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Innovating computer chips to run more efficiently
Nhlanhla Mavuso looking at an electronic board in the Moore Building.

Nhlanhla Mavuso of Fluid Silicon at work in the Moore Building.

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Innovating computer chips to run more efficiently

Fluid Silicon, a platform from President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso, allows computer chips to continuously monitor their health and self-tune as their characteristics change. The technology has the potential to reduce energy usage in data centers and improve reliability in mission-critical applications.

2 min. read

Arbor Day 2026: Strategies supporting Penn’s urban forest

Arbor Day 2026: Strategies supporting Penn’s urban forest

For 17 consecutive years, Penn has earned Tree Campus Higher Education recognition for its commitment to tree health and conservation; ongoing care requires strategic planning and a focus on renewal and balance within an urban landscape.

In school and in practice, mass timber gains ground

In school and in practice, mass timber gains ground

Penn architects and students are designing with mass timber to highlight its expressive potential and sustainability for construction in cities around the world.

Turning peels into pavers: How Penn designers turn food scraps into biodegradable building materials
Two students working with biodegradable food waste specimens.

At the DumoLab, research associate Yasaman Amirzehni is working to develop a biocomposite suitable for indoor and outdoor cladding applications, which could eventually serve as true structural components like load-bearing columns.

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Turning peels into pavers: How Penn designers turn food scraps into biodegradable building materials

The Weitzman School’s Laia Mogas-Soldevila and Yasaman Amirzehni transform unavoidable food waste—like fruit peels and eggshells, which account for 14.8% of post-consumer restaurant food waste—into durable, biodegradable building materials in collaboration with Penn Dining.

4 min. read

Major renovation of historic College Hall results in LEED Gold Certification

Major renovation of historic College Hall results in LEED Gold Certification

College Hall, the first building constructed on Penn’s West Philadelphia campus in 1871, earned high marks for sustainability through a combination of energy‑saving systems, waste reduction, and healthy interior design following the completion of its renovation in 2025.

Solar solutions for farmers in The Gambia
A group photo in front of a borehole drilling machine at Alna Farms in Gambia.

Students visited Alna Farms and posed for a picture in front of a borehole drilling machine.

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Solar solutions for farmers in The Gambia

For students in Engineers Without Borders at Penn, collaborating with Gambian farmers to design an irrigation system is a way to both address food insecurity in the smallest country in mainland Africa and apply their knowledge from the classroom in the real world.

4 min. read

Green Lab’s Freezer Inventory Project: Turning a ripple of change into a wave
Srishti Jainapur recording the temperature on a freezer.

2025 graduate Srishti Jainapur recording the temperature on a freezer.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Climate)

Green Lab’s Freezer Inventory Project: Turning a ripple of change into a wave

The Freezer Inventory Project, launched in late 2023, aims to improve the efficiency of a major energy strain: ultra-low temperature freezers.

From Penn Climate

2 min. read