2025 February Graduate Monthly Newsletter
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Announcement for the Month| Grants, Scholarships, & Fellowships | Events | Career & Networking| Previous Issue
Important Dates: 
Date | Event |
February 24th | Last Day to Drop a Course (must withdraw after this date) Last Day to Apply for May Graduation |
March 8th -16th | Spring Break (No Classes) |
March 24th | Summer 2025 registration begins |
March 24th – April 7th | Advance Registration begins for Fall 2025 |
March 31st | Last day to withdraw from a course for Spring term |
Spring 2025 Semester Advising Hours
Day of the week | Time | Location |
Mondays | 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (EST) | Virtual |
Tuesdays | 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm (EST) | In-Person, Towne 109 |
Wednesdays | 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm (EST) | In-Person, Towne 109 |
Thursdays | 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm (EST) | Virtual |
Fridays | No Advising |
* Information with Zoom links for virtual advising days (Monday/Thursday) is emailed to students throughout the semester. If you are unable to attend scheduled advising hours, additional times may be available by appointment only. Please email to request an appointment.
Announcements for the month
Join SEAS Ph.D. Students Slack Channel
We’re excited to invite you to join the dedicated Ph.D. Slack channel! It’s a space for all Ph.D. students to connect, collaborate, and support each other. To join, simply click the link to the Slack channel and sign up.
Strategies for Success in Graduate Studies
Check out the great resources offered by the Grad Center and Weingarten Center! There are many workshops to discuss the strategies for success in Graduate studies. Learn more and register!
Paid Research Study Participation for the Human Motion Laboratory in the Penn Department of Orthopaedics
The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is Conducting a Research Study on Achilles Tendon Pain between Jan 13, 2025 – Jun 30, 2025. This study involves 2 visits (spaced 3 months apart) to the Human Motion Lab, which will include ultrasound imaging, strength and pain tests, motion analysis, and wearable sensors. Each session will take approximately 1-2 hours to complete. In addition, you will be asked to wear take-home sensors which you will wear in your shoes for 24 hours and a wristwatch sensor that you will wear for the time between visits 3 months).
You will be compensated $50 for each lab assessment, plus $12 travel credit for each time you visit the lab. Additionally, you will be compensated $50 after returning the shoe sensor and $150 after returning the wristwatch sensors. Click here to sign up for the research interest form. For more information visit this link.
WiN FOX – Research Study (for TV Program)
Take part in Wharton market research study. During the study, we will measure your eye movement using glasses and brain activity using a noninvasive EEG headband (no gel) while you watch advertisements and shows on a TV. The experiment will take approximately 40 minutes. You will be compensated $50 via a ClinCard (virtual mobile card) within the day. Please select ONE available time slot in our Calendly scheduler that works for you and add your name. Be sure to mark your chosen time on your calendar. If you need to reschedule or cancel, kindly do so at least 24 hours in advance. Note: No-shows will make you ineligible for future studies.
February 5th to February 28th
Location: 3700 Hamilton Walk, Richards Lab, Room A401 (4th floor).
Reserve your spot through https://calendly.com/whartonneuro/tvprogram
Grants, Scholarships & Fellowships
Identifying Funding Opportunities – Pivot Information Session
The OVPR is now providing a powerful new resource to help researchers identify funding opportunities. PIVOT-RP is a funding opportunity database that easily allows researchers to customize their search for funding based on discipline, career stage, interest, location, and other categories. This information session will walk the Penn research community through how to access and search the database and leverage additional tools like customizing automatic notifications for relevant funding opportunities.
Thursday, March 6th
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm (Virtual)
Click here to register
Funded Research Opportunities for Faculty and Students
Interested in getting to know more funded Research opportunities? The Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships connects faculty and students in support of these transformative experiences through three signature funding opportunities for undergraduates:
Jumpstart for Juniors Program
Provides funding to both a student and a faculty mentor for a research project in the summer between a student’s third and fourth years
Applications due Monday, March 17, 2025
While these programs require the involvement of a standing faculty member, we welcome proposals from collaborative teams that include non-standing faculty.
Questions about any of these programs can be addressed to Ann Vernon-Grey in the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
University Research Foundation Award
The University Research Foundation (URF) is an intramural funding program that provides up to $75,000 for research projects and up to $5,000 for conference support. The URF provides seed funding for up to one year for research activities that are expected to lead to external sponsorship and/or peer-reviewed research publications. Conference support grants are faculty-developed events that take place on Penn’s campus.
During Fall 2024, the OVPR reviewed 83 applications (over $4.2 million in requests) from across campus. Four review panels consisting of 33 faculty reviewers assessed proposals in four categories: Humanities, Social Sciences and Management, Natural Sciences and Engineering, and Biomedical Sciences. A total of 56 new projects were recommended for funding, totaling $2,595,003.
The next cycle for the Fall 2025 URF program will open in late August, with a proposal deadline of October 9, 2025.
