Innovation in Action: Penn Engineering’s 2024 Senior Design Project Competition

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BE’s award-winning team, Epilog, at the 2024 Senior Design Awards.

How do you make robotics kits affordable for children in low-income countries? Speed up the manufacturing of organs-on-a-chip? Lower the environmental impact of condiments in restaurants?

If you’re a senior at Penn Engineering, the answer is to team up with your peers in the Senior Design Project Competition, which every year draws interdisciplinary groups from across the School’s six majors to solve real-world problems. Championed by the late Walter Korn (EE’57, GEE’68), a past president of the Engineering Alumni Society (EAS), Senior Design also invites alumni back to campus to evaluate the seniors’ year-long capstone projects.

Since the program started nearly two decades ago, hundreds of alumni have shared centuries’ worth of their collective experience with soon-to-be-minted graduates in the form of constructive feedback. “Senior Design is really one of the best days at Penn Engineering,” says Bradley Richards (C’92, LPS’17), Director of Alumni Relations, who manages the program. “Faculty advisors work with students all year long to bring out the best in each group’s efforts, and the results speak for themselves.”

This year, three student teams from each of Penn Engineering’s six departments — Bioengineering (BE), Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE), Computer and Information Science (CIS), Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM)  — presented their work to more than 60 alumni in person and online.

Judges’ Choice Award

The Judges’ Choice Award, which recognizes overall excellence, went to ESE’s VivoDisk, which developed a novel machine to manufacture organs-on-a-chip for Vivodyne, a startup launched by Dan Huh, Associate Professor in BE.

As one of the team members, Akash Chauhan (ENG’24), learned while interning for Vivodyne, assembling the stacks of organs-on-a-chip, which are collections of plastic plates containing cells that simulate organs for preclinical drug testing, is extremely finicky and time consuming.

By developing a machine that could automatically align the plates with high precision using computer vision and AI, the team reduced the disks’ manufacturing time and expense, leading Vivodyne to adopt the device for commercial use, accelerating the process of drug discovery. VivoDisk’s team members included Chauhan; Angela Rodriguez (ENG’24), Aliris Tang (ENG’24, W’24), Dagny Lott (ENG’24), Simone Kwee (ENG’24) and Vraj Satashia (ENG’24, GEN’25) and was advised by Sid Deliwala, Alfred Moore Senior Fellow and Director of Lab Programs in ESE, and Jan Van der Spiegel, Professor in ESE.

Technology and Innovation Award

One of the greatest challenges for children with epilepsy is status epilepticus, an abnormal type of long-lasting seizure that is hard to distinguish from typical seizures and that has a mortality rate of 30%. There is currently no way to perform a test for status epilepticus at home, meaning that children suspected of having the condition must be rushed to the hospital for an electroencephalogram.

Epilog, a team from BE, developed a novel, wearable headset that analyzes brainwaves to accurately determine whether or not a child suffering a seizure is actually suffering from status epilepticus. The team, composed of Rohan Chhaya (ENG’24, GEN’24), Carly Flynn (ENG’24), Elena Grajales (ENG’24), Priya Shah (ENG’24, GEN’25) and Doris Xu (ENG’24) and advised by Erin Berlew, Research Scientist in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Lecturer in BE, carefully validated the device’s accuracy.

The judges recognized Epilog’s technological expertise, which ran the gamut from software to hardware, including a custom app to work with the device and carefully considered features like electrodes whose position can be adjusted to accommodate a child’s growth over time.

Read the full story in Penn Engineering Today.

2024 CAREER Award Recipient: Flavia Vitale

by Melissa Pappas

Neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimers, Parkinson’s and certain forms of dementia are the leading cause of disability and second-leading cause of disease worldwide. These disorders disproportionately affect low-resourced communities due to lack of access to specialized healthcare, and many of these complex diseases lack curative solutions. The need to address neurological disorders is high, yet current diagnostics and treatments are not effective for preventative or personalized care and are not accessible or affordable enough to meet the needs of more than 3 billion people living with neurological disorders. 

Flavia Vitale, Associate Professor in Bioengineering in Penn Engineering and in Neurology in Penn Medicine, works to meet this need, developing accessible and affordable solutions for the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of people with neurological disorders. 

