AI in the Physical World: Helping Robotic Arms Solve Problems Using Tools News / May 12, 2026 When Tianyu Li, a doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), and George Jiayuan Gao, former master’s student in Robotics and current research engineer at Dyna, set out to study how robots might better interact with the physical world, they weren’t just thinking about smarter machines, they were... Read More
Penn FoQuS 2026 Advances Quantum Connections News / May 7, 2026 The third annual Penn Forum on Quantum Systems (Penn FoQuS 2026), hosted by Penn Engineering’s Center for Quantum Information, Engineering, Science and Technology (QUIEST), drew nearly 200 researchers, students and industry leaders to the Singh Center for Nanotechnology on April 20, 2026, marking the event’s largest and most institutionally diverse... Read More
Fengrui Tian Named 2026 Apple Ph.D. Scholar in AIML News / April 28, 2026 Fengrui Tian, a Ph.D. student in Computer and Information Science, has been named a 2026 Apple Ph.D. Scholar in AIML. Selected by the Computer Vision committee, he is recognized for his contributions to advancing computer vision and 3D scene understanding. Read More
Tiny, Knotted Robots Jump, Fly and Plant Seeds News / April 23, 2026 A knotted fiber that snaps itself open can launch like a spring. By combining Kevlar and liquid crystal elastomers, researchers created tiny soft robots that jump, spin and even plant seeds. Their motion is programmed through knot design and triggered by heat, offering a new approach to autonomous systems. Read More
Innovation & Impact Podcast: Designing the Future of AI and the Next Era of Computing News / April 23, 2026 Episode 11 of Penn Engineering’s Innovation & Impact podcast features Jason Cong discussing the shift toward customizable computing. He explains how specialized hardware is driving AI performance, efficiency and accessibility in a world moving beyond one-size-fits-all systems. Read More
Flavia Vitale Awarded Grainger Foundation Frontiers Grant for Bioelectronics in Tissue Engineering Research News / April 16, 2026 Flavia Vitale has received a $30,000 Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Grant for collaborative research integrating bioelectronics with engineered tissue. Her work advances precise control of cell signaling to study disease and develop regenerative therapies. Read More
Twelve ASSET Center Ph.D. Students Named 2026 AWS Fellows News / April 13, 2026 Through the ASSET (AI-Enabled Systems: Safe, Explainable and Trustworthy) Center, 12 exceptional doctoral students advancing the frontiers of trustworthy artificial intelligence will receive $840,000 in funding for research and mentoring support as 2026 Amazon Web Services (AWS) ASSET Fellows. Supported by a long-standing relationship between the ASSET Center and AWS,... Read More
Sherry Gao Receives NIH MIRA Award to Advance Precision Genome Engineering News / April 2, 2026 From life-saving antibiotics to anticancer drugs, many medicines come from fungi — master chemists with vast untapped potential. Sherry Gao has received an NIH MIRA award to engineer fungal genomes and uncover new bioactive compounds for drug discovery. Read More
Innovation & Impact Podcast: Inventing for the Real World with Penn’s National Academy of Inventors Fellows News / March 25, 2026 In this episode of Penn Engineering’s Innovation & Impact podcast, host Vanessa Chan, Vice Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Jonathan and Linda Brassington Practice Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, sits down with three faculty members who were recently named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), one... Read More
A New Swarm AI Project Takes on Safety at Scale News / March 20, 2026 Penn Engineering is leading a global effort to bring AI off the screen and into coordinated teams of physical robots. The project explores how large groups of autonomous agents can cooperate, compete and make decisions safely in complex, real-world environments. Read More
