2025 November Bi-Monthly Newsletter - 11/17/25

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Announcement for the Month|  Grants, Scholarships, & Fellowships |Events| Career & Networking| Previous Issue

Important Dates:

Date	Event
December 1st	PhD December 2025 graduation application closes
December 8th	Fall 2025 term classes end
December 9 – 10th	Reading Days
December 11th – 18th	Final exams
December 18th	Fall  2025 term ends
December 18th	Degree conferral date

 

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Fall 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.

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Announcements for the month

Needs Assessment & Intake for Students Participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Are you a Penn graduate or undergraduate student actively enrolled full-time in-person at our Philadelphia campus?

Are you also currently participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (i.e., SNAP; food stamps; EBT)?

If you answered “yes” to both questions, Penn is working to deploy additional supports for food security during the potential pause in SNAP benefits due to the federal budget impasse. Completing the assessment here will help shape the implementation of interim resources. It will also enable us to follow up with you to deliver the support most helpful in the current moment.

For students seeking immediate support over the weekend, please refer to this expanded listing from the City of Philadelphia.

EAS 5500 Applying your Thesis to the Real World (for Ph.D. Students)

We wanted to make you aware of a new course that will be taught by Professor Vanessa Chan, who was the former Chief Commercialization Officer at the US Department of Energy and now the inaugural Vice-Dean of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Penn Engineering. Through this course, you will be connected to the industry and learn what it takes for your thesis topic to be translated into the real world. The course will meet on Wednesdays from 1.45-4.45 and be capped at 15 people. The course description is below:

In this course, we will be taking your Ph.D. Thesis and exploring the way in which your research could make an impact in the real world. The course will build the foundation from which a chapter in your thesis can be written that articulates the challenges and opportunities your thesis topic brings to make a difference in society. Each student will also be paired with an external mentor from industry who will be a sounding board on the work that you are doing. The foundation of this class will be based on the Adoption Readiness Level framework developed by the Office of Technology Commercialization to identify non-technical barriers that must be overcome for a technology to be fully deployed in the marketplace. ARLs are a qualitative assessment that helps researchers articulate and explore barriers that would prevent their technology from being adopted in the real world. By putting your Ph.D. Through the ARL framework, you will have a better understanding of what it takes to commercialize technologies.

If you are interested in the course, you must apply through this link by December 1. The prerequisite is that you must have a well-defined thesis topic (which often is when you are in your third year). Application acceptances will be based on the ability to pair you with the right industry mentor and will be processed on a rolling basis.

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Grants, Scholarships & Fellowships

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Events

Behind the CV: A Conversation with Professor Bakirathi Mani

Join us for a thoughtful conversation with Professor Bakirathi Mani, Faculty Director of the Asian American Studies Program and a curator, writer, and scholar whose work bridges literature, art, and community-based storytelling. Professor Mani will share how her interdisciplinary path took shape, tracing moments of curiosity, challenge, and discovery along the way. Whether you’re exploring research, the humanities, or creative scholarship, this discussion offers a candid look at how academic journeys unfold beyond the resume. Open to all students.

Tuesday, November 18th
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
College Hall G 08/9
Click here to register

November Break Student Meal Bags

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student staying on campus during the November break (November 26th to 28th) and interested in receiving a meal bag? Register here!

XFic/Engineering

Want to immerse yourself in a climate change story to be published for course credit? XFic (ENGL 3353.301) will be dedicating a single-topic issue in Spring ‘26 to “The American Lawn Project.” And we’ll be pairing both grad and undergrad writers and makers with faculty across the disciplines. Do you see yourself as a podcast host? A social media editor? Want to explore how such a boring weed became a symbol of the American Dream? Ever wanted to spend a semester taking apart the $190 Bn technology of lawncare? Or go golfing for course credit? Want to unlock the molecular structure of herbicides? Interview a robot lawnmower? Pitch us anything! Give us proof-of-concept for rewilding the American Lawn. Write a lyric essay on the lawn gnome industry. Pitch XFic.

EII and XFic Partnership

XFic Student Interest Form

Munch and Learn with Jordan Katz

Jordan is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Angeles Equity Partners, a specialist industrials private equity firm that seeks to partner with niche manufacturing, critical industrial services, and specialty distribution businesses to realize their full potential. Before founding Angeles Equity Partners in 2014, Jordan worked at The Gores Group and UBS Warburg’s Los Angeles office. Jordan was also a founding member of eVolution Global Partners. He began his career in 1996 at Colony Capital. Jordan received a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Thursday, November 20th
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Greenfield Intercultural Center
Light Food Provided, No registration required

Relax & Restore Decompression Night at Houston Hall

Join the Houston Hall Student Development Team for a night of relaxation, rejuvenation, and decompression before finals and the holiday season begins! Students can enjoy some fun, relaxing gratitude-building activities, social time with friends, music, and tasty treats.

Thursday, November 20th
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Houston Hall Game Room
Click here to register

 

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Career & Networking

Global Research & Internship Program 2026 Applications Now Open

The Global Research & Internship Program offers outstanding undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to intern or conduct research with a variety of organizations and companies abroad for 8 to 12 weeks over the summer.

Program Features and Facts:

• A wide variety of internship placements across many career industries, including business, engineering, sustainable development, healthcare, community development, and more.
• Research placements that offer the opportunity to develop hands-on research skills under leading international researchers and faculty PIs affiliated with a university abroad.
• Generous guaranteed funding awards to help accepted students offset travel and internship-related expenses.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, January 7, 2026, at 12:00 pm (EST)

Click here to apply

Explore Careers in Engineering

Check out Vault Guides to learn more about the various industries within engineering.

Find Resources

Many resources to help you prepare for a career in engineering. Of particular interest should be our industry-specific job boards, as well as various professional organizations.

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