Centering joy in AI development and implementation

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Much of the research on artificial intelligence and human emotion focuses on potential negative implications and emotional states such as depression, with less focus on joy, gratitude, and connection. But Penn Integrates Knowledge professor Desmond Upton Patton says he and collaborators envision a future where people’s experiences—from social media to banking—are shaped by systems that seek to amplify joy.

“Current tech business models focus primarily on engagement without regard for whether such engagement stems from joy or distress, anger, and frustration,” they write in a new paper published in The Paris Journal on AI & Digital Ethics.

In the paper, the researchers present a framework for instead considering how to incorporate joy in the design and deployment of AI models. They are specifically focused on empowering marginalized communities, who experience greater bias from large language models. The goal of the framework is to assist engineers, designers, and researchers in developing AI models that promote more nuanced, compassionate AI interactions.

“We define joy as both an emotion and a tool for liberation, freedom-building, and reimagining possibility,” says Patton, who has primary appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and School of Social Policy and Practice. “A joy-centered approach to AI challenges researchers and engineers to design models that recognize human strengths, elevate resilience, and foster thriving digital environments.”

In a study that informed the creation of the framework, researchers recruited New York City university students and Black Harlem residents to use Integrating Emotional Stories Online, a social media platform developed by computer scientists, linguists, and social work researchers to examine how people express grief and distress online.

Prompted to share their emotions and events that triggered them, the 125 users shared 949 posts from February to December 2022. The most striking theme the researchers identified was joy, with users writing about hope, gratitude, love, ease, and spirituality as coping mechanisms.

“People experiencing loss still recognize, seek, and value moments of joy,” Patton says. “That insight pushed us to consider how AI could intentionally optimize for joy, especially in a world where trauma, grief, and pain are part of everyday life.”

Their framework lays out how joy could be centered in team creation, conception, design and updates, and deployment of AI models. For example, they say that teams creating AI models should include not only engineers and computational modelers but also social scientists such as sociologists, anthropologists, and linguists.

Read more about Upton’s research at Penn Today.

The Beauty of the Brain

Monday, November 24, 2025

Chidinma Esielem (’27), a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, investigated possible links between sleep disturbances and brain pathologies indicative of Alzheimer’s disease with mentorship from Dr. Shinjae Chung (Department of Neuroscience). This research was supported by the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program.

This summer I used a mouse model to study the accumulation of amyloid beta plaques, a key pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, in specific areas of the brain. In particular, I investigated connections between those brain regions and their role in sleep function by exploring possible links between amyloid beta deposition and observed sleep disturbances.

Since coming to Penn, I have started to really appreciate my brain. By the time I finished organic chemistry, I was astounded by my brain’s ability to process information. I was fortunate to work in Dr. Chung’s lab and explore my fascination with the brain. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have the opportunity to be a part of research to find a cure for something like Alzheimer’s disease. My experience over the summer gave me the greatest blessing—to learn about the things that I love and contribute to changing the world for the better.

Throughout my ten weeks in the lab, I picked up a myriad of technical skills. I learned how to section mouse brains, stain slides, and score behavioral tests conducted on mice. Having finished analyzing my data, I now realize how important every step of the research process is. Any skill I thought was insignificant turned out to have a large impact on my results.

Initially, the biggest challenge for me was adjusting to the 9-to-5 lifestyle as I had never had a “real” job before. However, I realized that waking up early and working for 8 hours wasn’t especially difficult, because I already did these things for school. What truly was daunting was coming to the lab everyday with an expectation that I would need to pivot. Sometimes our results were too ambiguous to accurately interpret, or they were the complete opposite of what we initially expected. These outcomes were difficult for my brain to accept. The research process is so much different from my classroom experiences where I attend a lecture, learn a concept, and then take an exam to demonstrate my understanding. Sometimes, conducting research can make you feel foolish. The process of studying the unknown, tackling a subject such as the brain, is riddled with failure. However, I learned that failure is normal, even encouraged, and that when it happens, you just need to try another approach. These challenges have shown me that research tests how much you really care. As it turns out, I care a lot.

Read more about student research at PennCURF.

Penn fourth-year Florence Onyiuke named a 2026 Rhodes Scholar

Sunday, November 16, 2025

University of Pennsylvania fourth-year Florence Onyiuke, from Altamonte Springs, Florida, has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford in England.

