Pennovation and PERCH in the Lower Schuylkill Master Plan
The Pennovation Center and the Penn Engineering Research and Collaboration Hub, PERCH, represent a key component of an development effort taking place on the banks of the lower Schuykill River. In this video, PERCH director Daniel Koditschek talks about the role a robotics lab can play and what it gains being next to Penn Vet’s […]
Teaching Robots to ‘Feel with Their Eyes’
At first glance, Alex Burka, a Ph.D. student in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, looks like a ghostbuster. He walks into the Penn Bookstore strapped to a bulky orange backpack, holding a long, narrow instrument with various sensors attached.
Penn Professors Lead Call for Ethical Framework for New ‘Mind Control’ Technologies
As interventions for mental illnesses and neurological disorders are becoming increasingly powerful, an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, American University and Duke University are calling for new safeguards to guide treatments and protect patients.
Three Engineers Receive 2017 University Awards for Distinguished Teaching
Sanjeev Khanna, Alejandro Ribeiro and George Pappas have each been awarded 2017 University Teaching Awards sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Office of the Provost. The three are amongst 12 awardees throughout the University this year. At an April 25 ceremony, Provost Vincent Price presented the awards and read excerpts of the recommendation letters from […]
Four Penn Engineers Receive 2017 NSF CAREER Awards
Penn Engineering professors Brian Chow, Amish Patel, Victor Preciado and Nadia Heninger have each been selected to receive 2017 NSF CAREER Awards. This award is the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the […]
Penn Engineers’ ‘Photonic Doping’ Makes Class of Metamaterials Easier to Fabricate
The field of metamaterials, an intersection of materials science, physics, nanotechnology and electrical engineering, aims to produce structures with unusual electromagnetic properties. Through the careful combination of multiple materials in a precise periodic arrangement, the resulting metamaterials exhibit properties that otherwise couldn’t exist, such as a negative index of refraction. Some metamaterials can even channel […]
Daniel E. Koditschek Receives Heilmeier Research Award
Daniel Koditschek, Alfred Fitler Moore Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, has been named the recipient of the 2016-17 George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research for “pioneering contributions in robot motion planning and legged locomotion.” The Heilmeier Award honors a Penn Engineering faculty member whose work is scientifically meritorious […]
Penn Engineers Demonstrate a ‘Hybrid Nanomanufacturing’ System
Nanoscale structures have properties that can’t be achieved in any other way, stemming from precise control over the structure’s composition and geometry. Unfortunately, simultaneously achieving high levels of control of both characteristics can be challenging. Bottom-up, self-assembly methods can carefully tailor the chemical makeup a nanoparticle, but are limited in their ability to control the […]
A $14 million grant to improve mobility and safety in transportation
Penn, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is participating in a $14 million, five-year transportation research grant to establish a new national University Transportation Center (UTC) called Mobility21. The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) with the hopes of increasing both mobility and safety on the road. It is the third […]