Engineers As Artists
If Penn students were asked in a random campus survey to describe their individual skillsets and learning styles as either “left brain” (analytical, qualitative) or “right brain” (artistic, intuitive), the majority would most likely answer by naming one cerebral hemisphere or the other. An exceptional and talented few would be able to reply, “both.”
These small robots are inspired by origami
Roboticist Cynthia Sung has been doing origami since she was young. She says she was always excited by the possibility of taking something two-dimensional and folding it into a three-dimensional object that can move. Through origami, an ordinary, flat sheet of paper can become a talking frog or a crane that can flap its wings. […]
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.
Exploring new worlds: Penn students design an ice drilling robot for Mars
Wanda Lipps, Gautam Nagaraj, and Michael Gromis, all students in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science who graduated this past spring, watched as a large drill, supported by a boxy metal frame, dug down into a container of dirt and ice. The students, members of the Mars Water Horizons team at Penn, were testing […]
Robert Carpick Named 2017 MRS Fellow
Robert Carpick, John Henry Towne Professor and Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, has been named a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) Fellow. The fellowship honors those MRS members who are notable for their distinguished research accomplishments and their outstanding contributions to the advancement of materials research, worldwide. Dr. […]
Changchun Liu Receives 2016 W.W. Smith Charitable Trust Research Award
Changchun Liu, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, is the recipient of a one-year, $100,000 W.W. Smith Charitable Trust Research Award for his proposal titled, “A New Approach for Concurrent Detection of HIV Co-Infections.” Liu’s research interest lies in the interdisciplinary integration of microfluidics, microfabrication, mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry […]
Student Continues Family Tradition with Curling at Penn
Nearly 60 years ago, Cody Clouser’s grandparents were among those who founded the Philadelphia Curling Club in Paoli, Pa. Today, he continues his family’s legacy on the junior team, consisting of those age 21 and under, and also leads the next generation of athletes as president of the Curling Club at Penn. Clouser, a junior […]
Penn Researchers Shed Light on the Roundworm’s Curious Swimming Behavior
The round worm Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode, is a puzzling creature. A previous study at the University of Pennsylvania established that, in some cases, these nematodes are actually counter-current and swim upstream rather than with the flow of liquid as a result of hydrodynamic forces. Another study indicated that they tend to accumulate next to […]
Noam Lior Elected to World Academy of Art and Science
Noam Lior, Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, has been elected to the World Academy of Art and Science. The World Academy of Art and Science is composed of 730 individual Fellows from diverse cultures, nationalities, and intellectual disciplines, chosen for eminence in art, the natural and social sciences, and the […]
Harman Khare Receives 2016 ASME Marshall B. Peterson Award
Harman Khare, Research Project Manager of the Carpick Nanotribology Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, has received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Marshall B. Peterson Award “for fundamental, multiscale, in situ research on the tribology of solid and liquid lubricants including interfacial tribofilm formation, nanoparticle additive anti-wear behavior and […]