“I started my research career in biomedical engineering hoping to one day help humanity,” says Vitale, who is also a 2024 recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for her work. “But it wasn’t until I gained a more diverse skill set during my doctoral and postdoctoral research across chemical engineering and materials science that I was able to do that in a real way.”

Vitale’s multidisciplinary skills are what allow her to develop devices that help people living with brain disorders. The CAREER Award is now helping her further apply those skills and actualize some of her first long-term research projects at Penn. 

“This CAREER Award will support my lab’s current research in leveraging innovation in materials and fabrication approaches to develop devices that are able to interface with and control different chemical and electrical signals inside the brain,” she says.

Focused primarily on understanding the brain activity involved in epilepsy-induced seizures, Vitale aims to design and develop brain-interface devices to pinpoint and suppress uncontrolled brain activity to prevent seizures from happening. Her work will lead to revolutionary health care for the 30% of epilepsy patients whose conditions are drug resistant. Currently those patients either wait out the uncontrolled brain activity and oftentimes life-threatening convulsions, or hope to be eligible for invasive surgeries to remove the part of the brain where seizures originate or to implant the seizure-controlling devices that are currently available.

Read the full story in Penn Engineering Today.

Penn ADAPT “Hacks” Bedsores, Wins Prize

Team Current Care (Andrew Lee, Antranig Baghdassarian, Johnson Liu, Leah Lackey, Brianna Leung, and Justin Liu), took home the $3,000 Grand Prize in the Cornell Hackathon.

Brianna Leung, a rising senior majoring in Bioengineering and minoring in Neuroscience and Healthcare Management at the University of Pennsylvania, led a diverse team of student scientists and engineers to resounding success at the 2024 Cornell Health Tech Hackathon, where the team won the $3,000 Grand Prize.

Held in March 2024 on Cornell’s campus in New York City, the event brought together students from 29 different universities for a weekend of finding “hacks” to patient wellness and healthcare issues inspired by the theme of “patient safety.”

ADAPT members enjoy a pancake-making marathon in preparation for their pancake sale.

Leung serves as President of Penn Assistive Devices and Prosthetic Technologies  (ADAPT), a medical-device project club whose members pursue personal projects, community partnerships and national design competitions. Penn ADAPT’s activities range from designing, building and improving assistive medical devices for conditions such as cerebral palsy and limb loss, to community engagement activities like their semesterly 3D-printed pancake sale.

In her role, Leung has increased the program’s hackathon participation to give club members greater exposure to fast-paced, competition-based design. She also leads the HMS School project, which develops and manufactures switch interfaces for children with cerebral palsy, enabling these students to interact with computers.

Leung’s passion for medical devices extends to her academic research. As a member of the robotics lab of Cynthia Sung, Gabel Family Term Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Electrical and Systems Engineering, Leung characterizes origami patterns for energy-saving applications in the heart and in facial reconstruction. Leung has also served as Vice President External for the Penn Lions and Vice President of Member Engagement for the Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club, and belongs to the Phi Gamma Nu professional business fraternity.

ADAPT members working on medical devices.

For the Cornell Hackathon, Leung’s team developed a prototype for Current Care, a closed-loop device to prevent pressure ulcers through electrical muscle stimulation. Pressure ulcers, often called bed sores, result from prolonged pressure, which often occurs during extended hospitalization or in patients who are bedridden. This condition is exacerbated by understaffing and strained resources, and can create an extra burden on hospitals, patients and healthcare workers. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that pressure ulcers cost the U.S. healthcare system approximately $9.1 billion to $11.6 billion per year.

Current Care is designed to deliver electrical stimulation, which increases blood flow to affected body parts. Conceptualizing and designing complex devices on short notice is the nature of a hackathon, so the team focused their efforts on creating proof-of-concept prototypes for all the different sensors required for the device, as well as providing the judges with on-screen read-outs to demonstrate the logic and hypothetical inputs for the device.

For their design, the team was awarded the $3,000 Grand Prize in the Cornell Hackathon. In addition to Leung, the team consisted of Johnson Liu (Cornell ECE & MSE’26); Antranig Baghdassarian (Cornell BME’27); Andrew Lee (Weill Cornell M.D.’25); Leah Lackey (Cornell ECE Ph.D.’28); and Justin Liu (Northeastern CS’27).

