalized gene editing and AI weather models, Penn’s 2025 research portfolio showed how curiosity—paired with collaboration—moves knowledge into impact and stretches across disciplines and continents.
Centering joy in AI development and implementation
PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton—of Annenberg and SP2—and collaborators introduce a joy-informed framework designed to initiate conversations among engineers, designers, and researchers.
Reflecting on Jane Austen, 250 years after her birth
English professors Michael Gamer and Barri Joyce Gold have been teaching courses specifically dedicated to Jane Austen for years. They spoke with Penn Today about their approach to teaching her novels, how they challenge common readings and myths, and what makes Austen’s work so enduring—and adaptable to the screen—more than two centuries later.
Electronic medical records help save lives of HIV patients
Wharton’s Leandro “Leo” Pongeluppe and colleagues found that HIV clinics in Malawi that switched from paper to electronic medical records saw an estimated 28% reduction in deaths in five years.
The Dutch Graduate School Polymers at Eindhoven University of Technology has selected Professor of Chemistry Virgil Percec to be the awardee of the 2002 Dutch Polymers PTN Award. Awarded annually to an internationally renowned scientist for achievement in the study and research of polymer science and engineering, it includes a painting and a cash award. Percec and his family are invited to the Netherlands in recognition of his honor.
