Math | Penn Today

Subway train passengers with protective masks crowding to get on and off subway station platform on Metro station.

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.

student Ryan Jeong sitting in a chair and student Arnav Lal standing outside

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.

Students at a table with open laptops, one shows a draft of a video game.

The art and science of video game development

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

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.

Four students and Philip Gressman, second from right, in a room looking at a chalkboard.

Structured, Active, In-class Learning is changing the calculus on teaching

Mathematics professor Philip Gressman sees the comprehensive teaching approach as a way to engage students as a dynamic group, something STEM courses don’t often embrace.

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.

A circular cutout with wrinkles forming in many patterns.

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.

Researchers have worked out the rules for how some things wrinkle

Eleni Katifori of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues used simulations of curving plastic pieces to predict the formation of wrinkling patterns.

Three brown-headed cowbirds sit together in Penn's Smart Aviary

Undergraduates help songbird research project take flight

Through the PURM internship program, Julia Youngman and Eric Tao had the opportunity to work in neuroethologist Marc Schmidt’s lab studying the neural basis of courtship behaviors in songbirds.

Mega Millions jackpot reaches $1.2 billion

Dennis Deturck of the School of Arts & Sciences estimates the odds of winning the lottery, contrasting it with increasingly more unlikely occurrences.

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