Mechanical Engineering

Gif of water moving across a microscope plate, leaving behind several particles

Looking to mud to study how particles become sticky

A collaboration of geophysicists and fluid mechanics experts led to a fundamental new insight into how tiny ‘bridges’ help particles of all kinds form aggregates.

Hand holding a magnifying glass over back of disassembled smartphone

Engineers collaborate to create electroadhesive grippers

A collaborative team has developed a method for electroadhesion—which exploits the same phenomenon as static cling—to manipulate microscale objects.

Kathie Jin adjusts her helmet inside a Penn Electric Racing car.

Kathie Jin races towards the future with Penn Electric Racing

As the mechanical co-lead and operations lead for Penn Electric Racing (PER), a Formula SAE Electric Racing team, Engineering junior Kathie Jin leads a group of eighty students to design, build and race electric cars.

A soft robot mimicking octopus skin, to develop the basis for a new type of soft robot.

Engineers and nurses team up to build inflatable robots

Penn Engineering and Penn Nursing’s collaboration in this new area of “soft robotics” is critical for designing machines that can safely interact with people in health care settings.

Evan and the chocolate factory

Engineering student Evan Weinstein fixated on the idea of liberating bespoke chocolates from the confines of both the bar and the mold. Rather than cast a chocolate shape, why not build it? Cocoa Press is his solution.

a group of people seated at a circle of chairs talking to each other

Inspiring young women in STEM

Over two days, nearly two dozen female STEM role models at Penn welcomed more than 100 high school students and teachers to campus as part of the Girls Advancing in STEM (GAINS) Initiative Conference on campus.

New topological insulator can reroute photonic ‘traffic’ on the fly

Penn researchers, who first discovered topological insulators in 2005, have shown, for the first time, a way for a topological insulator to make use of its entire footprint without wasted space throughout the material’s interior.

a round disk making a slow-motion wave over a field of small metal balls

Making waves with metamaterials

Penn engineers are using a custom mechanical metamaterial, an artificial structure with properties that are defined by its geometry instead of its composition, to study how non-linear waves move in a soft, 2D system to better understand how mechanical metamaterials could be used in the future.

A new bone-like metal foam can ‘heal’ at room temperature

Penn Engineers have developed a way to repair metal at room temperature, rather than welding. They call their technique “healing” because of its similarity to the way bones heal, recruiting raw material and energy from an external source.

angelica padilla working in a lab on a crowded optics table looking at a computer

Solving complex problems with purpose

Senior Angelica Padilla, who recently completed research through the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter undergraduate summer program, shares her passion for fluid mechanics.

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