The Rhodes, established in 1902, is highly competitive and one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world. The scholarship funds tuition and a living stipend for two or three years of graduate study at Oxford and may allow funding in some instances for four years. At Oxford, Onyiuke plans to pursue a master’s degree in economic development with a focus on West Africa.

Onyiuke is pursuing an international relations and business degree in the Huntsman Program, a dual degree program in the Wharton School and the School of Arts & Sciences, as well as a minor in Spanish. Onyiuke’s interests include international economic development, international law, and immigration. Her senior thesis, based on research she conducted in Spain during a Penn Abroad semester last spring, explores the informal economy and socioeconomic mobility of West African street vendors in Barcelona. Onyiuke was a Frederick Douglass Global Fellow, a three-year Perry World House Student Fellow, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board, and executive director of Black Wharton Consulting. She is also a Coca Cola Scholar, Ron Brown Scholar, and recipient of the Presidential Service and Educational Excellence Awards.

According to the Rhodes Trust, about 100 Rhodes Scholars will be selected worldwide this year. Onyiuke is among the 32 American Rhodes Scholars chosen to represent the United States. According to the Rhodes Trust, this year nearly 2,800 American students began the application process; 965 were endorsed by 264 different colleges and universities; and 238 applicants reached the final stage of the competition.

Onyiuke applied for the Rhodes Scholarship with assistance from Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

In Photos: Philadelphia commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Million Man March

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

30 years ago, the Million Man March gathered over 400,000 Black men at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to unite against social inequality and promote Black unity. The event highlighted the importance of community, bringing together people from all around the D.C. area, including Penn community members. 1998 Wharton graduate Brandale Randolph, W.E.B. Du Bois College House desk receptionist Stephanie Robinson, and 1998 Engineering graduate Anthony Crawford are just a few Penn affiliates who attended the march.

While the initial march garnered much political and social awareness, many found its impact on the structural issues lacking. Former Daily Pennsylvanian columnist and 2005 graduate from the Graduate School of Education Vinay Harpalani praised the message of the Million Man March but commented on the lack of a systemic call to action.

On Oct. 26, Philly Truce, an organization focused on empowering Black men to contend with systemic inequities and promoting community safety, concluded their week-long commemoration of the Million Man March’s 30th anniversary with a 5k march. The crowd of around 1,500 ended in LOVE Park to listen to a lineup of speakers advocating for the Black Philadelphian community.

Read more from Ebunoluwa Adesida‘s coverage of the march at the DP here.

‘Capstone of my career’: Penn professor Dorothy Roberts wins 2025 Bioethics Founders’ Award

Monday, October 27, 2025

Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor Dorothy Roberts has been named the 2025 recipient of the Bioethics Founders’ Award by The Hastings Center for Bioethics.

Roberts is the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society and maintains appointments at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the School of Arts and Sciences. She was presented with the award on Oct. 23 at the annual conference of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities in Portland, Ore.

“This [award] … is a capstone of my career in bioethics and social justice,” Roberts said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I’m retiring in June 2027, so it’s very gratifying to have this recognition at the end of my academic career.”

The ASBH extended the award to Roberts in recognition of her contributions to bioethics and the impact of her research on life sciences, medicine, and policymaking.

“This particular award is very meaningful to me, because The Hastings Center is one of the premier bioethics centers in the United States … that has always been on the cutting edge of pushing the boundaries of bioethics,” Roberts added. “Receiving the award represents how far bioethics has come in recognizing the essential importance of social justice and equality.”

The 2025 Bioethics Founders’ Award was also presented to John Harris, a professor emeritus at the University of Manchester. Harris is also the founding director of the International Association of Bioethics, a network that allows bioethicists from around the world to share their knowledge and resources with each other. The Hastings Center unanimously recommended Roberts and Harris as the recipients of the award.

Roberts recalled how the ceremony’s audience consisted of “so many younger bioethicists … who [she encouraged] along the way.” She described hearing their applause as a “gratifying honor.”

Since 2011, Roberts has served as a fellow at The Hastings Center, where she has “learned a lot” from other fellows and discussed “very important issues,” including eugenics and genetic technologies.

Roberts also serves as the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights. Her research focuses on a variety of public policy issues, such as social justice, reproductive health, child welfare, and bioethics.

Her most recent book, titled “Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World,” explored systemic racial biases within the child welfare system. Roberts also called for the abolition of the current welfare system which, she argued, has punished Black families.

