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
Shujie Yang Harnesses Sound to Build the Next Generation of Microrobotic Medicine News / March 2, 2026 At Penn Engineering, Shujie Yang is turning sound into a precision medical tool. Using programmable acoustic tweezers, he manipulates cells without contact, probing immune responses, isolating biomarkers and pursuing a bold vision: ultrasound precise enough to target single cancer cells deep inside the body. Read More
Innovation & Impact Podcast: Engineering Forward News / February 24, 2026 In the latest Innovation and Impact episode, Dr. Tsu-Jae Liu, president of the National Academy of Engineering, joins Dean Vijay Kumar to discuss the future of engineering — from AI and semiconductors to the talent pipeline and inclusive excellence shaping America’s technological leadership. Read More
When Bone Behaves Like a Sponge: A New Platform for Observing How Cells Feel Force News / February 24, 2026 Penn engineers have developed a nano-3D printed, porous scaffold that mimics bone’s fluid–solid mechanics, revealing how coupled strain and fluid flow reshape cell architecture. The platform lays a foundation for studying mechanobiology in bone and other load-bearing tissues. Read More
CarboWells Wins the 2026 Y-Prize Competition News / February 18, 2026 CarboWells is the recipient of the top award in the 2026 Y-Prize, Penn’s annual innovation competition that challenges students to imagine powerful real-world applications for emerging technologies invented at the University of Pennsylvania. The Y-Prize invites interdisciplinary teams from across Penn to compete by developing compelling business plans built around... Read More
