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.
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