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Innovation
Bringing a ‘One Health’ perspective to global challenges
Universities, Penn included, have a major role to play in advancing global health, combining research and education across disciplines to find solutions to urgent worldwide challenges.
Building futures through LEGOs
In the FIRST LEGO League tournament, middle school teams mentored by Penn Engineering students worked to design and build robots related to the theme of water.
Physicist strums string theory at Philly high school
In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the universe is composed of one-dimensional cosmic strings vibrating at different frequencies. To high school students at Philadelphia Performing Arts: A String Theory Charter School in Center City, “string theory” is an allusion to the valuable effect of creativity, music, and the arts on developing minds.
Low-cost solutions reduce court no-shows by 36 percent
Streamlining information on a summons form and sending simple text message reminders led to some 31,000 fewer arrest warrants.
Researchers prove that timed brain stimulation improves memory
Performance can be enhanced by as much as 15 percent, according to a study by Penn neuroscientists published in Nature Communications. It is the first time such a connection has been made.
Study uncovers therapeutic targets for aggressive triple-negative breast cancers
As part of a breast-cancer diagnosis, doctors analyze the tumor to determine which therapies might best attack the malignancy. But for patients whose cancer is triple-negative — that is, lacking receptors for estrogen, progesterone and Her2 — the options for treatment dwindle. Triple-negative cancers, or TNBC, also tend to be more aggressive than other cancer subtypes.
By altering bone marrow, ‘training’ can prepare innate immune system for future challenges
George Hajishengallis of the School of Dental Medicine and an international team of colleagues have found that “training” the immune system causes changes in the precursors of immune cells in the bone marrow. These changes could facilitate a more robust response to future infections or even enable the immune system to regenerate faster after chemotherapy.
The challenge: Create a tool predicting where crime will happen
The idea that machine learning can aid in the enforcement of the law inspired a competition held by the National Institute of Justice. Using five years of data from the city of Portland, Ore., a team led by criminologist Charles Loeffler tied for first in the Large Business Division.
These small robots are inspired by origami
Through origami-inspired engineering, one researcher hopes to not only create rapidly fabricable robots, but also build intuitive design software that enables others who may not be trained in engineering to create their own personalized robots.
Exploring new worlds: Penn students design an ice drilling robot for Mars
The team’s robot is designed to drill through soil on Mars, extract ice and clay, and then melt the ice and filter it into drinkable water.
In the News
Retailers take on Amazon Prime with new subscription services
Raghu Iyengar of the Wharton School says that the average American has 12 subscriptions, which doesn’t leave much room for additional retail subscriptions.
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Five questions for Ethan Mollick
Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School discusses the unpredictability of the current AI development ecosystem, why AI’s “apocalyptic” capabilities are overrated, and the need for government to set clear regulatory guidelines around AI.
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These six questions will dictate the future of generative AI
A study by Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School found that consultants using ChatGPT-4 outperformed those who did not.
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This Penn resident is behind an AI app aiming to reduce physician burnout
Penn Medicine resident Nikhil Illa is featured as the cofounder of Pocket Scribe, maker of a cloud-based app that assists physicians by using artificial intelligence to transcribe and sort dictated notes. The app won the Best Pitch Award at Pennovation’s annual accelerator pitch day.
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What immigration actually does to jobs, wages and more
Zeke Hernandez of the Wharton School speaks about the economics of immigration and explains why it doesn’t cause job losses for native workers.
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Test driving artificial intelligence in the classroom
Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School explains how he’s instructing his students to use artificial intelligence for class assignments.
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