Modern inventions aren't all about robots and moving sidewalks - Penn students' creative ideas may now include a social impact component, too. PennVention - the annual student-run innovation competition organized by the Weiss Tech House - recently announced the Meltwater Social Impact Award, which aims "to support a student team that has an idea for a product or service that can help the local or global community," said Wharton and Engineering junior Matthew Owens, the PennVention co-chair.

Penn is granting graduate students higher stipends to keep its programs competitive and to increase access and aid. The University announced yesterday that the minimum stipend for Ph.D students who receive nine-month fellowships will increase by 6.7 percent to $19,200 starting this September.

Feeling crappy? You're not the only one. Universities around the country have been experiencing recent outbreaks of influenza. At Penn, the trend is the same. Student Health is trying to manage this year's increased number of flu cases, however, this flu season is not atypical, said Evelyn Wiener, director of Student Health Service.

e discussed recommendations on streamlining the visa process for foreign students last week, a move that comes as the number of foreign scholars in the United States is rising. At Penn, the international-student population jumped by about 800 students last year compared to the year before, said Rodolfo Altamirano, Director of the Office of International Programs, and some foreign students said they welcomed efforts to ease the visa process.

When it comes to senior-level administrations across the nation and at Penn, women may have broken the glass ceiling, but minorities may still have a few punches to go. Across higher education, 45 percent of senior-level administrators are female but only 16 percent are minorities, according to a survey conducted earlier this month by the American Council on Education.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will speak in Irvine Auditorium on Feb. 28 at 11 a.m., the University announced in a press release yesterday. His address will open the "Kerner Plus 40" Symposium, an event sponsored by the Penn Africana Studies Department, Annenberg School for Communication and the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies at North Carolina A&T; State University.

A gunman killed five people and injured 16 before taking his own life during a "suicidal rampage" at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. The shooter, 27-year old Stephen Kazmierczak was a former student of the university who had no prior arrest record.

"Cool. Calm. Chilled." Why does women's basketball coach Pat Knapp describe his team like that despite having lost 14 games in a row? Because Penn (3-17, 0-5 Ivy) is not the only Ivy League team struggling this season, and this weekend is its best chance yet for a win.

For the class of 2012, the University received the largest number of applications in the school's history, the Admissions office announced this week. But the less-than-1-percent rise in the number of total applicants to Penn is significantly less than increases reported by peer institutions.

Next time you watch Meet the Parents, the lie detector test used on Ben Stiller will be out of date - some companies are now replacing the old polygraphs with new imaging techniques. Yesterday Paul Wolpe, chief bioethicist for NASA, senior fellow of the Penn Center for Bioethics and Sociology professor, spoke to students about emerging brain imaging technology and the underlying ethical and legal implications of these innovations.

His brother-in-law may get the notoriety, but Brown coach Craig Robinson fancies himself an agent of change. It started in his own gym, where he morphed Glen Miller's run-and-gun system into the deliberate march of his alma mater. Now, he wants change at the top; no team other than Penn and Princeton has won the Ivy League in the past 20 years.

For Tyler Bernardini, Valentine's Day was heavy on the basketball and light on the roses. "Just working on my jump shot," the freshman guard said when asked if he had plans. "Just trying to 'ball." Of late, Bernardini has been prevented from doing just that.

Future residents of the Radian who plan on escaping all aspects of College House life might be disappointed. In at least one way, the Radian - a 14-story apartment building under construction at 39th and Walnut streets - shares a major resemblance to on-campus living.

The first time Bryan Wolf went out to lunch with his newest lab research assistant, then-College freshman Joshua Cook, he was struck by Cook's discourse about the plant on their table at the White Dog Cafe. "The first impression you got was that he is very driven and very excited about science," said Wolf, Medical School professor and Pathologist-in-Chief at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Cultural centers are already affordable To the Editor: Ms. Steinberg's column last week ("Catching up with culture" 2/5/08) shows that she is oblivious to the realities of student discounts to cultural institutions in the U.S. as well as our basic system of a federal government.

We've all experienced the thrill of finding that perfect class. You know, the one with the 1.38 difficulty rating that fulfills that annoying requirement? It's a great feeling. It also illustrates why the College's curriculum is fatally flawed and needs to be scrapped in favor of a core.

With its members scrambling to stay on the vanguard of financial-aid generosity, the Ivy League may do one of two things. It could keep its current model of need-based aid, or it could - theoretically - form a new one. Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky said the current model will result in a competitive imbalance.