In choosing a project, Leung was inspired by her late grandmother’s experiences. “My role on the team largely consisted of coordinating and leading aspects of its development as needed. I also ultimately presented our idea to the judges,” she says. “This was actually all of my teammates’ first hackathon, so it was really exciting to serve a new role (considering it was actually only my second hackathon!). I had a lot of fun working with them, and we have actually been meeting regularly since the event to continue to work on the project. We had a range of expertise and experience on our team, and I deeply appreciate their hard work and enthusiasm for a project that means so much to me.”

Having found success at the Cornell hackathon, the team is discussing next steps for Current Care. “Our team is still very motivated to continue working on the project, and we’ve been speaking with professors across all of our schools to discuss feasibility and design plans moving forward,” says Leung.

Several other projects developed by Penn ADAPT members were recognized in the Cornell Hackathon:

ADAPT members and Hackathon participants, left to right: Brianna Leung, Rebecca Wang, Claire Zhang, Amy Luo, Mariam Rizvi, Natey Kim, Joe Kojima. Also in attendance but not pictured: Suhani Patel, Harita Trivedi, Dwight Koyner.
  • Claire Zhang, a sophomore studying Bioengineering and Biology in the VIPER program, was a member and presenter for team CEDAR (winner of Most Innovative/2nd Place), a portable ultrasound imaging device used to monitor carotid artery stenosis development in rural areas.
  • Natey Kim, a sophomore in Bioengineering, was a member and presenter for team HMSS (finalist), a low-cost digital solution for forecasting infections in hospitals.
  • Rebecca Wang, a sophomore in Bioengineering and Social Chair of Penn ADAPT, was a member of Team Femnostics (winner of Most Market Ready/4th Place) which developed QuickSense, an all-in-one diagnostic tool that streamlines testing for a handful of the most common vaginal disease infections simultaneously.
  • Mariam Rizvi, a sophomore in Computational Biology, was a member of team IPVision (winner of Most Potential Impact/5th Place), an application programming interface (or API) that integrates into electronic health records such as Epic, leveraging AI to detect intimate partner violence cases and provide personalized treatment in acute-care settings.
  • Suhani Patel and Dwight Koyner worked with team RealAIs, which developed a full-stack multi-platform application using React Native and Vertex AI on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Patel, a sophomore double majoring in Bioengineering and Computer and Information Science in Penn Engineering, serves as ADAPT’s treasurer, while Koyner is a first-year M&T student studying Business and Systems Engineering in Penn Engineering and Wharton.

Learn more about Penn ADAPT here and follow their Instagram.

Read more about the 2024 Cornell Tech Hackathon in the Cornell Chronicle.

2024 Graduate Research Fellowships for Penn Bioengineering Students

NSF Logo

Congratulations to the fifteen Bioengineering students to receive 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) fellowships. The prestigious NSF GRFP program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported fields. The recipients were selected from a highly-competitive, nationwide pool. Further information about the program can be found on the NSF website.

The following Ph.D. students in Bioengineering received awards:

Anushka Agrawal – Mitchell Lab

Amanda Bluem  – incoming student

Stephen Ching – incoming student, Research Staff in the Hast Lab

Ana Crysler – incoming student, de la Fuente Lab

Ellie Feng – incoming student

Stephen Lee – Alvarez lab

Jenlu Pagnotta – incoming student

Schyler Rowland – incoming student

Rayna L. Schoenberger – incoming student, Gottardi Lab

Eva Utke – incoming student

Delaney Wilde – Bugaj Lab

The following BE undergraduate students also received awards and will be pursuing graduate study:

Aditi Ghalsasi – Recent M&T program graduate (Bioengineering and Finance), Mitchell Lab

Ryan Lim – Recent B.S.E. graduate, incoming Ph.D. student at Harvard-MIT

Angela Song – Recent B.S.E. graduate, Wallace Lab

Dorix Xu – Recent B.S.E. graduate, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics

The following students received honorable mention:

Ekta Singh – Recent Master’s in BE graduate, incoming Ph.D. student, Witschey Lab

