News from

Graduate Students

Reset All Filters
526 Results
Dean Mark Trodden on what’s next for Penn Arts & Sciences
Mark Trodden with folded arms in front of College Hall.

Mark Trodden, dean of the School of Arts & Sciences.

nocred

Dean Mark Trodden on what’s next for Penn Arts & Sciences

Dean Trodden reflects on his first year on the job, how the School of Arts & Sciences is supporting students’ futures through curriculum innovation, the new Physical Sciences Complex, and other initiatives.

6 min. read

Helping robotic arms solve problems using tools
Three students working on a robotic arm in the GRASP lab

Image: Sylvia Zhang

Helping robotic arms solve problems using tools

Penn engineers have developed VLMgineer, an AI framework that can design, adapt, and deploy tools in the real world.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

Enabling robots to chart a better course
Shadow of a drone over a map of housing units.

Image: Francesco Scatena via Getty Images

Enabling robots to chart a better course

A novel, open-source system has the ability to streamline disaster recovery and parcel delivery by rapidly generating a smooth path plan that cuts travel time and avoids obstacles.

From Penn Engineering

2 min. read

Weitzman externships in retrospect: Aidan Williams
Aidan Williams.

Weitzman Master of Architecture student Aidan Williams.

nocred

Weitzman externships in retrospect: Aidan Williams

The Weitzman Master of Architecture student spent his externship with in situ studio, a small design-based architecture practice.

From the Weitzman School of Design

2 min. read

AI education for kids
A student experimenting with a handheld STEM project in a classroom.

Image: Courtesy of Penn GSE

AI education for kids

An interdisciplinary seminar at Penn’s Graduate School of Education explores how students can design, critique, and teach AI and machine learning in K–12 education.

From Penn GSE

2 min. read

Awards and accolades for Penn faculty and Centers
People walking down Locust Walk in the summer.

nocred

Awards and accolades for Penn faculty and Centers

A roundup of the latest awards and honors for faculty in the Annenberg Public Policy Center, the School of Arts & Sciences, Penn Nursing, and the Wharton School.

Penn Today Staff

2 min. read

SmartDJ lets users reshape audio experiences with simple words
Yiduo Hao and a researcher using a microphone and a laptop outdoors.

As a test, Yiduo Hao (left) recorded the sounds of spring in Philadelphia, then used SmartDJ to transform them into the sounds of a forest.

(Image: Sylvia Zhang)

SmartDJ lets users reshape audio experiences with simple words

Penn Engineers have created an AI-powered audio editor specifically for stereo that responds to simple requests in everyday language.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Penn filmmaking class shares the stories of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods
Two students take video of archivist holding up newspaper clipping.

Student filmmakers Harper Prentice and Hosaena Tilahun interviewed Alisha Davis, a former history teacher who has served as the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Hyperlocal Heritage archivist since August 2025. As part of America 250, Davis has been surveying collections held at Parkway Central Library and identifying archival materials for digitization, use in programming, and preservation.

nocred

Penn filmmaking class shares the stories of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods

Graduate and undergraduate students in Alissa Jordan’s course partnered with community organizations to create five short films that touch on education, archiving, and grassroots organizing in Germantown, Northeast Philadelphia, and West Philadelphia.

3 min. read

What makes messages persuasive?
A person signing paperwork from a salesman at an outdoor car lot.

Image: Maskot via Getty Images

What makes messages persuasive?

Psychology researchers Dolores Albarracín and Yubo Zhou studied the relative persuasive impact of messages expressing attitudes, describing behaviors, or combining both.

2 min. read