Resource site for Scientific Kirigami
Co-Design Artificial Reef Structures that Help Harness Wave Energy
October 31, 2024
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 ...
Winning the Fast Company’s 2024 WorldChangingIdeas award
October 29, 2024
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 |
Toward carbon-negative architecture
October 11, 2024
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from Weitzman and Penn Engineering are working to develop a new building system that would reduce carbon in all aspects of concrete construction. | Read more |
Threading high-performance, self-morphing building blocks across scales toward a sustainable future
November 19, 2020
Image: Masoud Akbarzadeh Inspiree by biological structural materials, Yang, Liang Feng (Penn Engineering, MSE) and Masoud Akbarzadeh (PennDesign, Architecture) have received $4.6M grant from National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with researchers at Princeton University (Andrej Košmrlj and Pierre-Thomas Brun), Rowan University (Xiao Hu) and Rutgers University Camden (David Salas-de la Cruz) to drive eco-future manufacturing of highly efficient structures and components ...
Mimicking Giant Clams to Enhance the Production of Biofuel
November 3, 2017
Alison Sweeney of the University of Pennsylvania has been studying giant clams. She refer to the clams as “solar transformers” because they are capable of absorbing bright sunlight at a very high rate and scattering it over a large surface area. When the light is distributed evenly among the thick layer of algae living inside ...
Penn Collaboration Produces Surprising Insights Into the White Spots on Butterfly Wings
June 29, 2017
A collaboration between biologists and materials scientists at the University of Pennsylvania is yielding new insights into the whiteness on the wings of the “skipper butterfly”, a dusk-active and shade-inhabiting Costa Rican rain forest butterfly.
Sabin named 2015 IVY Innovator in Design
December 9, 2015
Jenny Sabin, is principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, an experimental architectural design studio, and director of the Sabin Design Lab at Cornell AAP, a hybrid research and design unit with specialization in computational design, data visualization, and digital fabrication.
AESOP Goes Live!
October 29, 2015
Announcing the new entity: “Analyzing Evolved Structures and Solutions as Optimized Patterns, Products, and Paradigms Science for the Human Habitat”
Invited Commission, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum; Beauty-Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial exhibition
September 15, 2015
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial,” the fifth installment of the museum’s popular contemporary design exhibition series, from Feb. 12 through Aug. 21, 2016. With projects ranging from experimental prototypes and interactive games to fashion ensembles and architectural interventions, “Beauty” will fill most of two floors of the museum with ...
The Smart Window
April 26, 2015
The Smart Window is trying to balance several competing requirements for windows. Architects prefer transparency in the design of buildings for their aesthetic appeal. However, transparent windows may let in too much sunlight on a scorching summer day, causing interiors to become over-heated and then require artificial cooling. This is energy inefficient and leads to ...