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Innovation

Pennovation Works 2024 Year in Review

Pennovation Works 2024 Year in Review

In 2024, Pennovation Works supported 141 companies and nearly 200 startup founders from across the region. Pennovation’s Year in Review celebrates these accomplishments and more, including state-of-the-art facilities, community development events, and international delegations.

Innovation in climate education
Three people seated at a table discussing the climate.

Image: Courtesy of Felix Ello Jr.

Innovation in climate education

The Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice Program is a collaboration with Penn’s Graduate School of Education and 70 educators around Asia, Africa, and Europe working together on a K-12 education program that emphasizes climate change and social inequalities.

From the Environmental Innovations Initiative

Building tomorrow’s innovators: Penn’s Widjaja Entrepreneurship Fellows Program
A group of students at Penn in class at a table.

David Bakalov, center, hopes to leverage his Fellows experience to develop new medical treatments.

nocred

Building tomorrow’s innovators: Penn’s Widjaja Entrepreneurship Fellows Program

The Sugi and Millie Widjaja Engineering Entrepreneurship Fellows Program matches 12 Penn students with mentors to learn what it takes to transform ideas into potential companies.

Ian Scheffler

‘Ripple Effect’ asks ‘Who benefits from innovations?’
People walking in a city scape with digital data atmospherically surrounding them.

Image: Gremlin via Getty Images

‘Ripple Effect’ asks ‘Who benefits from innovations?’

The latest installments of The Wharton School’s faculty research podcast, ‘Ripple Effect,’ delves into transformative innovations and their effect on the populations they reach.

From Knowledge at Wharton

Building bridges: A feat of engineering and artistry
The Glass Bridge

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.
Stentix wins the 2025 Y-Prize
Winners of Penn’s 2025 Y-Prize holding their certificates.

The Stentix team (top) Summer Cobb and Amanda Kossoff, (bottom) Aarsha Shah and Elizabeth Jia, with judges (descending left) Matt Fitz-Henry, Jason Smith, Jennifer Gilburg, and Sasha Schrode, and (descending right) David Hsu, Gerald Lopez, and Dean Miller.

(Image: Courtesy of the William and Phyllis Mack Institute for Innovation Management)

Stentix wins the 2025 Y-Prize

The winning team of Penn Engineering’s annual award for entrepreneurial technology have created a noninvasive mechanism to adjust medical stent positioning using magnetic reconfiguration.

From the William and Phyllis Mack Institute for Innovation Management

Philly schools could be on the forefront of using AI. Here’s what that means
Philadelphia Inquirer

Philly schools could be on the forefront of using AI. Here’s what that means

Penn has partnered with the Philadelphia School District to launch a pilot program to train teachers and administrators on how best to integrate artificial intelligence in city schools, featuring remarks from L. Michael Golden of the Graduate School of Education.

Bosses struggle to police workers’ use of AI
The Irish Times (Dublin)

Bosses struggle to police workers’ use of AI

Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School says that workers who privately use generative AI to accelerate their work might not be willing to admit it.

Supreme Court will hear TikTok’s challenge to looming U.S. ban
Bloomberg

Supreme Court will hear TikTok’s challenge to looming U.S. ban

Justin (Gus) Hurwitz of Penn Carey Law says that the heart of the TikTok ban case is balancing the First Amendment against both national security concerns and the court’s deference to Congress and the executive branch.