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Science & Technology
Dragon boating, on the world stage
Dragon boating, on the world stage
Computer and information science doctoral student Barry Slaff trains six days a week for dragon boating on the Schuylkill River, and is headed to Thailand to compete in the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships.
Solving complex problems with purpose
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.
A conversation with Doug Jerolmack
A conversation with Doug Jerolmack
In the latest episode of Penn Today’s ‘Office Hours’ podcast series, a chat with Doug Jerolmack that ranges from geophysics to taco shops.
A society’s cultural practices shape the structure of its social networks
A society’s cultural practices shape the structure of its social networks
Biologists Erol Akçay and Marco Smolla used mathematical models to show that societies that favor generalists, who have a wide range of skills, are less well-connected than those societies that favor specialists, who are highly skilled at a smaller number of traits.
Training the next generation of globally minded researchers
Training the next generation of globally minded researchers
As part of the Research and Education in Active Coatings Technologies for the Human Habitat program, students conduct fundamental research on materials that can improve lives while engaging in international collaborations and educational activities.
A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world
A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world
The portable EEG created by PIK Professor Michael Platt and postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnan has potential applications from health care to sports performance.
Materials for a more sustainable future
Materials for a more sustainable future
Using a collaborative approach and their expertise in fundamental chemical research, new Chemistry Department faculty member Thomas Mallouk and his group address challenges faced by engineers and materials scientists.
Five insights into how the brain works
Five insights into how the brain works
As the Center for Neuroscience & Society celebrates 10 years, founding director Martha Farah reflects on the array of research from its faculty, on subjects from brain games to aggression.
How to make a better water filter? Turn it inside out
How to make a better water filter? Turn it inside out
Penn engineers describe a novel approach for making antimicrobial nanoscale water filters while demonstrating new approaches that can be used to develop a broad range of materials.
Blinking eye-on-a-chip used for disease modeling and drug testing
Blinking eye-on-a-chip used for disease modeling and drug testing
Penn Engineering’s Dan Huh and Jeongyun Seo built an eye model that could imitate a healthy eye and an eye with dry eye disease, allowing them to test an experimental drug without risk of human harm.
In the News
WESA Radio (Pittsburgh)
Wheels, drones and Rescue Randy: DARPA robotics competition puts mine rescue to the test
A four-legged robot from the School of Engineering and Applied Science was among robots performing underwater search and rescue in a competition. “They're doing everything completely autonomously, so every step they take is kind of a minor victory for us,” said C. J. Taylor. “We always feel that we could do better. We learn so much from each of these events and that gives us new ideas about things that we want to try.”
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Penn Live
Wildlife diseases in Pennsylvania targeted by $10 million Game Commission-Penn partnership
Julie Ellis and Lisa Murphy of the School of Veterinary Medicine commented on a new collaboration between Penn Vet and the Pennsylvania Game Commission: the Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program, based at New Bolton Center.
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Axios
Looking to AI to understand how we learn
PIK Professor Konrad Kording said, “There is a big undercurrent in neuroscience [saying] we should go back to neural networks,” which rely on technology that allows machines to learn from their mistakes.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Why not fly over it?’ Uber picks New Jersey firms in ambitious bid to beat traffic congestion
Rahul Mangharam of the School of Engineering and Applied Science commented on Uber’s new air taxi venture. “It’s going to be a very congested sky,” he said. “You want to make sure that each flight plan is safe by design, and that even if they do mess up for some reason, they have a fallback option.”
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The New York Times
A feisty Google adversary tests how much people care about privacy
Joseph Turow of the Annenberg School for Communication commented on DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine. “I’m almost embarrassed to say that I don’t use it more than I do,” he said. “There is something in my head that tells me I’ll get a better search from Google, even when I don’t know if that is demonstrably correct or not.”
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Wired
Twitter and Instagram unveil new ways to combat hate—again
Jessa Lingel of the Annenberg School for Communication said “we need humans” to help parse what is and isn’t offensive language based on context. “The tech just isn’t there yet.”
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Gizmodo
This freaky robotic fish is powered by ‘blood’
James Pikul of the School of Engineering and Applied Science co-authored a study in which researchers developed a soft, robotic lionfish powered by a blood-like compound. “This robot blood is our first demonstration of storing energy in a fluid that is normally only used for actuation,” he said.
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Scientific American
How the mind emerges from the brain’s complex networks
Danielle Bassett of the School of Engineering and Applied Science co-authored an article about network neuroscience, which allows us to see the origins of mental activity in the brain. One day, they write, “a neuroscientist who knew all the principles of brain function and everything about someone’s brain could predict that person’s mental conditions—the future, as well as the past, would be present inside the person’s mind.”
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The Guardian
Reversible superglue proves strong enough to hold average man
Shu Yang and colleagues from the School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a new glue from hydrogel, inspired by snail slime. “The mucus [snails] produce is a viscous liquid, but when it dries they become firmly stuck,” said Yang.
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Scientific American
Domestication made dogs’ facial anatomy more fetching to humans
James Serpell of the School of Veterinary Medicine said humans may have bred dogs to appear more infantile over time. “We are innately predisposed to respond with a kind of nurturing behavior towards certain physical characteristics,” he said. “Over time, [humans selected] for traits that satisfy that parental nurturing response.”
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