School of Engineering & Applied Science

a line of cylinders with used water filters on a bench outside

How to make a better water filter? Turn it inside out

Penn engineers describe a novel approach for making antimicrobial nanoscale water filters while demonstrating new approaches that can be used to develop a broad range of materials.

The Huh lab’s eye-on-a-chip attached to a motorized, gelatin-based eyelid.

Blinking eye-on-a-chip used for disease modeling and drug testing

Penn Engineering’s Dan Huh and Jeongyun Seo built an eye model that could imitate a healthy eye and an eye with dry eye disease, allowing them to test an experimental drug without risk of human harm.

A smiling person sits as one person touches his closed hand, another looks at part of a robotic device, and a third looks on at a laptop on a table in a medical room.

Sun, sand, and medical rehab robots

As part of a new interdisciplinary Penn Global Seminar, 16 undergraduates traveled to Jamaica to test and refine robotic rehabilitation devices for patients in need.

Film still of Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man character standing at a work table full of tools trying on a robotic-looking arm.

Q&A

Iron Man: The engineer who became a superhero

A Q&A with Marc Miskin and James Pikul about the real-world tech and practical limitations that underly Tony Stark’s superpowered suit.

‘Smart aviary’ poised to break new ground in behavioral research

A collaboration that has brought together biologists, engineers, and physicists to study the reproductive behavior of birds using machine learning in a custom-built aviary at Pennovation Works.

Cluster of multicolored balls drawn with various emoji faces.

Cross-cultural similarities and differences in emoji usage

While the idea of emojis unifying people across language barriers is enticing, people of different cultures might not use emojis in the same way.

Genetic engineering and gene manipulation concept. DNA helix molecules and chromosomes, DNA strand, molecule or atom, neurons.

Bioengineers shed light on folding genomes

Jennifer Phillips-Cremins, an assistant professor in Penn Engineering’s Department of Bioengineering, and colleagues use light as a trigger to fold sequences of genes into specific shapes and patterns to see how the different configurations alter gene expression.

Remembering the past while looking forward

As the nation celebrates the Apollo 11 mission, a look at Penn’s connection to the historic event and how the Moon impacts science, politics, and culture.

blue and yellow swirls of light around a large dark spiral

Unique electrical properties in quantum materials can be controlled using light

New research on Weyl semimetals, a class of quantum materials, unlocks unique quantum properties that can be used to create light-controlled electronic devices in the future.

‘Robotic blood’ powers and propels synthetic lionfish

Combining different functional components that are normally compartmentalized can lead to both powerful and lightweight future robots. A new paper by James Pikul highlights the success of a robotic lionfish that combines energy storage and movement through the use of a hydraulic liquid referred to as “robotic blood.”

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