Eight graduating seniors were awarded the 2026 President’s Engagement, Innovation, and Sustainability Prizes, which provide $100,000 in funding for projects designed to make a positive, lasting difference in the world. Each team member also receives a $50,000 living stipend and mentorship from a Penn faculty member. Here are this year’s winning projects:
PRESIDENT’S ENGAGEMENT PRIZES
HAVEN | Chloe Chang C’26, Darlene Leohansson C’26, and Connie Ni C’26 hope to reimagine a family shelter as a site for childhood, creativity, and growth, by designing an in-shelter afterschool program for families experiencing homelessness at Jane Addams Place in North Philadelphia. Mentor: Caroline Watts, senior lecturer and director, Office of School and Community Engagement at the Graduate School of Education.
Shared Vision | Janine Haros C’26, Eric Lee C’26 G’26, and Justin Wang C’26 aim to deliver free eye screenings, care coordination, and patient education directly within Philadelphia’s homeless shelters to holistically empower unhoused individuals. Mentor: Rithambara Ramachandran, assistant professor of ophthalmology in the Perelman School of Medicine.
PRESIDENT’S INNOVATION PRIZE
Serpent Robotics | Margaret Zhu W’26 will develop an electric, rope-climbing robotic system that allows arborists and tree care workers to cut branches and secure their descent to the ground, dramatically reducing injuries while helping to prevent outages and wildfire risks caused by unmanaged tree growth. Mentor: Jeffrey Babin C’85 WG’91, professor of practice and associate director of engineering entrepreneurship in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the engineering faculty director for Venture Lab.
PRESIDENT’S SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE
Fluid Silicon | Nhlanhla Mavuso C’26 EAS’26 GEE’26 will work with modern computers’ core component, silicon, to enhance energy efficiency by allowing reconfigurable chips to monitor how their characteristics change over time and temperature to identify opportunities for adaptive compensation thereby lowering voltage, improving frequency, and further enhancing chip reliability. Mentor: André DeHon, the Oliver C. Boileau Jr. and Nan Eleze Boileau Professor of Electrical Engineering.