Students test one way to combat extreme heat in Philadelphia

Monday, September 29, 2025

Third-year students Nafisa Bangura (left) and Angelica Dadda (right) are part of an undergraduate-led research team exploring the efficacy of CoolSeal, a pavement coating designed to reduce surface and air temperatures in urban areas exposed to extreme heat. Over the summer, the duo expanded this work by participating in a Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program project.

In fall 2024, a team of undergraduates in the Composto Soft Matter Laboratory (Composto Lab) launched a cross-disciplinary project testing the efficacy of a pavement coating designed to reduce surface temperatures in neighborhoods affected by extreme heat. Nafisa Bangura and Angelica Dadda, both third-years in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), took the lead this summer as part of the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM).

The CoolSeal project—kickstarted by a grant from Penn’s Environmental Innovation Initiative to Russell Composto, professor of materials science and engineering in SEAS and Penn’s vice provost for undergraduate education, and Kristin Field, director of education at The Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture—involves collaborators from SEAS, the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability, and the Weitzman School of Design. Pioneered by third-year Julia Chiang and fourth-year Colby Snyder, this project to help address urban heating aligns with Penn’s strategic framework In Principle and Practice by promoting multidisciplinary pursuits, supporting local communities, and leading on pivotal climate-related challenges.

“This is a great opportunity to connect our students to a real-world problem around urban heat mitigation—and it’s also cool science,” says Composto, who served as PURM faculty mentor for the CoolSeal project.

PURM, administered by the Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships, provides students finishing their first or second year at Penn with a 10-week summer research experience under the mentorship of a faculty member. Bangura and Dadda, along with fellow third-year and PURM participant Dylan York, spent the summer examining the performance of CoolSeal by GuardTop at Hunting Park, a neighborhood in North Philadelphia exposed to excessive heat.

Evaluating CoolSeal for heat mitigation

Over three site visits, the trio collected data on surface and air temperatures—as well as supplementary measurements of wind and humidity—in relation to CoolSeal-treated and untreated asphalt. Zhan Shi, a graduate student at the Thermal Architecture Lab, led by assistant professor of architecture Dorit Aviv, mentored the undergraduate students throughout the summer, and helped them with measurement protocol and data collection to ensure scientific rigor and integrity. During each visit, the students recorded data between 9-10 a.m., noon-1 p.m., and 4-5 p.m. The PURM team found that CoolSeal lowers the surface temperatures of asphalt in Hunting Park.

“Throughout the summer, we observed a difference between CoolSeal and [uncoated] asphalt of about 9.2 degrees Fahrenheit,” says Bangura, a materials science and engineering (MSE) major in SEAS from Lawrenceville, Georgia. This finding verifies a similar CoolSeal study at Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, and other schools, but was the first demonstration of CoolSeal’s effectiveness in a humid climate.

Researching cultural heritage at the Penn Museum

Friday, July 18, 2025

Surrounded by many cultures and languages growing up in a multi-ethnic family in New York City, rising third-year Sierra Williams decided to major in cultural and linguistic anthropology, aiming for a career in the museum field.

That keen interest led her to the Penn Museum, where she is now an intern with the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, working on a research study about collecting practices and policies.

“This opportunity is a great learning experience, to get hands-on professional experience in a museum, especially because that’s something I really want to pursue,” Williams says. “But I think it also will help my studies at Penn, understanding the language that is used in museum work and in anthropology and learning about processes and communications.”

Williams is also studying linguistics, cognitive science, and East Asian languages and civilizations with a concentration in Japanese East Asian studies in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Kayla Kane, research coordinator at the Cultural Heritage Center, is her internship supervisor. “This is an interdisciplinary research project that requires a type of student researcher who understands how cultural institutions operate but who also can handle tabular data in a detailed and granular way,” Kane says. “Sierra’s background in both anthropology and social sciences makes her the perfect person to be helping us with our data collection activities.”

The project studies the policies and practices guiding collecting activities—from acquiring new objects to returning them to countries of origin—at museums in the United States, Kane says, “because many museum professionals want to understand how peer institutions are navigating their legal, ethical, and professional obligations as stewards of cultural heritage. We are obtaining qualitative data through a variety of methods to share with the museum field and its supporters. Sierra’s interdisciplinary perspective and her attention to detail in navigating a variety of data points have been really valuable.”

