11/15
Science & Technology
Kathie Jin races towards the future with Penn Electric Racing
Kathie Jin races towards the future with Penn Electric Racing
As the mechanical co-lead and operations lead for Penn Electric Racing (PER), a Formula SAE Electric Racing team, Engineering junior Kathie Jin leads a group of eighty students to design, build and race electric cars.
Kirigami designs hold thousands of times their own weight
Kirigami designs hold thousands of times their own weight
A team of researchers found that using the origami-inspired art of paper cutting and folding, it is possible to create super strong models from lightweight soft materials without the need for adhesives or fasteners.
New astronomical instrument on the hunt for exoplanets
New astronomical instrument on the hunt for exoplanets
A state-of-the-art instrument called NEID, from the Tohono O’odham word meaning “to see,” collected its “first light” and is poised to look for new planets outside the solar system.
How biology creates networks that are cheap, robust, and efficient
How biology creates networks that are cheap, robust, and efficient
Physicists describe how vascular networks, collections of vessels that move fluid, nutrients, and waste, balance robustness with “cost” to create a diverse array of structures and designs.
Coral reef resilience
Coral reef resilience
With coral reefs under threat from climate change, marine biologist Katie Barott studies how some corals may prove resilient to warming temperatures and acidifying oceans.
Engineers and nurses team up to build inflatable robots
Engineers and nurses team up to build inflatable robots
Penn Engineering and Penn Nursing’s collaboration in this new area of “soft robotics” is critical for designing machines that can safely interact with people in health care settings.
Evan and the chocolate factory
Evan and the chocolate factory
Engineering student Evan Weinstein fixated on the idea of liberating bespoke chocolates from the confines of both the bar and the mold. Rather than cast a chocolate shape, why not build it? Cocoa Press is his solution.
A close look at thin ice
A close look at thin ice
A pairing of theory and experiment led to discovering atomic-scale details of the growth of ice on surfaces, which can inform the design of materials that make ice removal simple and cheaper.
Diving into code to illuminate the history of computing
Diving into code to illuminate the history of computing
Stephanie Dick delves deep into the practice of computer programming and design to shed light on different communities’ attempts to automate reason, knowledge, and proof.
Eight new pups report for duty
Eight new pups report for duty
Eight black Labrador retrievers, just 12 weeks old, are already deep into their training at the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Working Dog Center.
In the News
Scientific American
Grumpy voters want better stories. Not statistics
In a Q&A, PIK Professor Duncan Watts says that U.S. voters ignored Democratic policy in favor of Republican storytelling.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →