Mechanical Engineering

Engineers 3D print smart objects with ‘embodied logic’

Researchers at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have taken inspiration from the sorts of systems embodied in Venus fly traps, utilizing stimuli-responsive materials and geometric principles to design structures that have “embodied logic.”

Penn Today Staff

Teachers become students to become better teachers at GRASP Lab’s RET program

The Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program run by the GRASP Lab in the School of Engineering and Applied Science is part of a larger National Science Foundation effort to get students interested in science and engineering at an early age. This summer, one cohort of students worked with robots in the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Penn Today Staff

Mapping the ocean with marine robots

M. Ani Hsieh’s robotics lab investigates how to use ocean currents as a natural energy source for marine robots, which would enable widespread exploration.

Jacob Williamson-Rea

Earthquakes at the nanoscale

Scientists have gotten better at predicting where earthquakes will occur, but they’re still in the dark about when they will strike and how devastating they will be. Penn researchers hope to tackle this by investigating the laws of friction at the smallest possible scale, the nanoscale.

Ali Sundermier



In the News


CNBC

Students can soon major in AI at this Ivy League university—it’ll prepare them for ‘jobs that don’t yet exist’

The Raj and Neera Singh Program in Artificial Intelligence at Penn will be the first AI undergraduate engineering major at an Ivy League school, led by George Pappas of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

What’s so ‘magic’ about the secret South Jersey mud rubbed on baseballs? These Penn researchers think they know why

Doug Jerolmack of the School of Arts & Sciences, Paulo Arratia of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and colleagues are researching the chemical properties of baseball’s “magic mud” for use in applications beyond sports.

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ANI News (India)

University of Pennsylvania pledges to bolster relations with India at "Penn India Engagement Forum"

PIK Professor Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Dean Erika H. James of the Wharton School, and Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science are quoted on the forum to support India's exceptional growth and specific health care needs.

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Associated Press

Tackling threat of mudslides in soaked California

Douglas Jerolmack of the School of Arts & Sciences says that debris basins can be costly, becoming overwhelmed by new landslides or mudslides that have been worsened by climate change.

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Technical.ly Philly

Artists and Penn Ph.D.s collabed to explore the intersection of art and engineering. Check out their exhibit

In the culminating project of Penn’s Robotics Art Residency, three artists hosted at the Pennovation Center developed collaborative exhibits with Ph.D. students at the GRASP Lab of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Weitzman School of Design.

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Physics World

Liquid crystals bring robotics to the microscale

In collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, Kathleen Stebe of the School of Engineering and Applied Science has built a swimming microrobot that paddles by rotating liquid crystal molecules.

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