Summer internship opportunity

The 10-week internship is through the Summer Humanities Internship Program (SHIP), which provides a $5,500 award supported by the College and administered through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Williams and 14 other interns at the Museum this summer have been visiting other museums in Philadelphia. “That’s been really cool to talk with people who actually work in museums and learn the ins-and-outs behind the scenes,” says Williams.

The Penn Cultural Heritage Center received a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to launch the Museum Missions and Acquisitions (M2A) Project, a three-year national study on collecting practices and policies across American museums.

During the first year of the M2A Project, Penn researchers gathered about 40 data points each from the websites of about 500 U.S. museums related to policies on the acquisition and deaccession of objects. Williams has been reviewing the research undertaken to date, making sure the data is recorded in a consistent way that can be analyzed. “My main job is to clean up that data and make sure it’s all formatted correctly,” she says. “And if there’s any more research that needs to be done, I’ll find what’s been missing.”

The data will inform the questions that are asked in a field-wide survey in the project’s next stage, Kane says. “I expected this to take her the whole summer, but she’s accomplished it in about a month.”

Now Williams is starting a second assignment with the Center as the first person to work on developing a new data set of objects repatriated from American museums to other countries, using news articles. “It’s a novel data set for anyone, and I think it’s a particularly exciting one to work on as an undergraduate in the field,” Kane says.

The M2A Project’s research Williams is conducting this summer is “a good training opportunity for a number of different museum careers,” Kane says. “Understanding how to legally and ethically acquire and manage cultural property in museums will be necessary for all museum leaders and collections professionals in the future.”

Oral History Project Seeks Black Voices from the Delaware River Waterfront

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

The stories that go unheard the longest often resonate the loudest when they are finally heard. This sentiment is the core driver of Independence Seaport Museum’s (ISM) new oral history project, Breaking Uncommon Ground on the Delaware River. The initiative is an extension of the museum’s ongoing exhibition, Tides of Freedom: The African Presence on the Delaware River. The neew oral history project will focus exclusively on three distinct groups of people: Black people who worked in labor unions along the Delaware River, Black women who did work connected to the Delaware River, and anyone who lost their home or business to demolition when I-95 was built along the waterfront. The organizers of the new project are hoping that people on both sides of the Delaware River will contribute their personal stories from now until May 2026 for a prospective launch in the fall of 2026.

Unlike Tides of Freedom, which has a broader scale and focuses on Philadelphia’s role in the slave trade, Revolutionary War era, Civil Rights movement, and the turn of the 20th century, Breaking Common Ground zeroes in on events that transpired from the 1950s to 2015 with local, generational stories centered on the Delaware River.

According to Peter Selbert, ISM’s president and CEO, the new project is “not only central to the Seaport Museum’s core purpose, but personally important to me and the staff.” These stories are part of a bigger effort to tie into the people and events that have shaped the waterfront and will create not only personal connections, but a time capsule that future Philadelphians can draw upon, learn about, and hopefully add onto at a later date. This is exemplified by the staff of Paul Best, the project’s director, which includes three local high school students and two students from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania who have assisted with the data collection and canvassing for the project.

Best, a transplant from Gary, Indiana, who also serves as a museum educator at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and is the founder of the storytelling troupe Black Boys Makin’ Noise, explained that his grandfather was the first certified Black electrician in Philadelphia. This is what prompted his interest in the new project. By offering an opportunity for “learning the everyday Black history that we kind of overlook whether it is not being shared or covered,” Best hopes to get people interested in not only sharing their own stories, but engaging with the physical exhibit or through the audio/visual part of the project that will be made available on ISM’s YouTube channel and at the J. Welles Henderson Research Center.

Thus far, the most difficult part of the project has been finding stories related to the construction of I-95, which took place between 1959 and 1985. Best revealed that this difficulty is due to people who were personally affected either passing away or not wanting to dredge up memories they would rather forget. Nevertheless, the fallout from I-95 is a part of local history, especially in terms of urban renewal and the people who were displaced. Their voices and stories are an essential part to telling the entire story.

What to read, watch, and cook for Juneteenth

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Sometimes called America’s second Independence Day, Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 and, this year, marks 160 years since the arrival of Union troops in Galveston, Texas, to announce that enslaved people were free. The day was first recognized as a national holiday in 2021 and is one of eight holidays observed by the University for faculty and staff.

