Mack Institute News Archives

Announcing our Fall 2026 Conference: AI for the Experience Economy

Silhouettes of a crowd with raised hands at a concert or event.

Announcing our Fall 2026 Conference: AI for the Experience Economy Friday, November 13, 2026 Jon M. Huntsman Hall 3730 Walnut Street The Wharton School, Philadelphia REGISTER How is AI transforming the way people experience sports, entertainment, hospitality, and cities themselves? Our Fall 2026 Conference, AI for the Experience Economy: Philadelphia…Read More

From Student Competition to FDA Clinical Trial: Y-Prize Winner Avisi Technologies Returns to Penn for its Next Chapter

When team Avisi recently stepped into an operating room at Penn, the setting was familiar. Years earlier, founder and CEO Rui Jing Jiang W’18 and her fellow student founders had stood in rooms like it to observe glaucoma surgeries while designing a new device to treat the degenerative eye disease.…Read More

Y-Prize Competition Kicks Off for 2026-27 Academic Year

A group of students seated in a classroom setting, some with laptops open, appearing attentive and engaged.

The Y-Prize Competition kicked off this week with a well-attended event held in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Now in its fifteenth 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 application wins up to $15,000 to bring their idea to life.…Read More

New Research: Decision Levers for Energy Executives

The U.S. electricity industry is facing a convergence of pressures unlike anything in its modern history. Since 2020, consumption has risen at 1.7% per year—nearly 17 times the prior decade’s rate—driven by data centers, electrification, and AI infrastructure. Equipment like transformers and turbines that once took months to procure now…Read More

Watch: AI Data Centers: Separating Fact from Fiction

As companies race to build the next generation of AI, data centers have become the focus of heated debates over electricity demand, water use, and economic impact. But how much of what we’re hearing is guesswork, and what still needs to be understood? Learn more in this webinar.…Read More

What Wharton MBAs Can Teach Penn Scientists

Person in a pink shirt using a microscope in a laboratory setting.

Every year, university researchers make discoveries that could change the way we treat disease, power our communities, or improve the technologies we rely on every day. But promising discoveries don’t always make it out of the lab. A researcher may have years of validated data behind an invention and still have no…Read More

Join Us For A Webinar on AI Data Centers

Rows of tall, illuminated server racks in a data center, creating a futuristic and technological atmosphere.

MACK INSTITUTE WEBINAR AI Data Centers: Separating Fact from Fiction Wednesday, August 5 | 12:00 PM ET As companies race to build the next generation of AI, data centers have become the focus of heated debates over electricity demand, water use, and economic impact. But how much of what we're…Read More

Research Spotlight: Lennart Meincke on Preserving Your Agency in the Age of AI

Lennart Meincke, Senior Applied Scientist at the Mack Institute and Wharton Generative AI Labs (GAIL), followed an unusual path to his current role. A software engineer in his native Germany, he originally came to Penn to study in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, where he took classes in…Read More

Collaborative Innovation Program Spotlight: Agentic AI for Supply Chain Strategy

For Hasan Pasha WEMBA’26, the Mack Institute’s Collaborative Innovation Program (CIP) offered a chance to apply classroom ideas to a real business challenge. The experiential learning course pairs Wharton students with corporate partners to tackle complex problems and develop innovation strategies. Pasha entered Wharton after more than two decades working across consulting, hardware product design,…Read More

Innovation in Sports Fan Engagement

Baseball player in striped uniform holding a bat, ready to swing, with a large stadium in the background. The image has a blue overlay.

Innovation in Sports Fan Engagement Spring 2026 Conference Report Digital transformation has expanded the ways fans engage with sports, creating new opportunities for personalization, global reach, and interactive experiences. At the same time, it has introduced fragmentation. Fans now follow teams and leagues across multiple platforms and streaming services, often…Read More

Research Spotlight: Hamsa Bastani and Angel Tsai-Hsuan Chung On More Effective Classroom AI

Headshots of two people, one with long dark hair wearing a dark jacket and blue top, and the other with long dark hair wearing a dark blouse.

