Identifying a vulnerability in critical spacecraft networks
Penn Engineering’s Linh Thi Xuan Phan and a team of researchers have identified a critical security flaw in the networking approach used in aerospace and other safety-critical systems.
The dynamics governing mechanointelligence vary greatly along time- and length-scales, so detailed models of individual cells and their components are necessary to connect the effects of their physical environments to the downstream effects those forces have on biological processes. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)
Center for Engineering Mechanobiology 2.0: Developing ‘mechanointelligence’
The new interdisciplinary Center for Engineering Mechanobiology brings together researchers from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Perelman School of Medicine together with those from across campus and beyond around the concept of “mechanointelligence.”
The researchers developed a way of alternating between “blocks” of two types of polymer with precise lengths. These “multiblock copolymers” spontaneously form layered and cylindrical structures, which could be used for nanopatterning, a way of manufacturing microscopic components. The researchers also demonstrated a “double gyroid” structure which could be used for more complicated nanopatterning templates. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)
A new class of materials for nanoscale patterning
Recent research demonstrates how a new class of polymers can produce small, precise patterns on the nanometer scale, with future implications for large-scale computer chip fabrication.
Artist rendering of the Starshot Lightsail spacecraft during acceleration by a ground-based laser array. Previous conceptions of lightsails have imagined them being passively pushed by light from the sun, but Starshot’s laser-based approach requires rethinking the sail’s shape and composition so it won’t melt or tear during acceleration. (Image: Masumi Shibata, courtesy of Breakthrough Initiatives)
How to design a sail that won’t tear or melt on an interstellar voyage
The Breakthrough Starshot Initiative’s laser-based approach requires rethinking a sail’s shape and composition so it won’t melt or tear during acceleration and pushed by wind, not light.
Social media bots may appear human, but their similar personalities give them away
A new engineering study examines how social media bots disguise themselves to interact with genuine accounts on social media platforms, while suggesting a new strategy for how to detect them.
Penn President Amy Gutmann, the eighth and longest-serving President in Penn’s history.
Penn Engineering reveals new data science building will be named Amy Gutmann Hall
The School of Engineering and Applied Science’s new data science building unveiled its new name, Amy Gutmann Hall, honoring Penn’s eight and longest-serving president.
The Center for Precision Engineering for Health will bring together researchers spanning multiple scientific fields to develop novel therapeutic biomaterials, such as a drug-delivering nanoparticles that can be designed to adhere to only to the tissues they target. (Image: Courtesy of the Mitchell Lab)
Penn establishes the Center for Precision Engineering for Health with $100 million commitment
The Center will conduct interdisciplinary, fundamental, and translational research in biomaterials that can create breakthroughs in improving health care and saving lives, including nanoparticle technologies to improve storage and distribution of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.
The researchers’ artificial chromatophores consist of membranes stretched over circular cavities attached to pneumatic pumps. Pressurizing the cavity stretches the membrane, changing the pitch of the helix-shaped liquid crystal inside. Correlating the relationship between diameter, pressure, pitch and color, the researchers are able to treat each cavity like pixel, shifting its color to match the surrounding pattern in this demonstration from their recent study.
Engineering a polymer network to act as active camouflage on demand
Artificial chromatophores, which consist of membranes stretched over circular cavities attached to pneumatic pumps, allow surfaces squid-like active camouflage capabilities.
Xunjing Wu on a mid-career switch to computer science
Penn’s Online Master of Computer and Information Technology degree allows professionals like Wu the opportunity to switch careers without restarting their education from the beginning.
Penn Engineering’s ENIAD sets new world record for energy-efficient supercomputing
ENIAD, named after ENIAC, the world’s first digital computer, which was developed at Penn 75 years ago, took the top spot among a list of 500 of the most energy-efficient supercomputers reported in the world.