Ksenija Tasich – incoming Ph.D. student

Emma Warrner – incoming Ph.D. student

Alison Pouch Wins 2024 Cardiac Center Innovation Award

Alison Pouch

Congratulations to Alison Pouch, Assistant Professor in Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and in Radiology in the Perelman School of Medicine, on winning a 2024 Cardiac Center Innovation Award for scientific research from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)’s Philly Spin-In. Pouch’s study, titled “Systemic Semilunar Valve Mechanics and Simulated Repair in Congenital Heart Disease,” is a collaboration with Matthew Jolley, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at CHOP:

“Through biomechanical assessment, Drs. Matthew Jolley and Alison Pouch are leading an interdisciplinary CHOP-Penn team that plans to determine why current approaches to systemic semilunar valve (SSV) repair fail. They will also investigate methods to design improved repairs before going to the operating room by using computational simulation to iteratively optimize repair.

‘We believe that understanding biomechanics of abnormal SSVs and explorations of simulated repair will markedly improve our ability to characterize, risk stratify, and surgically treat SSV dysfunction, thereby improving long-term outcomes and quality of life in patients with SSV dysfunction,’ Dr. Jolley said.”

Pouch’s lab focuses on 3D/4D segmentation and modeling of heart valves in echocardiographic images with applications to surgical treatment of valvular regurgitation as part of the Penn Image Computing and Science Laboratory.

Read the full awards announcement in the CHOP Cornerstone Blog.

2024 Graduate Awards for Bioengineering Students

Congratulations to the 2024 Bioengineering student recipients of the annual Penn Engineering Graduate Student Awards! The awardees were honored in a ceremony on May 15, 2024, hosted by Dean Vijay Kumar and graduate program faculty leadership.

Master’s Student Awards:
Elizabeth Brown – Outstanding Service
Tianyu Cai – Outstanding Research
Ekta Singh – Outstanding Service

PhD Student Awards:
Dimitris Boufidis – Outstanding Service
Katherine Mossburg – Outstanding Service
Kelsey Swingle – Outstanding Teaching

2024 Solomon R. Pollack Awards for Excellence in Graduate Bioengineering Research

The Solomon R. Pollack Award for Excellence in Graduate Bioengineering Research is given annually to the most deserving Bioengineering graduate students who have successfully completed research that is original and recognized as being at the forefront of their field. This year, the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania is proud to recognize the work of four outstanding graduates in Bioengineering: William Benman, Alex Chan, Rohan Palanki and Sunghee Estelle Park. 

Read more about the 2024 Solomon R. Pollack awardees and their doctoral research below.

William Benman

Dissertation: “Remote control of cell function using heat and light as inputs”

Will conducts research in the lab of Lukasz Bugaj, Assistant Professor in Bioengineering, focusing on reprogramming cells so that their basic functions can be regulated artificially using heat and/or light as inputs. The goal of this work ranges from clinical applications, such as localized activation of cell therapies within patients via application of heat, to biological manufacturing, using light to activate production of valuable biologics during key phases of a cell’s life cycle. He earned his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University, where he graduated summa cum laude. At BU, he worked in the lab of Wilson Wong, where he was introduced to synthetic biology. During that time, he worked to develop a genetic logic framework that would allow cells to integrate chemical signals, such that each combination of signals would lead to a different, user-defined combination of genes being expressed. Outside of the lab, Benman enjoys baking and sharing his treats with lab members. He mentored the 2021 Penn iGEM team, which recently published their work in Communications Biology. After graduation, he will start a postdoctoral fellowship in Mikhail Shapiro’s lab at Caltech, where he plans to explore electrogenetics, focusing on how to co-opt electrically active cell types to transmit biochemical information out of the body. He is interested in researching ways to get cells to talk to electronic devices and vice/versa for two way communication, especially in the context of patient monitoring and precision therapies. 

“Will’s Ph.D. work broke new ground across several fields, discovering how certain proteins sense temperature, engineering those proteins for on-demand control of human cells, and building devices to allow us to communicate with cells with precision,” says Bugaj. “He has managed these accomplishments while elevating those around him through mentorship, including of graduate students, scores of undergraduates, and even grade-school students in the community. I am immensely proud of Will and what he has accomplished and am gratified by the recognition from the Sol Pollack award.”

