Mack Institute News Archives

Announcing Our Spring 2025 Conference: Productivity in the Age of Intelligent Automation

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Friday, March 21, 2025 The Wharton School, Philadelphia The Mack Institute is pleased to announce our Spring 2025 conference, Productivity in the Age of Intelligent Automation. This one-day event will bring together leading Wharton researchers and expert business practitioners to examine the uncertain question of how artificial intelligence will impact…Read More

Stentix Wins 2025 Y-Prize

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Congratulations to this year’s Y-Prize winners, Stentix! The team proposed a bile duct stent that can be adjusted noninvasively, helping to maintain bile flow without additional surgeries. A biliary stent is a small, tube-like device inserted into the bile ducts to keep them open and allow bile to flow from…Read More

Reimagining Customer Service Journeys with LLMs: A Framework for Chatbot Design and Workflow Integration

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Prof. Christian Terwiesch, Mack Institute co-director, and Lennart Meincke, Mack Institute predoctoral fellow, have co-authored a new working paper on chatbot design and workflow integration, the latest in Prof. Terwiesch's series of papers on practical applications of Generative AI. The paper devises a framework for chatbot implementation based on varying…Read More

2024 Year-End Update

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Dear friends of the Mack Institute, As the year draws to a close and the holiday season approaches, we’re reflecting on one of the busiest and most transformative years in the Mack Institute’s history. In 2024, we broadened our scope, forging new partnerships and launching impactful initiatives across our…Read More

Y-Prize 2024-25 Finalists Announced

Congratulations to the four student teams chosen as finalists for this year’s Y-Prize competition: Serpent, EmBrace, Agentis and Stentix! The Y-Prize competition challenges students to build their entrepreneurial skills by creating business plans for technologies invented at Penn Engineering. The team with the best commercial application wins $10,000 to help make…Read More

AI-Driven Ecosystems

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AI-Driven Innovation Fall 2024 Conference Report Artificial Intelligence has emerged as one of the most transformative technologies of our time, reshaping industries and redefining the competitive landscape. Yet the complexities and costs associated with AI development and deployment, coupled with the uncertainty of value creation, make it clear that no…Read More

Research Spotlight: Lindsey Cameron on Algorithmic Management

In more and more workplaces, important decisions aren’t made by managers but by algorithms which have increasing levels of access to and control over workers. While algorithmic management can boost efficiency and flexibility (as well as enabling a new class of quasi-self-employed workers on platforms like Uber and Instacart), critics…Read More

Announcing Our Fall 2024 Conference: AI-Driven Innovation Ecosystems

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Friday, November 8, 2024 The Wharton School, Philadelphia The Mack Institute is pleased to announce our Fall 2024 conference, AI-Driven Innovation Ecosystems. Bringing together leading Wharton researchers with expert business practitioners, this one-day conference will explore how firms can overcome the risks and high costs of AI development and implementation…Read More

Y-Prize Competition Kicks Off for 2024-25 Academic Year

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The Y-Prize Competition kicked off this week with a well-attended event held in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Now in its thirteenth year, the Y-Prize challenges students to hone their entrepreneurial skills by creating business plans using cutting-edge technology developed at Penn Engineering. The team that comes up with the most promising commercial…Read More

Research Spotlight: David Hsu on Effective Industry-University Collaboration

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Collaboration between industry and academia drives innovation forward, but creating a successful partnership—and measuring its impact—is more challenging than it might appear. We spoke to Wharton’s David Hsu about his new paper, forthcoming in Management Science, on what makes industry-university collaboration successful, the importance of viewing innovation as a long-term…Read More

Mack Institute Senior Fellow Jon DeGaynor Appointed President and CEO of Methode Electronics

Mack Institute Senior Fellow Jon DeGaynor has been appointed president and CEO of Methode Electronics, a leading global supplier of custom solutions for user interface, LED lighting system and power distribution applications. DeGaynor has a 35 year career working at a high level in the automotive and manufacturing industries. He…Read More

Mack Institute Explores AI & Innovation, Corporate Venturing at Wharton Global Forum 2024 in São Paulo

The image depicts the Octávio Frias de Oliveira Bridge in São Paulo at twilight, with illuminated skyscrapers and a colorful sky reflecting in the river below.

