Training students to create sustainable buildings

One of the greatest contributors to climate change is the built environment. Concrete production alone accounts for a significant share of all global carbon dioxide emissions. To train students to create sustainable buildings, Penn Engineering has partnered with the Stuart Weitzman School of Design for CLIMATE-CARE, a $3M NSF-funded NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Award.  Read … Read more

Co-Design Artificial Reef Structures that Help Harness Wave Energy

In the race to power the world with renewable energy, we look to an underutilized resource from the ocean: wave energy. Energy from ocean waves could provide about 10% of the world’s electricity needs, reducing more than 3% of global carbon dioxide production. In the United States, around 50% of the population lives within 50 … Read more

Winning the Fast Company’s 2024 WorldChangingIdeas award

We won the Fast Company’s 2024 WorldChangingIdeas award. “E-seeds: Autonomous Self-burying Seed Carriers for Aerial Seeding”, was recognized across four categories: Agriculture (https://lnkd.in/eJRCqYMg), Developing World Technology (https://lnkd.in/eE_SvNZV), Experimental (https://lnkd.in/ezuV64wf), and Nature (https://lnkd.in/eac6gj5s)..  Read more

A Learning Experience

As UPenn Engineering Postdoctoral Researcher Kun-Hao Yu transitions from his role to an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Syracuse, he reflects on his journey and shares insights into his preparation for this new chapter.  Read more

PhD Candidate Awarded Grant for Coral Reef Restoration

Sophia Jackson, the 1st year PhD student in the Yang group, has been awarded the 2024 ForEverglades Research Enhancement Grant to to fund her innovative project titled “Coral Restoration of Sustainable and 3D Printed Artificial Coral Reefs.” .  Read more

Toward Carbon-negative architecture

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Engineering and Applied Science are working to develop “3D-printed carbon-absorbing and storage concrete structures,” a new building system that would reduce carbon in all aspects of concrete construction. It would reduce both embodied carbon (the energy used to produce … Read more

Shu Yang has been elected 2024 AAAS Fellow

Shu Yang has been elected 2024 AAAS Fellow mong more than 500 researchers honored for their “scientifically and socially distinguished achievements,” according to the AAAS,  for contributions to soft materials, particularly for developing novel approaches to the synthesis and assembly of multi-functional soft composite materials. read more.

Reducing food industry carbon emissions with advanced hybrid desiccant-wheel heat pump system

Aiming to reduce industrial carbon pollution and moving the country toward a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, a team of researchers from Texas A&M, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory received Department of Energy (DOE) support to pursue the development and implementation of a high-performance hybrid desiccant-wheel heat pump system. … Read more

Reducing energy consumption in wood-drying through innovations in desiccant-coated kirigami heat exchangers and heat pump

Drying is an essential part of the product manufacturing industry, which accounts for up to 25% of the national energy consumption of developed countries. With the support of the U.S. Department of Energy, researchers from Texas A&M University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia and Michigan Technological University are teaming together to employ innovations in … Read more

Manipulating Materials, Shapes and Chemistry To Create Climate Change-Fighting Inventions

Shu Yang looks at her research through the lens of biomimicry: life forms and natural shapes have inspired her unique engineering solutions that span agriculture, building cooling and heating and reversible adhesives. For Yang, each of her innovations starts with changes on a fundamental level that can then grow into scalable and impactful products. Her … Read more