2025 Call for proposals-PPA Research Support
As part of its commitment to a carbon-neutral campus by 2042, the University of Pennsylvania entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with energy company AES to develop solar arrays that would generate enough energy to fulfill 70% of the campus and health system electricity needs. Under the PPA, AES is generously supporting related educational efforts at Penn through the PPA Renewable Energy Research Program run by the Environmental Innovations Initiative.
Now through March 15, 2025, we are accepting proposals for grant support for education and/or training associated with the technical, operational, and economic aspects of renewable energy and energy storage. Funded projects may include research directly related to the AES solar energy project or projects and activities focused more broadly on education and training related to renewable energy in all its aspects.
For more information and to submit a proposal, visit here
PARCC Announces Partnerships with AHEAD, NVIDIA and more
Penn Advanced Research Computing Center (PARCC) has reached a major milestone toward opening its high-performance computing cluster. PARCC is pleased to announce contracts with AHEAD to build an NVIDIA SuperPod backed by VAST Data Storage and powered by NVIDIA Blackwell. The cluster will be hosted by Flexential, offering an integrated on-campus research computing experience. Further updates on PARCC can be viewed on the OVPR website.
Events
The Harold Berger Distinguished Award Lecture
The Harold Berger Distinguished Lecture and Award, named in honor of the Honorable Harold Berger, is awarded biennially by the School of Engineering and Applied Science to a technological innovator who has made a lasting contribution to the quality of our lives. Special emphasis is given to the societal and economic significance of an advance.
Wednesday, March 19th
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm, with a reception to follow
Wu &Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall
Learn more about the Berger Lecture here
Sign-ups for Spring PhD and PostDoc Quantum Seminar Series
The Penn Center for Quantum Information, Engineering, Science, and Technology (QUIEST) Center has an exciting Spring semester lined up, including new dates to share for our upcoming PhD and Post Doc Quantum Seminar Series!
The Spring Quantum Seminars will take place biweekly on Tuesdays from 12-1 pm (skipping the week of Spring break) and will all be held in Singh 313. Lunch will be provided at all seminars.
If you are interested in signing up to present or lead a discussion for one of these slots, you can follow this link to indicate your availability and share your presentation information. As a reminder, these seminars are informal, so presentations do not need to be polished and can be about ongoing or published research, whether it be your own or others’.
Biweekly on Tuesdays, starting on January 28th
12:00 pm -1:00 pm
Singh 313
Click here to register
Career & Networking
Health Tech Industry Days
Join us for this spring’s Penn Engineering Industry Days, featuring Health Tech! Health Tech Industry Days will highlight various sub-industries, including medical devices, digital health, pharmaceuticals, and biotech. Stay tuned for more information on events, participating employers, and student registration. Event information will be published in Handshake in February.
Lunch & Learn: Making the most of career fairs as a Grad student
Penn Career Services organizes several career fairs each semester, and partners with other institutions for several other consortium career fairs (virtual and in-person). All of these events are open to graduate students, and many employers participate in order to connect with graduate-level candidates. Take advantage of these events to explore different career options, practice your networking with recruiters and alumni, and position yourself for your next internship or job opportunity. Join an advisor from Penn Career Services at this Lunch and Learn to get some quick best practices to help you make the most of the next career fair you attend. Upcoming career fairs include:
DESIGN CAREER FAIR (in-person) Thursday, February 6, 2025
DESIGN CAREER FAIR (virtual) Wednesday, February 12, 2025
STEM CAREER FAIR 2025 (in person) Thursday, February 13, 2025
SPRING ALL INDUSTRY VIRTUAL CAREER FAIR Thursday, February 20, 2025
ALL-IVY ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CAREER FAIR (in-person) Friday, February 28, 2024
GRADUATE CAREER CONSORTIUM PHD & MASTER’S VIRTUAL CAREER EXPO Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Van Pelt Library | 3420 Walnut St | 2nd Floor, Class of 1955 Conference Room 241
Click here to register
STEAM Career Fair
Career Services is available to discuss concerns regarding career planning, job hunting, resume review, and hosting mock interviews. Get to know your Engineering Master’s Career Advising Team and the Doctoral Career Advising Team.
By attending the University of Pennsylvania‘s STEM CAREER FAIR, you will enjoy the opportunity to recruit highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and recent alumni for internship and full-time employment – while also building and expanding your brand on campus and seeding your talent pipeline. This event typically draws candidates of all academic levels from our interdisciplinary and practice-oriented School of Engineering & Applied Science as well as from our many other NSF-classified STEM disciplines across Penn’s twelve schools. This includes undergrad students from the First Ivy League Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Artificial Intelligence.
Thursday, February 13th,2025
11:00 am -3:00 pm
Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Click here to register
Instructors for FIFE Academy
Are you interested in being an instructor for FIFE Academy? Fife-Penn CS Academy Coding Club for Girls and Boys Coding Clubs are FREE after-school programs for boys and girls in grades K through 8 where students learn how to code and join a group of supportive peers and role models. The club is led by computer science students from Penn Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.
Click here to learn more.