In the eighth episode of Penn Engineering’s Innovation & Impact podcast, host Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering and Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), sits down with one of the most influential figures in modern engineering, Kurt Petersen, widely recognized as the father of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems). From pioneering research at IBM to founding six startups and mentoring countless others, Petersen has not only helped define the MEMS field, but continues to shape its future.

Fresh off receiving the 2025 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering, Petersen shares the serendipitous moment that sparked his interest in MEMS: an ink-stained hallway and a leaky lab experiment. That curiosity led to a groundbreaking 1982 paper, “Silicon as a Mechanical Material,” which catalyzed an entire industry. Today, MEMS is everywhere — embedded in smartphones, drones, medical diagnostics and more. Yet, as Petersen makes clear, the field is far from saturated.

Listen to the full episode to gain insights into the evolution of MEMS, from the slow-burn research culture of early IBM and Bell Labs to today’s agile, impact-driven academic startups. Petersen and Kumar highlight the importance of bridging academia with industry and mentoring founders who can navigate both science and commercialization. Petersen’s reflections on timing, teamwork and translational research are a masterclass for anyone navigating the complex intersection of engineering and entrepreneurship.  

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AI is at the forefront of technological advances and is also reshaping creativity, ownership and societal interactions. In episode 7 of Penn Engineering’s Innovation & Impact podcast, host Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering and Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, speaks with Meta’s Chief AI Scientist and Turing Award winner, Yann LeCun, about the journey of AI, how we define intelligence and the possibilities and challenges it presents. 

With a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science, LeCun’s academic background brought him to the AT&T Bell Laboratories after his first postdoctoral position in 1988, right at the cusp of the Internet Age. The work he began in his doctorate and later expanded on at Bell Labs would eventually become the foundational work for what we now know as AI. As testament to this work, LeCun was awarded the 2018 ACM Turing Award (with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio) for "conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that have made deep neural networks a critical component of computing," a lifetime accomplishment in the field of computer science.

Listen to the full episode to hear more on everything from the intelligence of the neural nets that inspired LeCun’s original AI research to computers learning to play chess and how much longer we will have to wait to see machines reach a human level of intelligence.  

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Episode 6 of the Penn Engineering Innovation & Impact podcast explores how chemical engineering, AI, and biochemistry converge at Penn to power the NSF Artificial Intelligence-driven RNA Foundry (NSF AIRFoundry).

Hosted by Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering and Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics.

Guests include:

Daeyeon Lee, Russel Pierce and Elizabeth Crimian Heuer Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, whose work examines the interactions of soft materials at or near interfaces to guide the assembly of macroscopic structures for applications in healthcare and sustainability; 

Zachary Ives, Adani President’s Distinguished Professor and Chair of Computer and Information Science, who works on data integration and sharing, data provenance and trustworthiness, and machine learning systems; and

Kathy Liu, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, who brings her integral expertise in enzymology, biochemistry, spectroscopy, structural biology and RNA biology to this collaboration.

Each episode of Penn Engineering’s Innovation & Impact podcast shares insight from leading experts at Penn and Penn Engineering on science, technology and medicine. 

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Today’s world of technology is more complicated than ever before. The ability to rapidly innovate paired with the unpredictability of society can make it difficult for researchers to anticipate all the implications that come with their new innovations. In this current climate, how should those researchers approach innovation with social responsibility at the forefront?

In the latest episode of Penn Engineering’s Innovation & Impact podcast, host Susan Davidson, Weiss Professor in Computer and Information Science (CIS), dives into the topic of “Responsible Innovation” with fellow Penn Engineers at the forefront of revolutionary technological innovations. Panelists include:

Michael Kearns, National Center Professor of Management & Technology in CIS, who speaks on the topic from a machine learning and AI perspective, touching on the importance of unbiased models, prioritizing privacy and pushing for transparent data sharing;

Mark Yim, Asa Whitney Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), who shares insight in the collaboration process that combines his expertise in robotics with disciplines across nursing and psychology; and 

Daniel Koditscheck, Alfred Fitler Moore Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), who works on applying dynamical systems theory to design machines that can run, jump and climb. His work on autonomous robots also intersects with biologists and other disciplines through the lens of ethical and responsible innovation.  

Each episode of Penn Engineering’s Innovation & Impact podcast shares insight from leading experts at Penn and Penn Engineering on science, technology and medicine. 

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This episode of Innovation & Impact celebrates AI Month at Penn. Susan Davidson, Weiss Professor, Computer and Information Science (CIS) returns as host to discuss how AI is accelerating discovery in fields such as Bioengineering and Computing while also bringing unexpected new challenges in areas such as security.

Guests this month are Cesar De La Fuente, Presidential Assistant Professor, Bioengineering; Surbhi Goel, Magerman, Term Assistant Professor, CIS; and Chris Callison-Burch, Associate Professor, CIS.

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In the most recent episode of Innovation & Impact, Penn Professors Cherie Kagan, Ben Lee, Lei Gu, and Chris Murray discuss how AI, tech, population growth, and other factors will impact the future of energy and sustainability, while also exploring how educational institutions like Penn can lead the way.

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