Alex Chan

Dissertation: “Engineering small protein based inhibitors and biodegraders for cytosolic delivery and targeting of the undruggable proteome”

Alex conducts research in the lab of Andrew Tsourkas, Professor in Bioengineering and Co-Director, Center for Targeted Therapeutics and Translational Nanomedicine (CT3N). His research focuses on developing novel cancer therapeutics by engineering protein scaffolds so that they can be efficiently delivered into cells using lipid nanocarriers. These proteins can either behave as oncogenic inhibitors or be imbued with E3 domains for targeted protein degradation. He graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 2018 with a B.S in Biomedical Engineering. There, he conducted undergraduate research on photo-activated silver nanoparticle miRNA delivery systems and wrote his senior honors thesis on this topic. At Penn, Alex served as a wellness co-chair within GABE (the Graduate Association of Bioengineers) and was awarded a graduate research fellowship program award by the National Science Foundation (NSF GRFP). In his spare time, Chan loves to cook and explore the local restaurant scene (and he thinks Philly is one of the most vibrant food meccas in America). Post-graduation, he plans to explore Asia before starting as a Senior Scientist in the biopharma industry. He intends to continue working on novel biologics-based medicines for unmet medical needs.

“I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award than Alex,” says Tsourkas. “He not only demonstrates all of the traits that we love to see in our most successful Ph.D. students — intelligence, hard work ethic, and perseverance — but Alex has also exhibited a level of scientific independence that is beyond his years. I cannot wait to see what Alex achieves in the future.”

Rohan Palanki

Dissertation: “Ionizable lipid nanoparticles for in utero gene editing of congenital disease”

Rohan completed his B.S. in Bioengineering from Rice University in 2019 and subsequently matriculated into the Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D.) at the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted his doctoral research as an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the laboratories of Michael J. Mitchell, Associate Professor in Bioengineering, and William H. Peranteau, Associate Professor of Surgery at CHOP. After defending his thesis in 2024, he returned to medical school to complete his clinical training. He plans to pursue a career as a physician-engineer, conducting translational research at the intersection of biomaterials and genomic medicine. Outside of the lab, Palanki enjoys exploring new restaurants in Philadelphia and cheering on Philadelphia sports teams.

“Rohan pioneered new lipid nanoparticle gene editing technology in the lab that can treat deadly childhood diseases before a child is ever born,” says Mitchell. “Rohan is extremely deserving of this award, and I cannot wait to see what he accomplishes as a physician scientist developing new biomaterial and drug delivery technologies for pediatric applications.”

Sunghee Estelle Park

Dissertation: “Engineering stem cells and organoids on a chip for the study of human health and disease”

Sunghee Estelle Park earned her BMSE and MSME from Korea University and her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in July 2023. She conducted doctoral research in the BIOLines Lab of Dan Huh, Associate Professor in Bioengineering. Her Ph.D. research combined principles in developmental biology, stem cell biology, organoids, and organ-on-a-chip technology to develop innovative in vitro models that can faithfully replicate the pathophysiology of various human diseases. Her doctoral dissertation presented engineering approaches to create stem cell derived three-dimensional (3D) miniature models of human organs on a chip that mimic the physiology and function of living human tissues. Park was appointed Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University beginning January 2024. Her research lab focuses on using engineered tissues and organoid models to understand how biomechanical and biochemical cues direct stem cell differentiation, maturation, and function during development and disease progression, with a particular emphasis on the lung and intestine. 

“With her deep knowledge, extensive experience, and leadership, Estelle led the major undertaking of harnessing the power of microengineering technologies to create more in vivo-like culture environments in my group, and she played a central role in demonstrating the proof-of-concept of generating organoid-based in vitro models that enable new capabilities for studying complex human diseases and developing new therapeutics,” says Huh. “I am extremely proud of her tremendous accomplishments as a trailblazer in this emerging area and have every confidence that her work as an independent investigator will continue to make great contributions to advancing the field.”

Karen Xu Honored with P.E.O. Scholar Award

Karen Xu, a 2024 doctoral graduate in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of 100 doctoral students in the U. S. and Canada selected to receive a $25,000 Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood. 

The P.E.O. Scholar Awards were established in 1991 to provide substantial merit-based awards for women of the United States and Canada who are pursuing a doctoral-level degree at an accredited college or university.  Scholar Awards recipients are a select group of women chosen for their high level of academic achievement and their potential for having a positive impact on society.

