Administrator

As global temperatures rise, the demand for air conditioning is surging, driving up energy bills and straining power grids. In the United States, air conditioning accounts for nearly one-fifth of all residential electricity use, and cooling systems in commercial buildings consume about one-third of their total energy. To meet this energy need, a team of researchers at Penn State is developing new materials that cool their surroundings when bent or stressed.

Irena Potochny first picked up a needle to sew buttons on felt in preschool, and she hasn’t put down crafts since. Now a student entering her senior year at Penn State, Potochny spends her free time creating upcycled clothing and tackling myriad projects, like 3-D printing her own spinning wheel one weekend this spring semester.

As biomedical challenges grow more complex, Penn State’s Dipanjan Pan is pioneering a multifaceted approach to nanomedicine that spans basic research, clinical translation and entrepreneurial deployment.