This June, Mack Institute leadership traveled to Brazil for Wharton’s 56th Global Forum, which was held in São Paulo for the first time. Hosted annually in a different world city, the two-day business conference brings together Wharton alumni, faculty, and global business leaders for lectures, panel discussions, and networking. This…Read More

The Role of Large Language Models in Educational Simulations

Mack Institute Research Assistant Lennart Meincke and Wharton Associate Professor of Management Andrew Carton have released a new working paper in our series of working papers on ChatGPT spearheaded by Mack Faculty Director Christian Terwiesch. The new paper, entitled “Beyond Multiple Choice: The Role of Large Language Models in Educational…Read More

Collaborative Innovation: Shaping the Future with Corporate Venturing and Startups

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Collaborative Innovation: Shaping the Future with Corporate Venturing and Startups Spring 2024 Conference Report In this era of rapidly evolving, highly disruptive technologies, corporate venturing practices are evolving, too. High-profile partnerships like Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in OpenAI or BMW’s move into the electrification space with ChargePoint underscore the current…Read More

Mack Executive Director Valery Yakubovich and Co-Authors in Wall Street Journal: AI Adoption and the Workforce

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Mack Institute Executive Director Valery Yakubovich and Wharton professors Peter Cappelli and Prasanna Tambe have authored a new article in the Wall Street Journal that discusses current research and predictions on how AI adoption will affect the workforce. Dr. Yakubovich and his co-authors push back on the popular conception of…Read More

Insights From Tech Talks: Bridging Academia and Innovation in Philadelphia’s Tech Hub

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Panelists Steven Nichtberger, Jen Gilburg, John Swartley, and Tempest Carter On April 24, the Mack Institute, together with Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce, presented Tech Talks, a panel discussion with government officials and entrepreneurs on how Penn and Wharton can help solidify the city’s future as a leader in innovation and…Read More

Join Us For Tech Talks: Bridging Academia and Innovation in Philly’s Tech Hub

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Join Us For Tech Talks: Bridging Academia and Innovation in Philly's Tech Hub Wednesday, April 24 | 6:00 p.m. 8th Floor, Jon M. Huntsman Hall 3730 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 Join us at the University of Pennsylvania for an event co-organized by the Mack Institute for Innovation Management and the City of Philadelphia Department of…Read More

Our Collaborative Innovation Program Experience: AI For Software Developers

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During the Fall 2023 semester, Catrina Lim WG’24, Harini Pundi Satyanarayanan WG’24, and Sherry Xue SEAS’25 participated in the Mack Institute’s Collaborative Innovation Program (MGMT 892), a project-based course that brings Wharton students into real companies to help them solve problems and drive innovation strategies. The students were part…Read More

Robotics for Healthcare: Announcing Our Partnership with Penn Dental’s Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry

The image depicts a modern dental clinic with several dental workstations and people in scrubs attending to patients. There are large windows and circular ceiling lights, creating a bright and professional atmosphere.

The Mack Institute and Penn Dental’s Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry (CiPD) kicked off a collaborative research project exploring potential uses of nanorobot technology for oral health care. The interdisciplinary partnership brings together three students from different Penn and Wharton programs to study the commercialization of a new technology…Read More

Increasing AI Idea Variance

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Mack Institute Research Assistant Lennart Meincke, Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick and Mack Institute Co-Director and Wharton Professor Christian Terwiesch have published the next in Terwiesch’s series of working papers on ChatGPT. The new paper evaluates how LLMs can be used for idea generation and explores methods to increase the novelty,…Read More