11/15
Science & Technology
Using AI to map research in the School of Arts & Sciences
Using AI to map research in the School of Arts & Sciences
Colin Twomey of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative applied a large language model to create a color-coded, interactive map of publications from current SAS faculty.
Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles
Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles
New lipid platform enables rapid synthesis of molecules that can shuttle therapeutics for a range of diseases with a high degree of organ specificity.
A first, physical system to learn nonlinear tasks without a traditional computer processor
A first, physical system to learn nonlinear tasks without a traditional computer processor
Physics and engineering researchers created a contrastive local learning network that is fast, low-power, and scalable.
Who, What, Why: Lasya Sreepada on decoding Alzheimer’s disease
Who, What, Why: Lasya Sreepada on decoding Alzheimer’s disease
The doctoral candidate at the School of Engineering and Applied Science discusses her path to brain research and how it set her on a course to demystifying neurological diseases using data science approaches.
Soft materials, sustainability, and the environment
Soft materials, sustainability, and the environment
Chinedum Osuji, a faculty fellow of the Environmental Innovations Initiative, discusses his research and its connections to sustainability and the environment, and how industry and researchers can work better together.
Duncan Watts and CSSLab’s New Media Bias Detector
Duncan Watts and CSSLab’s New Media Bias Detector
PIK Professor Duncan Watts and colleagues have developed the Media Bias Detector, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze news articles, examining factors like tone, partisan lean, and fact selection.
Exploring the limits of robotic systems
Exploring the limits of robotic systems
Bruce Lee, a doctoral student in Penn Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, offers insights into the fundamental limits of machine learning.
Uncovering the drivers of a million-year-old glacial transition
Uncovering the drivers of a million-year-old glacial transition
Driving a climate model forward and backward in time, Mann Research Group scientists found strong path dependence in the evolution of Plio-Pleistocene glaciations.
The limits of ChatGPT for scriptwriting
The limits of ChatGPT for scriptwriting
A paper co-authored by experts at Penn Engineering found that ChatGPT’s overzealous content moderation could potentially limit artistic expression.
Hurricane changed ‘rules of the game’ in monkey society
Hurricane changed ‘rules of the game’ in monkey society
PIK Professor Michael Platt and collaborators from the University of Exeter find Hurricane Maria transformed a monkey society by changing the pros and cons of their interpersonal relations.
In the News
WHYY (Philadelphia)
Climate policy under a second Trump presidency
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses how much a president can do or undo when it comes to environmental policy.
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Salon.com
Exxon CEO wants Trump to stay in Paris climate accord
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences voices his concern about the possibility that the U.S. could become a petrostate.
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Interesting Engineering
Superhuman vision lets robots see through walls, smoke with new LiDAR-like eyes
Mingmin Zhao of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues are using radio signals to allow robots to “see” beyond traditional sensor limits.
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Technical.ly Philly
A sneak peek inside Penn Engineering’s new $137.5M mass timber building
Amy Gutmann Hall aims to be Philadelphia’s next big hub for AI and innovation while setting a new standard for architectural sustainability.
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Associated Press
Amid Earth’s heat records, scientists report another bump upward in annual carbon emissions
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that total carbon emissions including fossil fuel pollution and land use changes such as deforestation are basically flat because land emissions are declining.
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The Wall Street Journal
How can we remove carbon from the air? Here are a few ideas
Jennifer Wilcox of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design says that the carbon-removal potential of forestation can’t always be reliably measured in terms of how much removal and for how long.
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Associated Press
California air regulators approve changes to climate program that could raise gas prices
Danny Cullenward of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design says that many things being credited in California’s new climate program don’t help the climate.
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Times of India
Self shocks turn crystal to glass at ultralow power density: Study
A collaborative study by researchers from the School of Engineering and Applied Science has shed new light on amorphization, the transition from a crystalline to a glassy state at the nanoscale.
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The Independent
Climate scientists fear Trump will destroy progress in his second term – and the outcome could be ‘grim’
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that a second Trump term and the implementation of Project 2025 represents the end of climate action in this decade.
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Interesting Engineering
U.S. achieves billion-fold power-saving semiconductor tech; could challenge China
A collaborative effort by Ritesh Agarwal of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues has made phase-change memory more energy efficient and could unlock a future revolution in data storage.
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