For many students, asking ChatGPT for homework help has replaced raising a hand in class or going to office hours. As AI becomes a default classroom tutor, educators are grappling with a new question: how do you design these tools so they actually support learning? A new paper from Angel Tsai-Hsuan Chung (Wharton, PhD…Read More

Four Lessons from Joseph Wharton on his 200th Birthday

A celebratory poster marking Joseph Wharton's 200th birthday, featuring festive graphics and an image of Joseph Wharton wearing a party hat.

Happy Birthday, Joseph Wharton! 🎉 This Tuesday, March 3, marks the 200th birthday of the industrialist and philanthropist who gave his name to this institution. In honor of our namesake hitting his bicentennial year, we’re sharing four lessons that innovators can learn from Joseph Wharton’s story. 1) Bet early on…Read More

Tech Talks: How Pilots Can Drive Business and Innovation

Person speaking at a podium in a lecture hall or conference room, dressed in a rust blazer and teal dress. A monitor and hand sanitizer are visible.

On February 18, the Mack Institute partnered with the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce to host the latest installment of Tech Talks, a series designed to convene the region’s founder community around topics in innovation. Held on Wharton’s campus, From Promise to Pilot: How Pilots Can Drive Business…Read More

CarboWells Wins 2026 Y-Prize

Photo by Lamont Abrams for Penn Engineering Congratulations to this year’s Y-Prize winners, CarboWells! The team proposed a 3D-printed concrete well plug that captures carbon and is designed to reduce failure rates in abandoned oil and gas wells. There are an estimated 2 million abandoned wells across the United States,…Read More

New White Paper: Can AI Manage an Entire Medical Decision Process?

Stethoscope resting on a laptop keyboard with a person writing in the background, representing healthcare and digital technology integration.

Artificial intelligence has already proven it can perform specific medical tasks, such as interpreting X-rays or flagging risks in patient data. But caring for patients is not a series of isolated decisions. It is a dynamic process that unfolds over time, requiring clinicians to interpret signals from multiple sources and…Read More

Digital Twins 2.0: Making the Invisible Visible

Futuristic digital illustration of two human profiles, facing each other, composed of glowing lines and dots, symbolizing artificial intelligence and connectivity.

Digital Twins 2.0: Making the Invisible Visible Fall 2025 Conference Report Digital twins are moving rapidly from niche technology to a central tool for business innovation. From factory floors and operating rooms to autonomous vehicles and global enterprises, the technology is shifting from experimental pilots to scalable, revenue-generating systems. The…Read More

Y-Prize 2025-26 Finalists Announced

Congratulations to the four student teams chosen as finalists for this year’s Y-Prize competition: Aeronyx, Carbo Wells, Haven and Lattica! 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 $15,000 to help…Read More

Insights from Prof. Tyler Wry: Creating Value Beyond the Bottom Line

On Tuesday, November 19, the Mack Institute co-hosted, along with Pennovation Works and the Penn Center for Innovation, the semester’s first installment of the Entrepreneurship Speaker Series featuring Wharton Professor Tyler Wry. His presentation, “Brace for Impact: Value Creation Beyond the Bottom Line,” explored how businesses can pursue a “hybrid…Read More

Designers, Dentists, and MBAs: Building a New Model for University Innovation

Many of today’s most transformative technologies have their origins in university research, from life-saving drugs and medical devices to advanced building materials. When these discoveries succeed in the marketplace, they not only improve lives but also become an important source of revenue for universities. But the path from lab to…Read More

Disrupting the Life Sciences Commercial Model: Exploring the Future Impact of AI and Patient-Centric Healthcare

A small group of people are smiling and chatting at a round table in a conference or meeting setting. There are papers, drinks, and name tags visible.

On Friday, September 26, the Mack Institute, in partnership with EVERSANA, AWS and Modus Create, hosted Disrupting the Life Sciences Commercial Model: Exploring the Future Impact of AI and Patient-Centric Healthcare. This intimate event brought together senior executives from pharma and medtech with Wharton and Penn faculty to explore how AI,…Read More