Penn Engineering’s Chris Callison-Burch on 25 years of AI innovation Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering Penn Engineering’s Chris Callison-Burch on 25 years of AI innovation Penn Engineering faculty Chris Callison-Burch, a leading researcher in the artificial intelligence field, reflects on decades of technological innovations that have informed the present and future of AI. 2 min. read
New video dataset to advance AI for health care Kevin Johnson, left, demonstrating the recording process with Karen O’Connor, right.(Image: Sylvia Zhang) New video dataset to advance AI for health care Penn Engineering’s multimodal medical dataset, Observer, links video, audio, and transcripts to clinical data and electronic health records. 2 min. read
The world’s smallest programmable, autonomous robots A microrobot on a U.S. penny for scale.(Image: Michael Simari, University of Michigan) The world’s smallest programmable, autonomous robots Engineers at Penn Engineering have created robots barely visible to the naked eye that operate without tethers, magnetic fields or joystick-like controls. 2 min. read
Surbhi Goel named 2025 Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellow Surbhi Goel named 2025 Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellow The Magerman Term Assistant Professor in Computer and Information Science at Penn Engineering has been named a 2025 Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellow. The funding awarded will apply to research that explores AI’s potential to create a healthier, more resilient and more secure world.
Tumor-on-a-chip offers insight into cancer-fighting cells in immunotherapy Penn engineers and collaborators have developed a transparent, micro-engineered device that houses a living, vascularized model of human lung cancer—a “tumor on a chip”—and show that the diabetes drug vildagliptin helps more CAR T cells break through the tumor’s defenses and attack it effectively.(Image: Courtesy of Dan Huh) Tumor-on-a-chip offers insight into cancer-fighting cells in immunotherapy Penn engineers and collaborators have built a living tumor on a chip to expose how cancers block immune attacks, and how one existing drug could make immunotherapy like CAR T more effective against solid tumors. 3 min. read
Two Penn faculty elected American Physical Society Fellows Ritesh Agarwal (left), Srinivasa Ramanujan Distinguished Scholar in Materials Science and Engineering, and Douglas Jerolmack, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics.nocred Two Penn faculty elected American Physical Society Fellows Ritesh Agarwal of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Douglas Jerolmack of the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Engineering have been elected by their peers in recognition of their contributions to the field. 2 min. read
Eva Dyer is listening to the brain’s code with a little help from AI Eva Dyer is the Rachleff Associate Professor in Bioengineering and in computer and information science at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.(Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering) Eva Dyer is listening to the brain’s code with a little help from AI Penn professor Eva Dyer merges her background in music and audio engineering with artificial intelligence to help uncover brain signals and explore how the brain processes information. 2 min. read
AI at the eyelid: Glasses that track health through your blinks Penn Engineering graduate student Dongyin Hu models BlinkWise, an AI-powered system that uses radio waves to monitor blinks and eye health.(Image: Sylvia Zhang) AI at the eyelid: Glasses that track health through your blinks Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed BlinkWise, an AI-powered system that uses radio waves to monitor blinks and eye health. 2 min. read
Uncovering new antibiotics with AI Uncovering new antibiotics with AI César de la Fuente leverages machine learning to accelerate the discovery of lifesaving drugs and help reduce antibiotic resistance, a rising global health problem.
Students test one way to combat extreme heat in Philadelphia Nafisa Bangura (left) and Angelica Dadda (right) examine CoolSeal-treated asphalt bricks in the Composto Lab to better understand how this coating behaves in controlled environments.nocred Students test one way to combat extreme heat in Philadelphia Third-year students Nafisa Bangura and Angelica Dadda expanded upon a multidisciplinary research endeavor to evaluate a reflective pavement coating as a tool to mitigate extreme heat. Their work may inform policy efforts to improve urban heat resilience. 4 min. read