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ERIE, Pa. — A $385,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will fund the purchase of an Instron drop tower impact-testing system at Penn State Behrend, where faculty members are developing new approaches to polymer recycling and the formulation of new composites.

At least 10 faculty members will use the system to advance their research, which includes automotive and aerospace partnerships. Another will use it to test new polymers for ski boots and bindings.

By Mariah R. Lucas

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Soft, elastic semiconductors and circuits could advance wearable medical devices and other emerging technologies, but the high-performance electronics are difficult and expensive to manufacture. A Penn State-led research team plans to make the process easier and cheaper with a new manufacturing method.

They published their approach Nov. 28 in Nature Electronics.

By Pamela Krewson Wertz

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State-designed window screen system that automatically changes its shape based on indoor and outdoor environmental conditions is part of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal through Dec. 5. The responsive building façade system features screens made of smart and bistable materials that are located inside a building’s windows that open and close based on the weather conditions and lighting outside, as well as the indoor lighting and climate requirements.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State hosted a delegation from the National Taipei University of Technology on Oct. 16-18. During the delegation’s visit, the delegation met with Penn State faculty and administrators, and President Neeli Bendapudi and Taipei Tech President Sea-Fue Wang signed two memoranda of understanding between the two universities.

A memorandum of understanding, also called an MOU, is a formal agreement between two parties to collaborate on mutually beneficial projects.

By Jamie Oberdick

Seven Penn State materials researchers have received the 2022 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award.   

By Kevin Sliman

A team of researchers at Penn State is investigating how contaminants in power plant water cycles affect the integrity of steel pipes and tubing in power generation systems.

By Mary Fetzer

Combining machine learning with multimodal electrochemical sensing can significantly improve the analytical performance of biosensors, according to new findings from a Penn State research team. These improvements may benefit noninvasive health monitoring, such as testing that involves saliva or sweat. The findings were published this month in Analytica Chimica Acta.

Penn State reached a record $1.034 billion in research expenditures during fiscal year 2021-22, an overall 4.1% increase from the previous year. The funding, which comes from federal and state agencies, industry sponsors, private donors, the University and other sources, advances research innovations and enables Penn State faculty and students to push the boundaries of discovery, bringing experiences into the classrooms, and offering a world-class education to undergraduate and graduate students. 

By Adrienne Berard

Researchers at Penn State have successfully 3D bioprinted breast cancer tumors and treated them in a breakthrough study to better understand the disease that is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide.

A scientific first, the achievement lays the foundation for precision fabrication of tumor models. The advancement will enable future study and development of anti-cancer therapies without the use of "in vivo" — or "in animal" — experimentation.