University of Pennsylvania Spring 2017
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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SPRING 2017 Instead of having to walk to a bike-sharing kiosk to pick up or return your ride, autonomous bike “evolute” will come to you! For their Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) Senior Design project, Amilcar Cipriano, Jesus Gallegos and Eloisa evolute Baez Jones (pictured from left) installed electric motors to drive the wheels and to steer, sensors to determine the position and motion of the bike, and an Arduino MEGA 2560 microcontroller that dictates ride speed, turning radius, and simple paths for the bike to navigate. Team evolute is comprised of MEAM seniors Amilcar Cipriano, Jesus Gallegos, Alberto Jimenez, Eloisa Baez Jones and Ketsy Resendez, and is advised by MEAM Senior Lecturer Bruce Kothmann. Penn Engineering / Spring 2017 University of Pennsylvania CONTENT School of Engineering and Applied Science 4 20 INCUBATING BUILDING INNOVATION COMMUNITY Penn collaborations, The master’s program initiatives and a broad strengthens academics network of alumni inspire through community and budding entrepreneurs. networking opportunities. “PENN ENGINEERING IS POSITIONING ITSELF TO UNLEASH THE NEXT 10 22 GENERATION OF HIGH-TECH HIDDEN MEANINGS ENGINEERS ENTREPRENEURS. IT’S A NATURAL Ani Nenkova creates AS ARTISTS PLACE FOR BOLD IDEAS TO algorithms that teach With creativity, perseverance COME TRUE.” computers to recognize and talent, engineering nuances in writing styles. students enhance their Penn experience through music, dance and drama. 14 ACCESS ENGINEERING 27 Penn Engineering under- INVEST. graduates provide hands-on ACCELERATE. Penn Engineering Magazine labs and classes to broaden DISRUPT. REPEAT. [email protected] the pipeline of high school As the leader of SoftBank’s 215-898-6564 students interested in STEM. www.seas.upenn.edu $100 billion Vision Fund, alumnus Rajeev Misra is Vijay Kumar Nemirovsky Family Dean making unique investments in technology and telecom- George W. Hain III munications companies. Vice Dean, External Affairs 18 Development and Alumni Relations CAMERA ROLL Shots of Penn Engineering Joan S. Gocke Director of Communications students, faculty and Editor campus life. 32 Olivia J. McMahon Q&A WITH Associate Editor ANDY RACHLEFF Design Overseer Andy Rachleff Kelsh Wilson Design reflects on his tenure as Photography chair of the Board. Kelsh Wilson Design Lamont Abrams FROM THE DEAN VIJAY KUMAR, Nemirovsky Family Dean Advancing the Penn Compact When President Amy Gutmann introduced Penn which fabricates a simple, cheap and sustainable Compact 2020, she offered both a visionary and water filter to address one of the world’s most pragmatic plan. Three values—inclusion, innovation pressing needs: clean water. The entrepreneurs and impact—would define Penn’s mission and direct spent a year in Kenya creating a device to remove the future of the University. I am proud to say waterborne diseases and other contaminants from that the aspirational vision of the Compact has the local water, and the startup continues to flourish, been made real and tangible across the Penn shipping thousands of the filters to Kenya. Engineering campus. And for sheer innovation and fun, I invite you to On this issue’s cover and inside are photos from meet Piccolissimo, the world’s smallest self-powered Access Engineering, an initiative developed, controllable flying vehicle, weighing in at less organized and implemented by Penn Engineering than 2.5 grams and spanning about the width of undergraduates. These students saw an unmet a quarter. Despite its diminutive stature, it is big need: many high school students don’t know what enough to carry a camera or sensor, and when engineering is or have access to sophisticated deployed in the hundreds or thousands, can quickly laboratories. Now, on Saturday mornings in class- gather data over a large geographic area. rooms and hands-on labs in Penn Engineering’s I am privileged to lead a School that, at its core, campus, students from local Philadelphia high exemplifies the vision and mission of Penn. This schools broaden their understanding and experience issue of Penn Engineering shows not only the firsthand what it means to be an engineer. breadth, depth and reach of our technology, but Penn Engineering alums Matt Lisle and Adrian also our humanity as engineers. I hope that you are Lievano, previous winners of the Penn President’s as honored as I am to be a part of this inclusive, Engagement Prize, launched startup Everwaters, innovative and impactful community. PENN ENGINEERING Q 3 Incubating Innovation When Matt Lisle (BSE’15) started his freshman in addition to dedicated space at the recently year at Penn, most of the upperclassmen he knew opened Pennovation Center. were looking into banking or consulting jobs, and none were starting companies. “By my senior One notable example of Penn’s commitment year, that ratio had almost completely flipped,” he to entrepreneurship is the Y-Prize, which was says. What brought about the change? According launched