Printable hydrogel enables wearable health sensors that multitask
| psu.edu
A team of researchers led by Penn State developed an ultrasoft, adhesive and printable hydrogel — a soft, water-rich material that mimics the flexibility of living tissue — designed to conform to dry, wet, moving and hairy skin.
Cell ‘invisibility cloaks’ could offer side-effect-free diabetes treatment
| psu.edu
Outfitting cells in “invisibility cloaks” may offer an easier, less-damaging treatment pathway for people with diabetes undergoing cell therapy, according to researchers at Penn State. The team manufactured these cloaks out of a jelly-like material known as hydrogel, which the team called biomimetic zona pellucida.
Wildfire-damaged historic buildings may not be as ruined as they appear, but saving them means acting fast
| theconversation.com
The damage is sometimes only centimeters deep. Three engineers explain the colors of burned masonry and other signs preservationists look for amid another destructive fire year.
Newly formed Keystone AgTech Alliance to accelerate innovation
| psu.edu
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has joined the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, Team Pennsylvania, and Innovation Works/The Robotics Factory to launch the Keystone AgTech Alliance, a statewide partnership designed to accelerate agricultural innovation and position the commonwealth as a national leader in agricultural technology deployment.
Variations between labs can misinform scientific AI models, team reports
| psu.edu
Scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, alongside two researchers from Penn State, have demonstrated the importance of generating highly reproducible experimental data when building artificial intelligence models for catalyst investigations, a framework that can help guide the reactions that do things like turn carbon dioxide into valuable fuel.
NSF CAREER Award: Understanding how the brain learns complex skills
| psu.edu
Tarkeshwar Singh, associate professor of kinesiology in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The five-year, $775,450 award will support Singh’s research on the interaction between cognition, decision-making and motor control to plan and coordinate complex movement sequences and skills.
Energy Department plans investment in Penn State mining program
| psu.edu
Penn State’s highly ranked mining engineering program is slated to be among the recipients of a proposed $100 million investment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.
PennTAP advances statewide decarbonization and manufacturing competitiveness
| psu.edu
$3.5 million in grant funding for small manufacturing facilities will support projects that help cut energy costs and reduce air pollution across Pennsylvania, collectively saving more than $470,000 and eliminating 2,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in the first year.
Andrew Patterson named H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Chair
| psu.edu
Andrew Patterson has been named the H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Chair in Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.
Bumblebees can learn to associate new smells with their queen
| psu.edu
Bumblebees are able to learn to associate new odors with their colony’s queen, instead of being preprogrammed to recognize the queen’s pheromones from birth, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.
Geography alumnus Nate Cherok launches career in environmental consulting
| psu.edu
Penn State geography alumnus Nate Cherok reflects on how his undergraduate experience helped prepare him for a career in environmental consulting.
$12M grant to build animal-inspired sensing for autonomous drones and robots
| psu.edu
A research project, led by Penn State engineers including Saptarshi Das, Wooram Lee and Ram Naranyan, seeking to create a sort of digital brain inspired by the processes insects and small animals use to make smart decisions with limited information, has been awarded $12 million by the U.S. Army through the Army’s Research Laboratory.