Innovation

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.

Ali Sundermier

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.

Ali Sundermier

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.

Katherine Unger Baillie

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.

Katherine Unger Baillie

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.

Michele W. Berger

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.

Ali Sundermier



In the News


Marketplace (NPR)

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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Politico.com

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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MIT Technology Review

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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Technical.ly Philly

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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Marketplace (NPR)

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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WBUR Radio (Boston)

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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