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Wensi Wu uses digital twins to explore the hidden mechanics of the human heart
computational mapping of a human heart.

Image: Floriana via Getty Images

Wensi Wu uses digital twins to explore the hidden mechanics of the human heart

Wu, a research faculty member at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, develops “digital twins” of the human heart through computational modeling that capture both the visible and invisible aspects of cardiac function.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

Teaching robots to build without blueprints
A simulation of the mathematics of a bee colony.

Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules to simulate robots to behave like bees, building complex shapes without instructions, pointing to a new manufacturing frontier.

(Image: Courtesy of Jordan Raney and Mark Yim)

Teaching robots to build without blueprints

Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules to simulate robots who behave like bees, building complex shapes without instructions, pointing to a new manufacturing frontier inspired by nature.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

A mothers’ meetup like no other for families formed through uterus transplant
Two people embrace at a uterine transplant meetup lunch with a baby in a stroller and gifts on a conference table.

Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine News

A mothers’ meetup like no other for families formed through uterus transplant

One week before Mother’s Day, those who gave birth through uterus transplant gathered for a special brunch with those who donated their uteruses for the procedure, and their respective families.

Alex Gardner

2 min. read

Adventures in innovation: Penn Engineering startups lead Venture Lab Challenge

Adventures in innovation: Penn Engineering startups lead Venture Lab Challenge

A trio of Penn Engineering startups took home more than $100,000 at the annual Venture Lab Startup Challenge. Sync Labs, whose AI assistant, Alice, is enhancing caregiving for seniors, claimed the Richard and Ellen Perlman Grand Prize, as well as three other awards. Quok.it, which helps customers leverage unused computing power around the world for tasks like AI training, earned the William G. Simpson and R. Drew Kistler Runner Up Prize.

New 3D-printing enables color-changing, stress-responsive materials for smart sensing, displays, and robotics
A Penn engineering student holds up an array of different structures made with a new, 3D-printed material

Alicia Ng, a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering holds up an array of different structures made with a new, 3D-printed material that changes color when stretched.

(Image: Penn Engineering Today)

New 3D-printing enables color-changing, stress-responsive materials for smart sensing, displays, and robotics

Penn engineers have developed a transparent silicone shell to preserve cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers—color-changing materials that can respond to mechanical stress—while supporting intricate 3D designs.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

The reimagineers of Penn Medicine
Raina Merchant and two staffers in an office looking at a computer at Penn Medicine.

Raina Merchant (right) is an emergency physician and Penn Medicine’s chief transformation officer.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine News)

The reimagineers of Penn Medicine

Penn Medicine is harnessing innovation and cutting-edge technology to health care, from developing new treatments to streamlining management and improving leadership.

Christina Hernandez-Sherwood

2 min. read

Penn engineers first to train AI at lightspeed
Tianwei Wu (left) and Liang Feng (right) demonstrating some of the apparatus used to develop the new, light-powered chip.

Tianwei Wu (left) and Liang Feng (right) demonstrating some of the apparatus used to develop the new, light-powered chip.

(Image: Sylvia Zhang)

Penn engineers first to train AI at lightspeed

Penn engineers have developed the first photonic chip that reshapes how light behaves to carry out the nonlinear mathematics at the heart of modern AI while reducing energy use.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Penn students develop AI-driven solution to transform senior care
Nami Lindquist, Melanie Herbert, and Alex Popescu

Melanie Herbert (center), a fourth-year in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, created Sync Labs—an innovative AI solution that addresses caregiving in senior care. Joined by Nami Lindquist (left) of the Wharton School and Penn Engineering and Alex Popescu of Penn Engineering (right) their technology, which has earned them the 2025 President’s Innovation Prize, allows caregivers to see three times more seniors while providing more personalized care.

nocred

Penn students develop AI-driven solution to transform senior care

Fourth-year students Melanie Herbert, Nami Lindquist, and Alexandra Popescu were awarded the President’s Innovation Prize for Sync Labs, a privacy-centered AI system to address the growing caregiving gap in senior care

8 min. read