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Penn fourth-year Om Gandhi is a 2025 Rhodes Scholar
Om Gandhi.

Penn fourth-year Om Gandhi has been awarded a 2025 Rhodes Scholarship. 

(Image: Courtesy of Om Gandhi)

Penn fourth-year Om Gandhi is a 2025 Rhodes Scholar

Penn fourth-year Om Gandhi, from Barrington, Illinois, has been awarded a 2025 Rhodes Scholarship, which funds tuition and a living stipend for graduate study at the University of Oxford in England. He is among 32 American Rhodes Scholars, and an expected 100 worldwide.
Easing patient fears of radiation treatment, via virtual reality
People holding VR headsets at a display table.

Peter Decherney (far left), professor of cinema and media studies in the School of Arts & Sciences, is the instructor of the undergraduate Virtual Reality Lab spring course.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine News)

Easing patient fears of radiation treatment, via virtual reality

Before their first dose of radiation, cancer patients can shadow another patient’s treatment and get a private behind-the-scenes tour with the team members via virtual reality.

From Penn Medicine News

Developing kidneys from scratch
Rendering of kidneys.

Image: iStock/Vladyslav Severyn

Developing kidneys from scratch

Bioengineering professor Alex Hughes tackles the burden of chronic kidney disease by creating kidney tissue from scratch, which could reduce the need for both dialysis and transplantation.

Ian Scheffler

Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn
Network schematic of peoples' browsing activity on Wikipedia.

Shown here: A hyperlink network from English Wikipedia, with only 0.1% of articles (nodes) and their connections (edges) visualized. Seven different reader journeys through this network are highlighted in various colors. The network is organized by topic and displayed using a layout that groups related articles together.

(Image: Dale Zhou)

Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn

A collaborative team of researchers analyzed the information-seeking styles of more than 480,000 people from 50 countries and found that gender and education inequality track different types of knowledge exploration. Their findings suggest potential cultural drivers of curiosity and learning.
Nathan Wei on renewable energy, fluid mechanics and the shaping of humble engineers
Nathan Wei.

Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering

Nathan Wei on renewable energy, fluid mechanics and the shaping of humble engineers

The assistant professor in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics at Penn Engineering aims to make an impact on energy and sustainability, and is committed to mentoring the next generation of problem solvers.

Pioneering robotic triage
remote controlled robotic vehicle

nocred

Pioneering robotic triage

By combining the power of autonomous systems and medical expertise, a team of engineers and physician scientists from Penn are tackling the challenge of mass casualty triage.
Understanding the cellular mechanisms driving solid tumors’ robust defense system
A 3D rendering of the tumor microenvironment with cancer cells, T-Cells, nanoparticles, cancer associated fibroblast layer of tumor microenvironment normal cells, molecules, and blood vessels.

In a collaborative interdisciplinary study, Michael Mitchell of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Wei Guo of the School of Arts & Sciences, and Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine show that solid tumors can block drug-delivery mechanisms with a “forcefield-like” effect but certain genetic elements that can effectively “shut down” the forcefield. Their findings hint at new targets for delivering cancer treatments that use the body’s immune system to fight tumors.

(Image: iStock / CIPhotos)

Understanding the cellular mechanisms driving solid tumors’ robust defense system

Researchers from Penn have identified a “forcefield-like” defense system in solid tumors and the genetic elements that can switch it off.
Pushing the limits of scientific discovery with machine learning
Computer code.

Image: iStock/iambuff

Pushing the limits of scientific discovery with machine learning

Penn Engineering’s Nat Trask is combining applied mathematics and traditional physics modeling with the powers of machine learning to design some of his first machine-learning-powered, self-driving labs at Penn.

Melissa Pappas

Penn Electric Racing’s latest race car
A group of students is gathered around a Formula-style racecar at an event.

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Penn Electric Racing’s latest race car

Designed and produced by the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s student-run club, REV9 will compete in the annual Formula Society of Automotive Engineers Michigan race in June.
Teaching doglike robots to walk on the moon’s dusty, icy surface
Close-up of NASA's LASSIE robot, logo in frame.

Penn researchers are part of a collaborative multidisciplinary effort that’s preparing doglike robots to traverse extraterrestrial landscapes, like those that are analogous to the moon’s surface.

(Image: Courtesy of Sean Grasso)

Teaching doglike robots to walk on the moon’s dusty, icy surface

Researchers from Penn are part of a NASA-funded multidisciplinary collaborative effort that’s teaching robots to navigate the extraterrestrial craters, like the moon and Mars.