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Weekly Edition
May 4-10, 2026
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Fourth-year finance major Margaret Zhu received the President’s Innovation Prize for Serpent Robotics, which is prototyping a rope-climbing, ground-controlled robotic arborist system to improve safety in a dangerous industry. “All the resources that Penn has put into creating this entrepreneurial ecosystem and hub have paid off,” Zhu says.
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Using a President’s Engagement Prize, fourth-years (left to right) Justin Wang, Janine Haros, and Eric Lee will dedicate the first year after graduation to Shared Vision, a project that will provide unhoused populations in Philadelphia with comprehensive vision care and related social support. “It’s an incredible honor,” says Wang of winning the Prize. “To have the President and the University buy in and support your project is amazing.”
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Fluid Silicon, a platform from President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso, allows computer chips to continuously monitor their health and self-tune as their characteristics change due to heating, cooling, or aging. The technology has the potential to reduce energy usage in data centers and improve reliability in critical applications.
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Fourth-years Chloe Chang, Darlene Leohansson, and Connie Ni (second from left to right) won this year’s President’s Engagement Prize for their project HAVEN, which will launch an after-school program for K-5 children at the Jane Addams shelter in North Philadelphia. Chang hopes children will benefit from art, dance, and music programs: “We’re reimagining the shelter as a place for childhood,” she says.
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The Penn community spent Reading Days preparing for exams and the end of the semester. This photo collection showcases students in study spots across campus, from the sixth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library—with its view of College Hall—to the comfy cushions and shared spaces of Harrison College House.
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The Office of Social Equity and Community has announced its sixth cohort of Projects for Progress awards, recognizing three Penn teams for their commitment to enhancing quality of life in the city of Philadelphia. This year’s winning teams will receive up to $100,000 in University funding to support access to community service, reproductive health, and clean water.
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British food rationing during World War II resulted in a famine around the globe in Bengal, says history major Rafaella Lambrinos, who studied the two with an eye toward “bearing witness to the experiences of others.” She traveled to London to examine archival records and newspaper reports. “The past cannot resonate in the present if it is not known,” she explains.
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New research from sociologist Emily Hannum and colleagues reveals regional trends in whether school-age populations are increasing, plateauing, or decreasing—and shows how different countries are responding. “Demographic pressures are affecting educational systems throughout the system—from pre-K to higher ed—and across different places in the world,” Hannum says.
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Ezekiel Emanuel, Liz Magill, and Sophia Rosenfeld (left to right) have been recognized for extraordinary achievements in their fields. The American Philosophical Society is the oldest scholarly society in the United States, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743.
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The prognosis looked bleak for Maeve, a lamb afflicted with a deadly progressive vascular disorder. But a team of Penn veterinarians and veterinary students devised a life-saving plan to treat Maeve with radiation, an almost-unheard-of course of action for a rare condition—and even less common for animals like cattle, sheep, or goats.
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Dean Sarah Banet-Weiser presents the Annenberg School for Communication’s first strategic vision, Connected Futures, with four pillars to expand scholarship, infrastructure, engagement, and education.
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One of eight artists in the 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Weitzman School of Design, Cacie Rosario Jackson uses circuitry diagrams to depict the Chitlin Circuit, a historical network of Black music venues.
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A detailed new map of the human kidney has revealed a previously unrecognized form of diabetic kidney disease, marked by clusters of immune cells that are linked to faster disease progression.
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Fourth-year Emmy Keogh channels Southern hospitality and data analysis into Debonair Butter, her concept for small-batch flavored butter centerpieces. Keogh credits her communication major for giving her the foundational tools to pitch Debonair Butter to the Penn Venture Lab, with plans to continue growing the brand post-graduation.
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Penn Today celebrates recent honors to faculty, graduate students, and projects across the School of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Carey Law School, Weitzman School of Design, and Annenberg Public Policy Center.
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ChiaKo Hung, an expert in nonprofit financial management, equips students in the School of Social Policy & Practice with evidence-based strategies for driving philanthropic impact, a real-world approach informed by his research.
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A Penn Nursing study finds that nurses’ assessments of staffing adequacy are more accurate than traditional administrative data at predicting patient safety in medical-surgical units.
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The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation has awarded 37 grants across six categories in the 2025–26 academic year, from community partnerships and an artist residency to support for independent creative productions.
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 THE WASHINGTON POST
“If you’re doing something over and over again, eventually, it starts to feel automatic,” says Katy Milkman of the Wharton School.
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TIME
Judith Beck of the Perelman School of Medicine says “our brain doesn’t necessarily differentiate between false alarms and true alarms” when talking about why people experience anxiety.
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