School of Engineering & Applied Science

Robot and crowd

For Philly Tech Week, a showcase for cutting-edge robots

Penn students, faculty, and affiliated entrepreneurs showed off their latest legged robots, drones, automated driving systems, and more at the Pennovation Center as part of the annual celebration of the tech industry in Philadelphia.

Gwyneth K. Shaw

Rendering of 2D graphene molecules

Applying machine learning to materials science

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are applied to an increasing number of tasks, But using machine learning in materials science, which attempts to design and make materials for use in future technologies, has proven to be more difficult.

Penn Today Staff ・

Time lapse photo of green circle shows a progressively larger cleared off area where a robot has removed a biofilm

An army of microrobots can wipe out dental plaque

A swarm of microrobots, directed by magnets, can break apart and remove dental biofilm, or plaque, from a tooth, thanks to a partnership led by Dental Medicine’s Hyun (Michel) Koo and Engineering’s Edward Steager.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・

a large group of people in front of the Franklin Institute building with a science demonstration (with smoke and the aftermath of an explosion that caused colored balls to fly into the air) in the foreground

Philadelphia: The new city of science

Penn researchers will be involved in a weeklong series of interactive activities and events across the city as part of the Philadelphia Science Festival.

Erica K. Brockmeier ・

Hands planting a plant.

Protecting the planet at Penn

Earth Day and every day, the University community is at work to make the world a little better. Here are some highlights from those efforts.

Katherine Unger Baillie, Michele W. Berger ・



In the News


Scientific American

Grumpy voters want better stories. Not statistics

In a Q&A, PIK Professor Duncan Watts says that U.S. voters ignored Democratic policy in favor of Republican storytelling.

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Interesting Engineering

Superhuman vision lets robots see through walls, smoke with new LiDAR-like eyes

Mingmin Zhao of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues are using radio signals to allow robots to “see” beyond traditional sensor limits.

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Technical.ly Philly

A sneak peek inside Penn Engineering’s new $137.5M mass timber building

Amy Gutmann Hall aims to be Philadelphia’s next big hub for AI and innovation while setting a new standard for architectural sustainability.

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6ABC.com

New building at University of Pennsylvania aims to become hub for AI research

Amy Gutmann Hall, set to open in early 2025, is dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence and data science. 

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Philadelphia Business Journal

First look: Inside Penn’s new Amy Gutmann Hall, the region's largest mass timber building

Amy Gutmann Hall will be a catalyst for groundbreaking artificial intelligence research and collaboration across disciplines, with remarks from Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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