Ian Scheffler, Author at Penn Engineering Blog

A portrait of Aashika Vishwanath in front of Towne Hall

From Blackjack to Chatbots: Aashika Vishwanath’s AI Odyssey

Last year, Aashika Vishwanath, a sophomore in Computer and Information Science (CIS) wondered if she could use AI to help democratize access to high-quality educational … Read More ›

A virtual space created by holodeck, which resembles an apartment.

In the News, Research + Innovation

Penn Engineers Recreate Star Trek’s Holodeck Using ChatGPT and Video Game Assets

Using everyday language, users can prompt Holodeck to generate a virtually infinite variety of 3D spaces, which creates new possibilities for training robots to navigate … Read More ›

Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth sit side-by-side in front of a blackboard covered in math- and computer science-related notes.

Academics, Research + Innovation

The Science of Designing Ethical Algorithms: Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth on Ethical AI

In your 2019 book The Ethical Algorithm, you make clear that computer scientists have largely focused on designing the algorithms that power artificial intelligence to … Read More ›

A portrait of Pratik Chaudhari, wearing a dark polo shirt and with a dark glass board with mathematical notation behind him.

Research + Innovation

Building Robots that Learn: Pratik Chaudhari Investigates the Underpinnings of AI

Growing up, Pratik Chaudhari, Assistant Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE) and member of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory, just … Read More ›

"The manifold of models along training trajectories of networks with different configurations (architectures denoted by different colors, optimization algorithms, hyper-parameters, and regularization mechanisms) is effectively low-dimensional."

Research + Innovation

The Hidden Geometry of Learning: Neural Networks Think Alike

Penn Engineers have uncovered an unexpected pattern in how neural networks — the systems leading today’s AI revolution — learn, suggesting an answer to one … Read More ›

Sherry (Xue) Gao, Presidental Penn Compact Associate Professor in Bioengineering

Research + Innovation

Unlocking Nature’s Secrets: Sherry Gao Pushes the Boundaries of Genetic Engineering

Sherry (Xue) Gao, Presidential Penn Compact Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE), always knew she had a future in the lab. “I grew … Read More ›

A CAR T cell, colored red, attacks a cancer cell, colored blue.

Research + Innovation

Accelerating CAR T Cell Therapy: Lipid Nanoparticles Speed Up Manufacturing

For patients with certain types of cancer, CAR T cell therapy has been nothing short of life changing. Developed in part by Carl June, Richard … Read More ›

Portrait of Samantha McBride wearing a dark-colored blazer with her hair down.

Research + Innovation

Interfacial Phenomena: Samantha McBride’s Untapped Resource for Water Sustainability

In a typical year, Reno, Nevada, receives just seven and a half inches of rain. For Samantha McBride, the newest faculty member in Mechanical Engineering … Read More ›

A group of women in the audience of the Women in Data Science Conference @ Penn look toward a presenter speaking.

Events, In the News, Students

Beyond Bias: The Annual Women in Data Science Conference Unites Women across Penn

In Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado Perez notes that the default perspective for virtually all data collection and … Read More ›

Research + Innovation

Precision Pulmonary Medicine: Penn Engineers Target Lung Disease with Lipid Nanoparticles

Penn Engineers have developed a new means of targeting the lungs with lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the miniscule capsules used by the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 … Read More ›