Fiona Glisson
Recent articles
Senior Design Competition winners
Each year, the best Engineering students compete in the Senior Design Student Competition to show off the projects they have been working on for more than a year. The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a look at the winners of this year’s competition.
History of union organization on campus
The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a look back at the past 20 years of union activism on campus.
Computing a better way to advertise
Engineering seniors Cynthia Mai, Eric Berdinis and Jeff Kiske have designed a video billboard which tailors the advertisements it displays to the people walking by based on their age, gender, glasses and facial hair.
Dining hall workers empowered by Justice on the Menu movement
Last week, Falk Dining Commons worker Kenny Blackwell and his wife Carolyn were told something that no one wants to hear: Carolyn Blackwell needed medicine for her cholesterol, but their insurance, which is offered through Aetna by Bon Appétit, would not stretch to cover even the generic version of the drug.
Seniors create app to translate pictures into music
Three computer science seniors in Engineering have created an app that translates pictures into a musical tune.
Computer Science department addresses overcrowding
In 2007, about 50 students enrolled in professor Stephanie Weirich’s Computer Science 120 course, a beginning course intended for students with a background in the discipline. This semester, the class was nearly three times as large, enrolling 170 students.
Alums reminisce on old Spring Fling days
Alumni from the mid-1970s fondly remember enjoying music and warm weather with their friends during the early years of Fling. All events — music performances and plays by student groups, and a two-day arts-and-crafts fair, all held in the Quad — were completely free.
Engineering seniors design glasses that keep you awake
Four Engineering seniors have created a pair of glasses that will wake the wearer up if he starts to doze off as their senior design project.
'Micro' prejudice causes major harm
“Your smile is ‘Africa face.’” College sophomore Oyinkan Muraina heard this from a friend who was comparing her facial expression to a picture of an African tribal drummer.
Dining hall workers come together at rally for higher wages
On Thursday morning, students, faculty, Bon Appétit employees and community members gathered to support and raise awareness about the Justice on the Menu campaign. Justice on the Menu, which was launched Monday, aims to increase wages and the number of sick days for Bon Appétit dining hall workers.
Joke Issue: The Making History campaign, uncensored
Find out how the $4.3 billion is REALLY being allocated.
Professor uses bubbles as inspiration for design
You can’t burst this professor’s bubble. Assistant professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Daeyeon Lee recently won the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award for creating particles that are hollow and lightweight, like bubbles, but are also surprisingly sturdy.
Engineering senior stretches rat lungs to improve medical care
In the course of keeping patients alive, medical ventilators can overstretch and injure the lungs, sometimes killing the patient. Engineering senior Jessie Huang has created a new scientific method that will help scientists who are researching this phenomenon.
Campus video service streams Oscar winners
Now in its second semester, Resident Select — an online movie-streaming website offered through the Penn Video Network, which supplies traditional cable TV on campus — now has 800 to 1,000 hits a month.
Penn rower, engineer to design oar 'gears'
Jim Senese, Engineering senior on the Heavy Weight Crew Team, has chosen to build a device — which expands like a telescope — that will be able to shift oars outward and inward. The system is similar to that of gears on a bike.
Engineering students devise new course
Last year’s electrical and systems engineering seniors saw a hole in their department’s curriculum and designed a course to fill it. For the past few years, ESE freshmen could not take an introductory course about their major until their second semester, when they start ESE 170 or 171.
Penn committee reviews Adidas contract
The Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility will make a recommendation this Spring regarding Penn’s contract with Adidas, which has been accused of not paying severance benefits to former workers of the PT Kizone factory in Indonesia.
SIGGRAPH helps Digital Media Design students find jobs
SIGGRAPH, Penn’s chapter of the Association for Computer Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, has recently shifted its focus to help engineering students in the Digital Media Design program apply for jobs in computer graphics and animation.
Engineering prof creates search-and-rescue bots
Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science professor Vijay Kumar received a lot of press attention and academic accolades this past year for his work on tiny autonomous robots — called quadrotors for the four rotating rotors that allow them to maneuver through the air.
Drones debate alive on campus
A Department of Defense white paper outlining the circumstances in which the U.S. government can order the killing of any member of Al Qaeda’s leadership abroad provoked a variety of reactions among several Penn faculty whose research interests relate to drone warfare.
