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Teaching robots to build without blueprints
A simulation of the mathematics of a bee colony.

Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules to simulate robots to behave like bees, building complex shapes without instructions, pointing to a new manufacturing frontier.

(Image: Courtesy of Jordan Raney and Mark Yim)

Teaching robots to build without blueprints

Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules to simulate robots who behave like bees, building complex shapes without instructions, pointing to a new manufacturing frontier inspired by nature.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Who, What, Why: Lauren Nelson Hyppolite on leading Wharton AI and research initiatives
Lauren Hyppolite standing in a bright hallway. She's grinning and looking slightly to the side.

Lauren Nelson Hyppolite is the managing director of Research, Centers, and Academic Initiatives at the Wharton School.

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Who, What, Why: Lauren Nelson Hyppolite on leading Wharton AI and research initiatives

As managing director of Research, Centers, and Academic Initiatives at the Wharton School, Lauren Nelson Hyppolite oversees numerous AI- and analytics-related initiatives that prepare future business leaders for a rapidly evolving workforce and bridge the connection between academia and industry.

3 min. read

AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellows collaborate across disciplines
Sibe-by-side portraits of Brynn Sherman, on left, and Kieran Murphy, right.

Penn’s AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellows Program is breaking down traditional scientific boundaries by integrating artificial intelligence across diverse research fields. Less than a year in, the program is already paying dividends in the form of new collaborations and research publications for inaugural fellows like Brynn Sherman (left) of the School of Arts & Sciences and Kieran Murphy (right) of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellows collaborate across disciplines

The new fellowship program, offered through the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, offers mentorship and peer engagement opportunities.

5 min. read

Guardrails versus leashes: Finding a better way to regulate AI technology

Image: Just_Super via Getty Images

Guardrails versus leashes: Finding a better way to regulate AI technology

With artificial intelligence evolving faster than human imagination, traditional avenues of regulation may not work as well as they have for other business sectors.To safely and efficiently oversee AI, governments need to turn to a more flexible system, not immovable guardrails but more adjustable “leashes,” Penn Carey Law professor Cary Coglianese writes in a new article.

3 min. read

Delivering a one-two punch to superbugs to fight infections
Rakesh Krishnan sits at a computer staring at a 3D rendering of a protein.

Researchers led by César de la Fuente of the Perelman School of Medicine have created new peptides that fight hard-to-treat “superbug” infections by punching holes in bacterial cells and stimulating immune cells to signal for more defenders.

(Image: Courtesy of Jianing Bai) 

Delivering a one-two punch to superbugs to fight infections

Penn researchers create mirror-image molecules that both kill pathogens outright and rally the immune system—an advance aimed at the growing crisis of antimicrobial resistance.

3 min. read

Penn students innovate in the time of AI
Helen Jin, Davis Brown

Helen Jin and Davis Brown.

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Penn students innovate in the time of AI

Students from schools across the University are putting knowledge into practice, asking deep questions and finding innovative uses for AI tools.

5 min. read

AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellowship
Aerial shot of Amy Guttman Hall

Bhuvnesh Jain of the School of Arts & Sciences has teamed up with PIK University Professor René Vidal of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Science to create the AI x Science Fellowship offering postdoctoral researchers across the University opportunities to collaborate across disciplines.

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AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellowship

Bhuvnesh Jain and René Vidal have teamed up to create the AI x Science Fellowship, which builds on the thriving postdoctoral program of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration among researchers across the University.

6 min. read

Designing the future: Penn Engineering’s 2025 Senior Design Project Competition

Designing the future: Penn Engineering’s 2025 Senior Design Project Competition

At Penn Engineering’s 2025 Senior Design Project Competition, four teams won awards for demonstrating how to improve stroke recovery, automate eye exams, turn old tires into battery components and improve the efficiency of AI computation on May 2. The four winners received awards in categories ranging from social impact to technological innovation.

Penn fourth-year and recent alum named 2025 Hertz Fellows

Penn fourth-year Eric Tao (left) and Class of 2023 graduate Suraj Chandran each have been awarded a 2025 Hertz Fellowship in applied science, engineering, and mathematics.

(Images: Courtesy of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships)

Penn fourth-year and recent alum named 2025 Hertz Fellows

Fourth-year Eric Tao and Class of 2023 graduate Suraj Chandran, both of the School of Arts & Sciences, have each been awarded a 2025 Hertz Fellowship in applied science, engineering, and mathematics by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.

2 min. read

Adventures in innovation: Penn Engineering startups lead Venture Lab Challenge

Adventures in innovation: Penn Engineering startups lead Venture Lab Challenge

A trio of Penn Engineering startups took home more than $100,000 at the annual Venture Lab Startup Challenge. Sync Labs, whose AI assistant, Alice, is enhancing caregiving for seniors, claimed the Richard and Ellen Perlman Grand Prize, as well as three other awards. Quok.it, which helps customers leverage unused computing power around the world for tasks like AI training, earned the William G. Simpson and R. Drew Kistler Runner Up Prize.