in 2012 by Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky to Lisle, it was the product of Penn’s initiatives Family Dean of Penn Engineering, and Mark Yim, designed to inspire budding entrepreneurs. As professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied a result, startups among alumni are finding both Mechanics (MEAM) and director of the Integrated great support and success. Product Design master’s degree program. This award provides $10,000 to members of the Penn Penn President Amy Gutmann has named community who propose the best application innovation as one of the three main thrusts of for an emerging technology. her Penn Compact 2020. In 2014, she intro- duced the President’s Engagement Prizes, which Penn Engineering students can also take advan- empower Penn seniors to design and undertake tage of opportunities such as the PennApps local, national or global projects during the and Pennvention competitions, the Engineering first year after they graduate. One year later, Entrepreneurship Program, and the I-Corps Site Gutmann announced the launch of the President’s summer startup accelerator program, among Innovation Prize, which provides social-minded others. That’s not to mention strong collabora- graduating seniors with financial support and tions across Engineering, Wharton and Medicine mentorship during the first year out of college, at Penn, access to outstanding mentors and a SPRING 2017 Q 4 broad network of alumni, the extensive hands-on curriculum, and the growing number of cutting- edge technologies available to students. PRESIDENT GUTMANN’S ENGAGEMENT PRIZES EMPOWER PENN SENIORS TO DESIGN AND UNDERTAKE LOCAL, NATIONAL OR GLOBAL PROJECTS DURING THE FIRST YEAR AFTER THEY GRADUATE. As showcased by the four projects that follow, the innovation community at Penn is flourishing. “Penn Engineering is positioning itself to unleash the next generation of high-tech entrepreneurs,” says Adrian Lievano (BSE’15). “It’s a natural place for any aspiring entrepreneur to make their bold ideas come true.” PENN ENGINEERING Q 5 Startup Everwaters produces a water filter made of coconut carbon and natural ceramic, which work together to reduce lead, bacteria and rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrheal disease in infants and young children worldwide. MEETING THE WORLD’S The product removes more than 15 times the WATER NEEDS number of contaminants as a Brita filter, and was the focus of a Kickstarter campaign initiated in With the help of a 2015 President’s Engagement November 2016. Thousands of filters are now Prize, Lisle and Lievano (pictured top row, middle) en route to Kenya, and Everwaters also plans to are tackling one of the biggest challenges of the expand in East Africa and other developing and 21st century: meeting the world’s growing water emerging markets. needs in the face of a changing climate. The award allowed the duo to spend the 2015-16 academic Lisle and Lievano are also developing a filter year designing and implementing a simple, that leverages the natural water purification sustainable and inexpensive water filtration system capabilities of the moringa seed, which contains in Kimana, Kenya, where access to clean drinking a coagulant protein that binds heavy metals water is a daily struggle. and microorganisms, effectively removing them from the water. In the end, the filters could save Upon graduation, Lisle and Lievano launched the countless lives from waterborne diseases and startup Everwaters to develop their system. The metal poisoning. “We think we can start and grow result of their efforts was a water filter made of a sustainable, socially responsible business,” Lisle coconut carbon and natural ceramic, which work says. “Looking back, becoming an entrepreneur together to reduce lead, bacteria and rotavirus, was the most fulfilling direction to take, and I’m the most common cause of severe diarrheal grateful that both the people and my experience disease in infants and young children worldwide. at Penn showed me the way.” SPRING 2017 Q 6 Like a 3D printer, BioBots extrudes a solution of biomaterials, sculpting cell cultures into miniature organs. The 3D constructs can serve as model organs for drug testing and other types of biomedical experiments. MADE-TO-ORDER ORGANS model organs for drug testing and other types of biomedical experiments, offering a humane Danny Cabrera (BSE’14) did not spend his alternative to animal-based research. In the future, weekends like a typical college student. Instead, the technology may advance to a stage where he and Ricardo Solorzano (BSE’13) holed up in fully functional artificial organs could be made to an apartment located above a noisy college bar, order from a patient’s own cells. This break- and toiled on a Frankenstein-like device that through would hold promise for eliminating the extruded a 3D matrix of living tissue. Once they organ waiting list and reducing the risk of harmful were satisfied with their creation, Solorzano immune responses that cause transplant rejection. suggested that they enter it into the 2014 Pennvention investor’s competition.