Penn Today spoke with five specialists from the Penn Libraries who recommended materials, many of which are accessible through the Libraries, that educate, inspire, or—in the case of one cookbook—delight. A fuller guide to Juneteenth materials can be found on the Penn Libraries Juneteenth webpage.

“Juneteenth Texas,” co-edited by Francis Edward Abernethy, Carolyn Fiedler Satterwhite, Patrick B. Mullen, and Alan B. Govenar

Recommended by: Mercy K. Ayilo, Africana studies librarian

“Juneteenth Texas” is a 1996 collection of personal essays written from both Black and white perspectives. The essays describe aspects of African American folk culture in Texas, touching on genres of folklore—particularly through songs and stories, with references to performers like blues singer Lightnin’ Hopkins and street musician Bongo Joe.

“Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life,” by Ashley Bryan

Recommended by: Lynne Farrington, director of programs and senior curator of Special Collections at the Kislak Center

Ashley Bryan draws from slave auction and plantation estate documents to create this paintings-and-poetry book, published in 2016, to interpret life on the plantation for elementary-grade children. The text is accessible through the Ashley Bryan Archive, containing hundreds of original works by the renowned storyteller and humanitarian, donated to Penn Libraries in 2019.

“On Juneteenth,” by Annette Gordon-Reed

Recommended by: John Pollack, curator of research services at the Kislak Center

Written by Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard history and law professor Annette Gordon-Reed, “On Juneteenth” outlines the path to Juneteenth. The story begins in Texas and later describes the hardships of the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. The text, a compact 144 pages, also delves into Gordon-Reed’s own experience with racial injustice as a Texas native.

“Juneteenth: Exploring Freedom’s Stories,” by the Annenberg Public Policy Center

Recommended by: Nicholas Okrent, the Steven A. Lipman Librarian and Coordinating Bibliographer for the Humanities

Released in 2023, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, through the Annenberg Classroom and Civics Renewal Network, produced a 27-minute documentary film that explains the story of Juneteenth and explores the relationship between freedom and citizenship. The video is available to download for classroom use alongside lesson plans.

“Juneteenth,” by Marilyn Nelson

Recommended by: Nicholas Okrent

This poem, written by the daughter of a Tuskegee airman, was originally published in her 1990 poetry collection “The Homeplace.” The poem illustrates the contrast of joy upon the arrival of news of freedom with the horrors of slavery and continued atrocities that came after abolition.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” by James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson

Recommended by: Stephen Mantz, music technical services librarian

Widely considered the “Black national anthem,” the hymn was written as a poem by Johnson—a civil rights activist and later a Harlem Renaissance poet—in 1900. The hymn was first performed by a choir of schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida, and was most recently prominently performed at the opening of the 2025 Super Bowl.

“Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations,” by Nicole A. Taylor

Recommended by: Nicholas Okrent

Available for access at Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, Taylor puts to paper decades’ worth of personal food recipes she’s used to celebrate Juneteenth—nodding to the celebratory barbecues that took place in 1866. Recipes include everything from cookout fare to spice blends, hot sauces, and pickles.

University of Pennsylvania grad follows in ancestor’s footsteps 142 years later

Monday, May 19, 2025

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — As Faruq Adger sits at the dining room table with his father, they look at photos that span not just generations, but more than a century.

“Pictures are very valuable in our family,” said the 22-year-old while holding several photos.

Photos help the Adger family tell their story, which has deep roots in Philadelphia.

“We just had this rich family history,” said Khaleel Adger, Faruq’s father.

There’s one photo, passed down in the family, that lives in both the past and the present.

“You can almost feel a presence in a way. It could be a tingle on the back of your neck, could be a smile,” said Faruq of the ancestor pictured in the photo.

He felt that presence as he prepared to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania because more than a century ago, his ancestor, William Adger, was in the same place.

“He’s my fifth great-uncle,” Faruq Adger said of the man pictured in the photo.

In that family picture, William Adger is dressed dashingly in a suit with a thick moustache and his hair parted to the side. When he took the photo in the late 1800s, he may not have realized he’d seal a place in history.

A graduate of the class of 1883, William Adger was the first African American to ever graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. One hundred 42 years later, his great, great, great, great, great nephew is doing the same thing.

Read about Faruq’s experience at Penn on the College of Arts and Sciences website.