How Vanessa Chan is training Ph.D. engineers for real-world impact
The Jonathan and Linda Brassington Practice Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and vice dean of innovation and entrepreneurship is helping students to bridge the divide between technical excellence and real-world impact.
2 min. read
Vanessa Chan, the Jonathan and Linda Brassington Practice Professor in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Penn Engineering’s vice dean of innovation and entrepreneurship, is shaping a new kind of classroom. In her course, EAS5500: Applying Your Thesis to the Real World, Ph.D. students step beyond the lab and into the real-world ecosystems their research is meant to transform.
Vanessa Chan is the Jonathan and Linda Brassington Practice Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and vice dean of innovation and entrepreneurship.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering)
Chan’s course was launched in Spring 2026 to bridge a long-standing gap in engineering education: the divide between technical excellence and real-world impact.
“The way we train Ph.D. students is to focus on hard technical problems and success is defined by the number of papers you publish in quality journals,” says Chan. “But the future leaders in engineering need more than that to have an impact.”
The course helps students identify non-technical barriers, including market demand, policy, manufacturing, and supply chains, that determine whether technologies succeed in the real world. Students are also paired with industry mentors and conduct hands-on analyses to actualize what they learn in the classroom and develop a thesis chapter focused on commercialization. Students interact with 30-40 industry professionals as part of their course objectives, often starting with cold outreach on LinkedIn, and getting closer connections with industry mentors through their own networking and in class through guest speakers. In parallel, they refine how they communicate their research, learning to translate complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives.
“There are countless examples of technologies that failed not because the science didn’t work, but because other barriers weren’t addressed,” says Chan. “This course helps students understand and address those barriers while gaining insight from industry professionals on how to make the transition from academic research to real-world impact.”
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