News

Cloudy with a Chance of Lifesaving and More Cost-Effective Weather Predictions

Paris Perdikaris of the University of Pennsylvania and his collaborators at Microsoft Research have developed a machine learning model capable of accurately forecasting a variety of Earth systems, including air quality, ocean waves, and tropical cyclone tracks.

How Penn is reimagining research in the age of artificial intelligence

Bhuvnesh Jain and René Vidal have teamed up to create the AI x Science Fellowship, which builds on the thriving postdoctoral program of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration among researchers across the University.

Adventures in Innovation: Penn Engineering Startups Lead Venture Lab Challenge

Three Penn Engineering startups — Sync Labs, Quok.it and Serpent Labs — earned more than $100,000 at the 2025 Venture Lab Startup Challenge.

Empowering Futures: How PRECISE Center’s Mentorship with Google is Transforming Academic Careers and Innovation

PRECISE doctoral student Shuo Li and his mentor Dr. Yun Liu reflect on the power of mentorship to bridge academia and industry.

Innovation & Impact Podcast: The Future of AI with Yann LeCun

Focused on the relationship between AI and human well-being, AI Month 2025 gave members of the Penn community — and the broader AI world — a chance to see how Penn Engineering is helping shape the future of this rapidly evolving field.

Scaling Up: How AI Month 2025 Brought Big Ideas to Life at Penn Engineering

Meet Jean, Penn Engineering’s AI Tutor, Available 24/7

Jean, Penn Engineering's new AI-powered chatbot, provides instant feedback based on private, course-specific data to which commercial chatbots have never had access

How MLR@Penn Supports Student AI Researchers

Last year, researchers published over 50,000 papers on machine learning — a nearly 50% jump from the previous year. “Figuring out what’s worth reading is hard,” says Alok Shah (CIS’26, ESE’26, C’26), president of Machine Learning Research @ Penn (MLR@Penn), a club that helps students stay on top of fast-moving developments in AI.

Penn Engineers First to Train AI at Lightspeed

Penn Engineers have developed the first programmable chip that can train nonlinear neural networks using light — a breakthrough that could dramatically speed up AI training, reduce energy use and even pave the way for fully light-powered computers.

Zixuan Yi: A ‘Question-Driven’ Approach to Improving AI and Machine Learning

Zixuan Yi of the PRECISE Center has developed new AI and ML techniques to make databases more efficient.

The ASSET Center Advances Trustworthy AI with Support from AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has generously provided $840,000 in funding this year to support the next generation of AI researchers. The funding is intended to help the 12 selected Ph.D. students push the boundaries of knowledge in AI safety, robustness and interpretability, among other key areas.