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Stuart Weitzman School of Design

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Nature-inspired designs give rise to stronger, lighter systems
Wing of a dragonfly close up.

Masoud Akbarzadeh of the Weitzman School of Design leads a multidisciplinary group of architectural designers, structural engineers, computer scientists, and more in his Polyhedral Structures Laboratory. He explores ways in which polyhedral geometries that frequently occur in nature can be used to make stronger and lighter structures, all while using fewer materials. Akbarzadeh discusses a recent study drawing inspiration from dragonfly wings.

(Image: iStock / yanikap)

Nature-inspired designs give rise to stronger, lighter systems

Weitzman’s Masoud Akbarzadeh discusses a recent multidisciplinary study that draws inspiration from dragonfly wings to redesign a Boeing 777 to be lighter, stronger, and more sustainable.
Weitzman’s Amber Wiley: Illuminating the Black freedom struggle in the built environment
Amber Wiley.

Amber Wiley, Matt and Erika Nord director of Weitzman’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites.

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Weitzman’s Amber Wiley: Illuminating the Black freedom struggle in the built environment

The inaugural Matt and Erika Nord Director of Weitzman’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites discusses her new role.

From the Weitzman School of Design

The art and science of ‘living-like’ architecture
Camila Irabien and Dionne Yeung working in a lab side-by-side.

Camila Irabien and Dionne Yeung work in the Stephenson Foundation Educational Laboratory and Bio-MakerSpace.

(Image: Penn Engineering Today)

The art and science of ‘living-like’ architecture

Collaborators from Penn Engineering and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design have created “living-like” bioactive interior architecture designed to one day protect us from hidden airborne threats.

Devorah Fischler

Presidential Ph.D. Fellows are making their mark
President Magill meets with PhD Fellows

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Presidential Ph.D. Fellows are making their mark

Penn Today catches up with doctoral candidates from the $30 million initiative’s inaugural cohort. This upcoming academic year, the program will welcome its third class of fellows.

Lauren Hertzler

‘Ritual and Remembrance’
two artists laughing with each other standing in gallery in front of wooden balusters on wall

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‘Ritual and Remembrance’

Work by four artists in the current Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition, “Songs for Ritual and Remembrance,” uplift histories that have been repressed and underrepresented, including those of enslaved people and oppressed laborers.
Following I-95 collapse, attention turns to public transit alternatives
Cars wait in a line to divert from an exit roadway.

Traffic is diverted from a collapsed elevated section of Interstate 95, in Philadelphia on June 14, 2023.

(Image: AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Following I-95 collapse, attention turns to public transit alternatives

In a Q&A, Jay Arzu, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of City & Regional Planning, discusses how investment in public transit would alleviate travel stress caused by incidents like the I-95 bridge collapse.
Design and build, but first, collaborate
A group of people in a small urban park in West Philadelphia.

Students and community members celebrated the Lex Street Garden’s completion on May 4, 2023.

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Design and build, but first, collaborate

The Weitzman School’s spring design-build studio was a collaboration between students, community leaders, and residents to develop a key site as a visible distillation of the New Freedom District in West Philadelphia.

From the Weitzman School of Design

PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger
Golfer Phil Mickelson holds a golf club standing on grass and looks into the distance, bending at the waist, in front of a LIV Golf sign and a rock wall.

Phil Mickelson at the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J., in July 2022.

(Image: AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger

In the wake of the controversial golf deal, Benjamin L. Schmitt of the School of Arts & Sciences and the Kleinman Center discusses “sportswashing,” malign influence campaigns, and steps global democracies can take to prevent it all.

Kristen de Groot

$10M gift from Robin and Marc Wolpow’s Arbour Way Foundation launches healthcare entrepreneurship opportunities at Venture Lab
Five people engaged in conversation seated in a lounge.

Student entrepreneurs engaging with each other in Tangen Hall, the home of Venture Lab and innovative student programs such as those supported by the Wolpows and The Arbour Way Foundation.

(Image: Jay Kan/Venture Lab)

$10M gift from Robin and Marc Wolpow’s Arbour Way Foundation launches healthcare entrepreneurship opportunities at Venture Lab

The landmark gift will create vibrant programming focused on health care innovation and co-curricular learning and collaboration across the University of Pennsylvania.