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Getting creative to communicate science
(from left to right) Yidi Wang, Yi Wang, Deependra Singh, and Marielle Ong.

Graduate students (from left to right) Yidi Wang, Yi Wang, Deependra Singh, and Marielle Ong. The volunteers helped Ong carry out her vision for the first iteration of the math circles—interactive, puzzle-based sessions—with a group of eight students at West Philadelphia High School.

(Image: Courtesy of Marielle Ong for OMNIA)

Getting creative to communicate science

Across Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, students and professors are devising imaginative ways to bring their scientific work to the public.

From Omnia

The evolution of societal cooperation
Graphic ilustration of people holding hands in a concentric circle formation.

Image: iStock/melitas

The evolution of societal cooperation

Research led by the School of Arts & Sciences’ Joshua Plotkin and Taylor Kessinger sheds light on the impact of social contexts and multilayered societies on promoting cooperative behavior.
Social conformity in pandemics: How our behaviors spread faster than the virus itself
Subway train passengers with protective masks crowding to get on and off subway station platform on Metro station.

Subway train passengers with protective masks on a station platform in Sofia, Bulgaria in June 2020.

(Image: iStock/JordanSimenov)

Social conformity in pandemics: How our behaviors spread faster than the virus itself

Researchers led by former postdoc Bryce Morsky and Erol Akçay of the School of Arts & Sciences have produced a model for disease transmission that factors in the effects of social dynamics, specifically, how masking and social distancing are affected by social norms.
Two Penn fourth-years awarded 2023 Churchill Scholarships
student Ryan Jeong sitting in a chair and student Arnav Lal standing outside

College of Arts and Sciences fourth-years Ryan Jeong (left) and Arnav Lal are among 16 students selected nationwide to receive a Churchill Scholarship for a year of graduate research study at the University of Cambridge in England.

Two Penn fourth-years awarded 2023 Churchill Scholarships

College of Arts and Sciences fourth-years Ryan Jeong and Arnav Lal are among 16 students selected nationwide to receive a Churchill Scholarship for a year of graduate research study at the University of Cambridge in England.
The art and science of video game development
Students at a table with open laptops, one shows a draft of a video game.

(Homepage image) Students in the Digital Media Design program are interested in computer programming, mathematics, computer graphics, animation, virtual reality and interactive technologies.

The art and science of video game development

In the group UPGRADE, students take an interdisciplinary approach to game creation.

Izzy Lopez

Wormhole-like dynamics
3D illustration of a wormhole. Rendered illustration.

Wormhole-like dynamics

Theoretical physicists Vijay Balasubramanian and Jonathan Heckman of the School of Arts & Sciences speak with Penn Today to explain the implications of new research claiming to have observed wormhole-like teleportation on a quantum computer.
The new math of wrinkling
Quanta Magazine

The new math of wrinkling

Eleni Katifori of the School of Arts & Sciences is credited for her work simulating wrinkle patterns, which were crucial to an overall theory of geometric wrinkle prediction.

When curved materials flatten, simple geometry can predict the wrinkle patterns that emerge
A circular cutout with wrinkles forming in many patterns.

A circular cutout of a thin spherical cap carefully deposited onto a pool of water. The sheet forms a complex pattern of wrinkles to accommodate the change in geometry from a sphere to a plane. (Image: Monica Ripp, Paulsen Lab, Syracuse University)

When curved materials flatten, simple geometry can predict the wrinkle patterns that emerge

The findings—from a collaboration between Penn, Syracuse, and the University of Illinois Chicago—have a range of implications, from how materials interact with moisture to the way flexible electronics bend.

Michele W. Berger