The Impact of Microplastics and How to Limit Exposure News / July 15, 2026 Microplastics researchers Samantha McBride and Derek Ho of Penn Engineering and Vijay Bhatia of the Philadelphia Water Department discuss how microplastics get into ecosystems and human bodies, offering practical ways to minimize exposure. Sun, sand, and surf are the mainstays of a beach day. But something else now lingers along... Read More
Virtual Patients, Real-World Training News / July 14, 2026 Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Penn’s Linguistic Data Consortium have received a two-year, $4 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to develop a scalable, AI-powered platform for training mental health clinicians. STELLAR — short for Steering-Vector Enhanced LLM Agents for Realistic Digital Twins in Mental... Read More
Unearthing New Cancer Treatments From Fungi News / July 8, 2026 Penn Engineers led by Xue ‘Sherry’ Gao have developed a gene-editing tool built specifically for fungi, unlocking a hidden library of molecules — including some with early anti-cancer promise — from one of biology’s most overlooked kingdoms. Researchers have spent decades — and billions of dollars — sequencing animal and... Read More
How Sea Stars Build Materials That Can See News / July 6, 2026 When engineers think about protective materials, like those used in packaging and support, they usually think about strength, stiffness and durability. But what if those same materials could also sense their external environment? That question emerged unexpectedly for Ling Li, Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, when his lab... Read More
Penn Engineers Study Asthma on Human Lung-on-a-Chip Technology News / June 22, 2026 Researchers at Penn Engineering have developed an asthma-on-a-chip that recreates the physical forces of airway constriction during an asthma attack. The study reveals how mechanical stress can drive tissue stiffening and abnormal blood vessel growth, opening new pathways for understanding asthma and developing future treatments. Read More
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
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
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
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
Two Penn Engineering Faculty Elected to National Academy of Engineering News / February 10, 2026 Nader Engheta, H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering, and Karen Winey, Harold Pender Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and in Materials Science and Engineering, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), bringing the total Penn Engineering NAE faculty membership to 16. Read More
