Penn Engineering | Inventing the Future

While modern search tools are great at finding content relevant to a given keyword or phrase, they can’t create an accurate summary of a piece’s content, explain its tone or intent, or find other subtle meanings that humans can extract at a glance. By looking at enough written material of a specific genre, Ani Nenkova, associate professor in Computer and Information Science, says that statistical relationships begin to emerge in word choice and sentence structure, making it possible to sort written works by subjective criteria.

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Inventing the Future

Penn Engineers Demonstrate Metamaterials That Can Solve Equations

Using principles of analog computing, researchers at Penn Engineering have created a metamaterial device that can solve pre-set integral equations. Its structure consists of polystyrene plastic with a precise pattern of air holes; incoming electromagnetic waves encoded with input values are manipulated by the structure, generating a solution for those values. The team hopes to scale down the principles developed in this “photonic calculus” to light waves that could fit into a microchip and find solutions to integral equations more efficiently.

Penn Engineers Can Detect Ultra Rare Proteins in Blood Using a Cellphone Camera

Knowing that having a rare protein of diagnostic system available as a point-of-care device would be critical for many conditions, especially traumatic brain injury, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a test that uses off-the-shelf components and can detect single proteins with results in a matter of minutes, compared to the traditional workflow, which can take days.

Penn Engineer’s ‘Metallic Wood’ Has the Strength of Titanium and the Density of Water

Researchers at Penn Engineering, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, the University of Cambridge, and Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey have done just that. They have built a sheet of nickel with nanoscale pores that make it as strong as titanium but four to five times lighter. The empty space of the pores, and the self-assembly process in which they’re made, make the porous metal akin to a natural material, such as wood.

Duncan Watts Appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor

Watts, a pioneer in the use of data to study social networks, will be the Stevens University Professor, with joint faculty appointments in the Department of Computer and Information Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Annenberg School for Communication, and the Department of Operations, Information and Decisions in the Wharton School, where he will also be the inaugural Rowan Fellow.

News

Lee Bassett and Andrew Tsourkas Awarded Grainger Foundation Grant for Interdisciplinary Research

06.24.2019 | Read More

‘If there were ever a box, Vanessa would be outside of it’

06.21.2019 | Read More

Dawn Bonnell Honored as Distinguished Life Member of The American Ceramic Society

06.19.2019 | Read More

Events

MEAM Seminar: “Thermalization of Bulk Magnetic Materials in Spin-Lattice Dynamics Simulations”

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MEAM Seminar: “Effect of Nanoparticle Size on the Mechanical Properties of Nanoparticle (NP) Assemblies”

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CBE Doctoral Dissertation Defense: “Utilization of MEMS Techniques for the Fabrication of Scalable Energy Storage Devices”

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Announcement

Robert Ghrist Named Inaugural Faculty Co-Director of the Office of Penn First Plus Students

Robert Ghrist, the Andrea Mitchell University Professor with appointments in Penn Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering and the Department of Mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences, has been named an inaugural co-director of the Office of Penn First Plus Students.

2019 Commencement Ceremonies

Penn Engineering will have its Doctoral Ceremony on Thursday, May 16 from 3:30-4:30 p.m in Irvine Auditorium, followed by the Master's Ceremony on Friday, May 17 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. and the Undergraduate Ceremony on Saturday, May 18 from 2:00-4:00 p.m., both of which will take place in the Palestra. The University of Pennsylvania's 263rd Commencement ceremony will take place on Monday, May 20, 2019 in Franklin Field at 10:15 a.m., and will be preceded by student and academic processions through campus.

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Record Gift to Create New Energy Science and Technology Building

P. Roy Vagelos (C’50, PAR’90, HON’99) and Diana T. Vagelos (PAR’90) have made a gift of $50 million to Penn Arts & Sciences (SAS) for a new science center that will provide state-of-the-art research space for Penn Arts & Sciences and Penn Engineering. The building will bring together researchers from both schools to solve scientific and technological problems related to energy.

About Penn Engineering

At Penn Engineering, we are preparing the next generation of innovative engineers, entrepreneurs and leaders. Our unique culture of cooperation and teamwork, emphasis on research, and dedicated faculty advisors who teach as well as mentor, provide the ideal environment for the intellectual growth and development of well-rounded global citizens.

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