What do elephant skin, kirigami, and algae have in common? Dr. Shu Yang explains the material science behind nature’s best ideas. listen to the podcast from Lexicon by Interesting Engineering.
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
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
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 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 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.
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
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
Yang was named as “Inventor of the Year” by Penn Center for Innovation at their annual Celebration of Innovation event. She filed over 68 patent disclosures during her career at Penn and holds more than 30 patents. See more
Soft materials promise more dexterous, sensitive robotics but soft actuators are limited in strength and power density. Now researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have fabricated meter-long composite fibers combining graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets with flexible, conductive polymers that can achieve mechanical strength, toughness, and actuation that surpasses biological muscles [Gao et al., Materials Today … Read more
