Bioengineering
When it comes to outreach, Bioengineering students are among the most active in the School. Our students take advantage of Penn Engineering’s many programs to serve, from providing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach activities at the University and in Philadelphia-area schools, to serving the needs of communities abroad using their technological and engineering knowledge.
Explore Penn Engineering Student Engagement
Service Learning is a unique form of outreach, in which the individual performing the service engages not only in the act of service, but also in applying knowledge gained in the classroom in a hands-on way. Through Penn’s local service programs, students have the opportunity to engage with Philadelphia and the surrounding communities.
Penn GEMS is a week-long day camp targeting middle school students in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade that focuses on bioengineering, nanotechnology, materials science, graphics and computing. The Penn GEMS Summer Camp is dedicated to providing hands-on activities to engage middle school students in applied science, technology and engineering.
The Engineering Summer Academy at Penn (ESAP) is a highly selective program that gives high school students the opportunity to earn college credit, live on Penn’s historic campus, and connect with new friends from around the world. The Academy’s intensive, three-week programs combine sophisticated theory with hands-on practical experience in cutting-edge technologies. Members of the Penn community are encouraged to assist and provide mentorship to these highly motivated and talented students as they explore Engineering at the college level.
Access Engineering is an organization that seeks to demonstrate to Philadelphia high school students what engineering is about: a thought process and an option for a future career. Access Engineering offers a weekly lab based course that acquaints students to the various majors within engineering, a programming course, and workshops that span varied topics, such as entrepreneurship or Arduino programming.
TechCore2 is a student-led organization that offers current industry technology training opportunities in an agile and relevant format to enable students as young as kindergarten to get on a path of future STEM success and provide the training and support to span elementary, middle school, high school and post high school pursuits.
Penn Engineering’s global service learning program aims to improve human lives through sustainable engineering in all corners of the world. Students have used their engineering skills to provide sanitation infrastructure, prosthetic devices, computing support and meet other critical needs in areas around the world.
The Global Education and Research Alliance (GERA) aims to support communities in Ecuador and Guatemala in building resilience against climate change, protecting biodiversity, and promoting the health of humans and non-humans alike. GERA is a partnership among members of these communities and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, and Rutgers University.
Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life through sustainable projects. We work to enable sustainable development, both through awareness locally and implementation globally. Our vision is a world in which the communities we serve have the capacity to sustainably meet their basic human needs, and that our members have enriched global perspectives through the innovative professional educational opportunities that the EWB-USA program provides.
The Global Biomedical Service program (GBS) seeks to provide students with the opportunity to have hands on technical and cultural experience abroad. The program consists of an 8-week preparatory courses and a 16-day trip to the on-site location where students apply their technical knowledge to a clinical environment. Cooperating with Hong Kong Polytechnic University, GBS gives students the chance to apply technical skills to make a real impact. In 2019, GBS travelled to Yangjiang, China to make orthotics for children suffering from Cerebral Palsy.
Combine intensive semester-long study with a short term travel component to deepen your understanding of concepts discussed in the classroom through a Penn Global Seminar.
Led by Penn Engineering professors Camillo Jose Taylor and Michelle J. Johnson, the “Robotics and Rehabilitation” global seminar traveled to Jamaica to collaborate with local university students on creating impactful robotic technologies. The course tasked students with designing cost-effective devices to benefit both human health and the island’s unique ecosystems. To protect local wildlife and combat overfishing, student teams engineered environmental monitoring tools including a modular, water-resistant drone and a smart buoy that alerts fishermen near restricted zones. Other teams focused on physical rehabilitation by creating budget-friendly devices like the “GaitMate” and “Walk Master 3000” to help stroke and accident patients safely regain mobility. Ultimately, the immersive, hands-on trip provided students from both countries a rewarding opportunity to see their classroom knowledge immediately transform into real-world solutions.
