Mechanical Engineering

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.

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.

Guinness recognizes Piccolissimo as world’s smallest self-powered flying robot

Created in professor Mark Yim’s ModLab, with graduate student Matt Piccoli, the world’s smallest flying robot can carry the weight of a small camera or sensor, with just two moving parts achieving directional control.

The snow graphics in ‘Frozen’ can predict the mechanics of real avalanches

The Department of Computer and Information Science’s Chenfanfu Jiang recently published a study in Nature Communications that accurately models slab avalanches, bringing realistic natural phenomena to movies and practical applications for scientific predictions.

New GRASP project aims to leverage ‘embodied intelligence’ via a robotic squirrel

A team of engineers from Penn's GRASP lab has designed a mechanical squirrel with "embodied intelligence," capable of pulling off parkour feats using multi-sensory adaptation to interact with its surroundings.

The Drone From This Penn Spinout Can Fly Inside Mines Without Maps or GPS

Exyn Technologies will be sending out a drone to explore a Latin American mine using only its own onboard sensors. The startup, which originated in Penn’s GRASP lab, was cofounded by Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Philly’s First Maker Faire: A Summer Carnival of Innovation

The School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Dean Vijay Kumar, Dan Koditschek, and Mark Yim were participants in Sunday’s Maker Faire, hosted at Pennovation.

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.

Engineering dean elected to the American Philosophical Society

Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science has been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the U.S.

Penn Electric Racing gears up for this years’ competition with an innovative new design

Penn Electric Racing, a team of about 60 students at the University of Pennsylvania, design and build electric cars to race in the Formula SAE Electric competition each year.

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