Architect Masoud Akbarzadeh and research assistant Boyu Xiao of the Weitzman School of Design, along with collaborators including Yao Lu of Jefferson University, defied conventional engineering by constructing a 30-foot-long bridge entirely from 16 millimeter hollow glass units. Their effort is now showcased at the Corning Museum of Glass.
(Image: Courtesy of the Corning Museum of Glass)
Building bridges: A feat of engineering and artistry
At the Corning Museum of Glass, professor of architecture Masoud Akbarzadeh and his team have turned fragility into strength with a 30-foot-long span of shimmering glass, blending ancient wisdom with cutting-edge design to redefine the future of structural engineering and architecture.
(On homepage) A close-up of a highly structured self-folding knit, where carefully designed stitch patterns create a repeating wave-like geometry. This fabric’s shape is dictated entirely by its stitch arrangement, demonstrating how knitting can be programmed to form complex, three-dimensional structures without the need for additional shaping forces. Such advancements in knitigami—the fusion of knitting and origami—could lead to innovations in deployable textiles, soft robotics, and adaptive materials.
(Image: Courtesy of Lauren Niu)
What can theoretical physics teach us about knitting?
Penn physicist Randall Kamien, visiting scholar Lauren Niu, and collaborator Geneviève Dion of Drexel bring unprecedented levels of predictability to the ancient practice of knitting by developing a mathematical model that could be used to create a new class of lightweight, ultra-strong materials.
Jason Altschuler (top left) and Anderson Ye Zhang (bottom left) of the Wharton School, Liang Wu (bottom right) of the School of Arts & Sciences, and César de la Fuente (top right) of the Perelman School of Medicine have been named 2025 Sloan Research Fellows. They are among 126 early-career scientists in North America chosen this year to receive the two-year, $75,000 fellowship in recognition of their accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become leaders in their fields.
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Four from Penn named 2025 Sloan Research Fellows
Jason Altschuler, César de la Fuente, Liang Wu, and Anderson Ye Zhang have been honored as early-career researchers and scholars for their accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become leaders in their fields.
Leveraging principles of quantum mechanics to securely transmit messages has promised a revolution in encryption, keeping sensitive information secure. Now, a collaborative team of researchers including the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Liang Feng and Ph.D. candidate Yichi Zhang have developed a system that enables more stable, robust, high-efficiency, and long-range quantum communication—paving the way for practical, high-dimensional quantum networks.
(Image: Courtesy of Jian Fan)
Quantum communications
Penn and CUNY researchers collaborated to develop a device that uses quantum principles to relay information securely—an advance that could improve encryption in critical service areas like banking and health care.
In Senegal, the ambitious Dakar Greenbelt project seeks to create an extensive network of ecological infrastructure in and around the city to sustainably address environmental concerns and enhance urban life. With support from David Gouverneur and Ellen Neises, Ph.D. candidate Rob Levinthal in the Weitzman School of Design led two courses that included a field trip to Dakar, that culminated in students presenting their visions for parts of the Greenbelt.
(Image: Courtesy of Chaowu Li)
Turning the desert into an oasis
Students from the Weitzman School of Design journeyed to Senegal to help with a massive ecological and infrastructural greening effort as part of their coursework. The Dakar Greenbelt aims to combat desertification and promote sustainable urban growth.
Cells are dynamic, fast-changing, complex, tiny, and often hard-to-see in environments that don’t always behave in predictable ways when exposed to external stimuli. Now, researchers led by Lukasz Bugaj of the School of Engineering and Applied Science have found new ways to modulate cell activity remotely.
(Image: iStock/Maksim Tkachenko)
New ways to modulate cell activity remotely
Penn researchers use temperature to guide cellular behavior, promising better diagnostics and targeted therapies.
Researchers combined cosmological data from two major surveys of the universe’s evolutionary history and found that it may have become “messier and complicated” than expected in recent years.
The University’s nexus for technology transfer supports researchers in their innovative efforts, from CAR T to mRNA advancements that have dramatically reshaped the world.
Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, has long been a model species for biologists seeking to understand the molecular mechanisms of animal function and how novelty may arise in organisms. Theoretical physicist Andrea Liu of the School of Arts & Sciences is conducting research on the insect, along with biology and experimental biophysics collaborators at Duke University. Their research has opened the door to an approach that could offer not only a new understanding of how biological function emerges but also suggest a new class of systems in condensed matter physics.
(Image: iStock / nechaev-kon)
Fruit fly development offers insights into condensed matter physics
Penn Physicist Andrea Liu and collaborators modeled the behavior of tissue during a stage of fly development and found, surprisingly, it doesn’t fluidize as it shrinks but stays solid. Their approach could offer insights physical systems with complex functionality.
For more than a month, residents in New Jersey, parts of Pennsylvania, and New York have spotted unidentified flying objects, which local residents refer to as “drones,” hovering over neighborhoods, critical infrastructure and even restricted sites. To learn more about the mysterious flying objects, Penn Today spoke with local expert Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
(Image: Courtesy of iStock/Naypong)
Q&A: Dean Kumar and the ‘drone’ sightings
Penn Engineering Dean Vijay Kumar discusses the mysterious flying objects, or “drones,” hovering around parts of the East Coast.
