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Sophie Bowe: Engineering undergrad and future ‘imagineer’
Sophie Bowe standing in front of a hand-drawn map of Penn with time stamps showing where she visits throughout the day.

A day in the life of engineering undergrad Sophie Bowe takes her all around Penn’s campus. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

Sophie Bowe: Engineering undergrad and future ‘imagineer’

The senior in the School of Engineering and Applied Science took a natural curiosity in the mechanics of a Disney ride as a child and applies it to her current work as a teaching assistant in mechanical design and lab assistant in Penn’s Precision Machining Laboratory.

Celebrating five years of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity
pennovation center at night

Pennovation Center has been recognized with numerous design awards and was also awarded Gold LEED status for its adaptive reuse and energy-conscious environmental design. (Image: Michael Moran/OTTO)

Celebrating five years of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity

Penn Today marks the anniversary of Pennovation Works, the University’s business incubator and laboratory space, with a look at the evolution of the site, its research and commercialization achievements, and a glimpse into the future.

Erica K. Brockmeier

A microscopic worm may shed light on how we perceive gravity
Micrsoscopic view of Caenorhabditis elegans, a free-living transparent nematode, about 1 mm in length

Caenorhabditis elegans, a free-living transparent roundworm, about 1 mm in length.

A microscopic worm may shed light on how we perceive gravity

C. elegans shares more than half of its genes with humans, allowing genetic studies to give insight into which genes are responsible for similar traits in humans, such as pinpointing molecular pathways responsible for gravitaxis, the ability to move in response to gravity.

From Penn Engineering Today

Packaging-free design quadruples microbatteries’ energy density
Dandelion head for scale with a tiny microbattery resting on top of it.

Weighing about as much as two grains of rice but with the energy density of a much larger, heavier battery, the researchers’ packing-free design could enable a host of otherwise impossible electronics. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

Packaging-free design quadruples microbatteries’ energy density

New research from the School of Engineering and Applied Science shows a new way to build and package microbatteries that maximizes energy density even at the smallest sizes.

Evan Lerner

Simulation of glacial calving and tsunami waves predicts climate change consequences
Computer simulation of a sheet of glacial ice breaking apart.

The researchers’ model is capable of accurately describing glacial calving and resulting tsunami waves. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

Simulation of glacial calving and tsunami waves predicts climate change consequences

Researchers at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have created a computer model that can accurately simulate tsunamis caused by glacial calving, critical to hazard assessments and mitigation measures in coastal regions regarding climate change.

From Penn Engineering Today

‘I Look Like an Engineer’
clockwise) Nyasha Zimunhu, Fahmida Lubna, Celestina Saven, Sanjana Hemdev, Sabrina Green and Sydney Kariuki

Penn Engineering students (clockwise) Nyasha Zimunhu, Fahmida Lubna, Celestina Saven, Sanjana Hemdev, Sabrina Green and Sydney Kariuki all participated in the “I Look Like an Engineer” campaign, locally organized by AWE. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

‘I Look Like an Engineer’

For the third year in a row, Penn Engineering’s Advancing Women in Engineering program, dedicated to recruiting, retaining and promoting all female-identified students in the School, participated in the “I Look Like an Engineer” social media movement.

From Penn Engineering Today

Even without a brain, metal-eating robots can search for food
Film still of a small wheeled robot traveling a path between yellow tape.

The “metal-eating” robot can follow a metal path without using a computer or needing a battery. By wiring the power-supplying units to the wheels on the opposite side, the robot autonomously navigates away from the tape and towards aluminum surfaces. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

Even without a brain, metal-eating robots can search for food

SEAS engineers are developing robot-powered technology with energy sources that are harvested in the robot’s environment.

Evan Lerner

The Philadelphia Orchestra is playing safe
philly orchestra on stage at kimmel

Results of the experiments so far, along with insights from Penn Medicine’s P.J. Brennan, have helped inform the arrangement of members of The Philadelphia Orchestra as they have resumed performances that are captured and later streamed on their new “Digital Stage.” (Image: The Philadelphia Orchestra)

The Philadelphia Orchestra is playing safe

Penn experts are working with The Philadelphia Orchestra to study the aerosol droplets that wind and brass musicians produce when playing. Their findings, aimed at reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission, could help the Orchestra once again play together.

Katherine Unger Baillie

This L.A. start-up is building tiny injectable robots to attack tumors

This L.A. start-up is building tiny injectable robots to attack tumors

Marc Miskin of the School of Engineering and Applied Science commented on a new startup that is developing remote-control medical microrobots. “I would give them a lot of credit for figuring out a space where they can make an impact and justify how they’ll be competitive with traditional pharmaceutical approaches,” he said.

Researchers reach new heights with light-based levitation
Mohsen Azadi wears latex gloves and wields a scalpel while preparing a photophoretic levitation experiment.

Working in the Bargatin Group’s lab, Mohsen Azadi wields a scalpel while preparing a photophoretic levitation experiment. Unlike the microscopic particles that have been previously levitated with this techniques, the researchers’ flyers are big enough to manipulated by hand. (Image: Eric Sucar)

Researchers reach new heights with light-based levitation

Penn researchers are working to engineer nanoscale features on ultra-lightweight materials, finding the ideal combination that will allow those materials to lift themselves into the air using the energy provided by light.

Evan Lerner