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Science & Technology
University of Pennsylvania Adopts Windows Live @ edu to Deliver Communications Platform to Students
PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania has partnered with Microsoft to enhance the communications platform it offers to many of its students.
Penn's Weiss Tech House Announces Student Inventors Headed to PennVention Competition Finals
PHILADELPHIA -- Ten teams of student inventors have been selected to present their prototypes of innovative technologies at the University of Pennsylvania's third annual PennVention competition on April 6 at Penn's Weiss Tech House. Finalists will compete for more than $60,000 in cash and prizes and a chance to launch their products to market.
Energy Working Group at Penn Hosts Mini-Symposium on Sustainable Energy
WHO: Energy Working Group at Penn, a multi-disciplinary group of University of Pennsylvania scientists and engineersGeorge Crabtree, senior scientist and director of the materials science division of the Argonne National Laboratory Joanne Milliken, director of the U.S. Energy Department hydrogen program
Penn Students' "2nd Best Idea Slam" Invention Competition Set for Feb. 16
WHO: University of Pennsylvania studentsWHAT: "2nd Best Idea Slam" WHEN: Feb. 16, 20071-2:15 p.m.WHERE: University of Pennsylvania Levine Hall 3340 Walnut St.Weiss Tech House, Room 266
MAGPI Hub at University of Pennsylvania Connects to New Internet2 Network
PHILADELPHIA -- The MAGPI advanced networking hub at the University of Pennsylvania has connected to the new Internet2 Network, providing the research and education community in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware with more than 10 times the capacity of its current network and with new on-demand bandwidth capabilities.
Penn Team Bridges the Digital Divide in Cameroon
Penn Team Bridges the Digital Divide in CameroonJan. 30, 2007PHILADELPHIA -- Some students in Cameroon now have computers thanks to a University of Pennsylvania engineering service organization. A six member team of students, faculty and alumni of CommuniTech spent two and a half weeks during the winter break in Cameroon to establish computer labs.
A Quarter-century of Community Partnerships
Glen Casey will be the first to admit it: He wasn’t the perfect student in high school. “I was always doing the dumbest things; getting into fights, getting arrested,” he says. A student then at University City High, Casey failed ninth grade, and barely passed 10th. “I just really wasn’t into school,” he says.
In the News
Nature
Microsoft’s Purchase of GitHub Leaves Some Scientists Uneasy
Post-doc Daniel Himmelstein of the Perelman School of Medicine discussed problematic elements of GitHub’s model. “Regardless of the Microsoft acquisition, GitHub, as a centralized and closed company, possesses a dangerous level of control over the open-source ecosystem,” said Himmelstein.
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The Washington Post
The Cybersecurity 202: We Surveyed 100 Experts. A Majority Rejected the FBI's Push for Encryption Back Doors
Matt Blaze of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke out against the FBI’s call to weaken encryption. “Strong encryption is absolutely critical for keeping our data safe from criminals. This is especially important for mobile devices such as cellphones, which are easily lost or stolen,” said Blaze.
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The Guardian
Tesla Fatal Crash: 'Autopilot' Mode Sped Up Car Before Driver Killed, Report Finds
The School of Design’s Erick Guerra said a Tesla crash was “clearly a technology failure.” Commenting on Tesla’s autopilot feature, Guerra said that “the technology is just not up to doing as much as people hope it can do.”
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Reuters
RPT-INSIGHT-Software and Stealth: How Carmakers Hike Spare Parts Prices
Aaron Roth of the School of Engineering and Applied Science discussed the continued use of software to establish the highest prices consumers are willing to pay, a common practice in retail and manufacturing.
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The Bees of Bandelier, Snail Memories, and the State of Science
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center was interviewed for a podcast about media coverage of the “so-called crisis in science.” (Audio)
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The New York Times
G.D.P.R., a New Privacy Law, Makes Europe World’s Leading Tech Watchdog
Michael Kearns of the School of Engineering and Applied Science weighed in on the E.U.’s advancements in cybersecurity and consumer privacy.
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Foreign Affairs
Keep CRISPR Safe
President Amy Gutmann and PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences co-authored an article emphasizing the importance of letting “global scientific and biological ethics communities” lead the charge in facilitating the implementation of gene-editing technology.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Penn's Electric Race Car Team Seeks Fourth Title in Four Years
Eighty undergrads from a variety of departments, including Connor Sendel of the Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, are building an electric car with four-wheel drive with hopes of winning two competitions this June.
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Gizmodo
Astronaut Scott Kelly's DNA Did Not 'Change in Space' the Way You Think
The Perelman School of Medicine’s Mathias Basner joined the chorus of sleep experts dismissing initial reports that 7 percent of astronaut and identical twin Scott Kelly’s DNA “changed” while in space.
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The Verge
Crypto.com Is Not for Sale
After purchasing the domain name crypto.com in 1993, Matt Blaze of the School of Engineering and Applied Science has had to repeatedly fend off attempts by cryptocurrency enthusiasts to purchase the website for upwards of seven figures. Blaze has refused to sell, warning against the use of cryptocurrency as “investment vehicles.”
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