The P.E.O., founded January 21, 1869, at Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, is a philanthropic educational organization dedicated to supporting higher education for women.  There are approximately 6,000 local chapters in the United States and Canada with nearly a quarter of a million active members.

Xu graduated summa cum laude with a B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in 2018, after which she joined the M.D.-Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her Ph.D. in Bioengineering in spring 2024, funded by an NIH NRSA F30 fellowship, and is set to earn her M.D. in 2026. Under the mentorship of Jason Burdick, Bowman Endowed Professor in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and Adjunct Professor in Bioengineering in Penn Engineering, and Robert Mauck, Mary Black Ralston Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery in the Perelman School of Medicine and in Bioengineering in Penn Engineering, her doctoral research has focused on engineering disease models to facilitate therapeutic discoveries. Her doctoral thesis involved the fabrication of hydrogels as tissue mimics to investigate how extracellular environments affect cell behaviors, thereby informing repair of dense connective tissues.

Beyond her research, Xu has taught with the Educational Pipeline Program at the Netter Center and the Perelman School of Medicine, where she hopes to inspire and support the next generation of healthcare workers and scientists.

Penn Bioengineering Junior Named 2024 Udall Scholar

by Louisa Shepard

Third-year undergraduate Joey Wu (Image: Courtesy of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships)

The University of Pennsylvania’s Joey Wu, a third-year student studying bioengineering and environmental science in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) program, has been named a 2024 Udall Scholar by the Udall Foundation. VIPER is a dual-degree program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and School of Arts & Sciences.

Wu is among 55second-year and third-year students selected from 406 candidates nominated by 192colleges and universities nationwide. Scholars are recognized for leadership, public service, and commitment to issues related to the environment or to Native American nations. Each scholar will be awarded as much as $7,000.

A Taiwanese-American undergraduate scientist from Woodbury, Minnesota, Wu is the founder and international director of Waterroots, a nonprofit environmental education project that uses climate storytelling to combat water insecurity in more than 20 countries. Wu is a researcher in Penn Engineering’s McBride Lab, where he works as a plant specialist for a project that promotes environmental stability and sustainable agriculture. He is the deputy director of research for the nonprofit Climate Cardinals, a member of Penn’s Student Advisory Group for the Environment, and the North America representative for the Tunza Eco-Generation Ambassador program. Wu is a Clinton Global Initiative Scholar, a Duke Interfaith Climate Fellow, an IEEE Bio-X Scholar, a 2023 Millennium Fellow, and a 2024 UN ECOSOC Youth Delegate. In addition, he is a resident advisor in Penn’s Stouffer College House, as well as a Penn Engineering and a VIPER student ambassador.

Wu is the 10th student from Penn to be named a Udall Scholar since Congress established the foundation in 1992 to honor Morris and Stewart Udall for their impact on the nation’s environment, public lands, and natural resources and for their support of the rights and self-governance of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Wu applied to the Udall Scholarship with the support of Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

This story was originally posted in Penn Today.

Arjun Raj Explores Whether Cells Can Learn in 2024 Heilmeier Lecture

Arjun Raj (center) accepts the Heilmeier Award, with Bioengineering Department Chair Ravi Radhakrishnan (left) and Dean Vijay Kumar (right).

Arjun Raj, Professor in Bioengineering at Penn Engineering and in Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine, has been honored with the 2023-24 George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence for “pioneering the development and application of single-cell, cancer-fighting technologies.”

The George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research was “established by Penn Engineering for the purpose of recognizing excellence in scholarly activities of the faculty. Named in honor of George H. Heilmeier, it recognizes his extraordinary research career, his leadership in technical innovation and public service, and his loyal and steadfast support of Penn Engineering.”

Dr. Raj delivered his lecture, entitled “Can a Cell Learn?” on April 8, 2024. In this talk, Raj explores whether it is possible for cells to adapt to their environment by learning, thereby overcoming their genetic destiny.

Learn more about, this award, Dr. Raj and his research here. View the lecture recording below.

The Raj Lab for Systems Biology is interested in building a quantitative understanding of cellular function. They develop new tools for quantifying biological processes based on imaging and sequencing and then use those techniques to help us answer questions in molecular and cellular biology. Read more stories featuring Raj in the BE Blog.