Soul of Invention: Brian Litt’s Quest to Bring Moore’s Law to Therapeutic Devices
Though his work promises to transform medical care for the brain and heart, Brian Litt is motivated by a less scientific realm: his soul. Memories of patients with epilepsy whose lives were tragically altered by uncontrollable and unpredictable seizures drive Litt’s determination to find new therapeutics. Recalling, for example, the mother who drowned in the […]
Red & Blue Racing takes 15th out of 120
Penn’s Red & Blue Racing team recently turned in a great performance at the annual Formula SAE competition, held at the Michigan International Speedway. From a field of 120 collegiate teams from around the world, Penn placed 15th overall, the team’s best showing to date. In just six years, Red & Blue Racing has progressed […]
Team McGill: Penn Engineering’s Triple Play
The McGill brothers’ defining moment at Penn Engineering came when all three of them filed into Professor Katherine Kuchenbecker’s Introduction to Mechanics Lab on the first day of class. Having reviewed her fall ’09 MEAM 147 student roster, Dr. Kuchenbecker was expecting three students with the last name of McGill, but was it possible that […]
Building a 1965 Shelby Cobra
Mike Peisach is not your average university student. This Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics freshman conceived of and carried out a plan to build a 1965 Shelby Cobra, a rare British sports car, from the ground up. From the time he turned 16 and got his first car, he was tempted to tinker with it, […]
Turning Light into Electrical Current
Material scientists at the Nano/Bio Interface Center have demonstrated the transduction of optical radiation to electrical current in a molecular circuit. The system, an array of nano-sized molecules of gold, responds to electromagnetic waves by creating surface plasmons that induce and project electrical current across molecules, similar to that of photovoltaic solar cells. Dawn Bonnell, […]
Molecules that detect, monitor, and help to treat disease
On the third floor of Skirkanich Hall, Andrew Tsourkas is creating new magnetic nanoparticles that may revolutionize the detection of early cancer cells. By “early,” he means when molecular changes in the disease are occurring, but before any anatomical changes are visible. Detecting Cancer with Nanoparticles Today’s magnetic resonance imaging scans typically only reveal tumors […]
Ritesh Agarwal: Accelerating Advances in Electronic Memory
The race to create next-generation computer memory devices that are off-the-charts smaller, faster and more stable than current memory technologies has entered promising new territory thanks to recent innovations in Ritesh Agarwal’s lab. Agarwal, Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, has pioneered a technique for fabricating self-assembled nanowires. His breakthrough was published in October […]
Studying Animals to Build a Better Robot
Land animals use a precise combination of good body design and behavioral smarts to run, hop, climb, adapt quickly to icy conditions, and walk with ease over sand or gravel. Daniel Koditschek, professor in the departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Computer and Information Science, and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics looks to these animals […]
Pieces of Penn History Return from Space
Dr. Garrett E. Reisman, NASA Astronaut and Penn alumnus, returned to Penn Engineering in February as the distinguished speaker for the Business, Technology and Government Lecture Series. Reisman’s inspirational lecture, “Living Aboard the Space Station—One Quaker’s Journey,” detailed his three-month mission on the International Space Station. Reisman is a graduate of the Penn Management and […]
Producing Nanoscale Patterns, In One Step
Shu Yang’s latest discovery in the field of nanoscale polymer science may be her most significant yet. It was also something of an accident. Yang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, initially set out with her students to study the intrinsic properties of a flexible polymer membrane called polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS. The silicone […]