Campus Life
Dear Old State: November / December 2026
photo of Bendapudi and colleagues in panel discussion about higher ed and the workforce by Penn State
By Robyn Rydzy '95 Com

 

Foundry for the Future

Penn State joins national initiative to strengthen the manufacturing workforce.

Penn State is among eight universities selected to join a national initiative to prepare the future generation of workers to advance American manufacturing.

The Foundry School, a new training program from the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Labor, was announced in September in Washington. The program is a collaborative partnership among higher education, industry, and government to prepare the workforce for the future of manufacturing.

The curriculum of the Foundry School will include 17 sessions across eight participating campuses taught by founders and CEOs from advanced manufacturing enterprises. Industry leaders from the United States, Korea, Japan, and India will cover the fundamentals of modern factory design, materials and supply chains, assembly-line engineering, plant economics, regulation and permitting, and workforce development at scale, among others.

“Penn State is already at the forefront of advanced manufacturing, and we are well positioned to be a strategic partner in this effort,” said President Neeli Bendapudi. “Advanced manufacturing is not one technology or one industry. It is an integrated system that brings together 3D printing, robotics, sensors, artificial intelligence, and other capabilities to make production faster, more flexible, and more responsive. That is why collaboration among universities, industry, and government is so important: No single institution can build the future of manufacturing alone.”

Bendapudi joined colleagues and government officials for the launch, participating in a panel discussion with Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University; Douglas Girod, chancellor of University of Kansas; and Ann Fairchild, president and CEO of Siemens USA, highlighting how higher education can be a catalyst for preparing the future workforce.

Penn State already has a footprint in the technological advancements and workforce development efforts that are core to the Foundry School’s purpose, Bendapudi said. 

“From engineering microcredentials to our Center for Innovative Materials Processing to industry partnerships, Penn State is [doing] what is needed to upskill the workforce and drive innovation that keeps our nation at the forefront of manufacturing,” she said. –Penn State News

 

photo of the Paterno Family Football Experience Room by Penn State Athletics
SPECIAL TEAMS: Penn State Athletics and the Penn State All-Sports Museum opened the Paterno Family Football Experience Room, a permanent museum experience celebrating more than a century of Penn State football. The room includes a Coach Joe Paterno Exhibit, awards and trophies earned through the years, plus artifacts and interactive displays on the program’s history, traditions, stadium, fans, and more. Penn State Athletics.

 

 

In Short

photo of the Kupchellas by Penn State$1M GIFT FOR BEHREND
A $1 million gift from Brian ’90 Behrend and Pamela Kupchella ’89 H&HD will advance strategic initiatives at Penn State Behrend, providing support for the college’s strategic plan and the Open Lab model of learning. The funding will be administered through the new Brian and Pamela Kupchella Strategic Innovation Fund. Brian Kupchella serves on the board of directors for the Council of Fellows, which advises Chancellor Ralph Ford and others on the Behrend leadership team.

ADVANCING AMERICA
Penn State was selected as the new campus host of Imagining America, a national consortium that connects scholars, artists, and designers to promote public scholarship, humanities, and the arts in higher education. As host, Penn State will collaborate with Imagining America in its ongoing efforts to build connected, informed, and equitable communities while expanding understanding of how art, design, and the humanities impact health and well-being. As part of a planned hosting transition, the organization will move its headquarters from the University of California, Davis, to University Park in July 2027, for a renewable five-year period. Penn State is the fourth institution to serve as a host campus since 1999. —Penn State News

 

Enabling Innovation

Penn State’s AI Center of Excellence awards its first instructional innovation grants. 

The AI Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning awarded 46 grants to Penn State faculty and faculty teams through the inaugural cycle of two instructional innovation grant programs supporting the thoughtful integration of generative artificial intelligence into teaching and learning.

Funded through the Office of the Provost, the grants support projects during the 2026-27 academic year, selected through a competitive review process. They represent a range of disciplines, instructional settings, and approaches to using AI to support student learning.

Thirty-eight faculty members received AI in Instruction Microgrants of up to $1,000 for small-scale instructional innovations using generative AI. The center also awarded eight Program or Large Course Transformation Grants of up to $50,000 each to faculty teams undertaking more extensive redesigns of teaching and learning. The eight projects are: 

  • “ENGAGE-AI: Reimagining Project-Based Engineering Education From First-Year Design to Senior Capstone.” 
  • “Making Data-Structure Reasoning Visible: AI-Guided Assignment Transformation for CMPSC 132 Across Penn State Campuses.”
  • “Transforming ECON 102 Through AI-Enhanced Experiential Learning and Assessment.”
  • “QUANTA: AI-Enabled Transformation of Physics Learning and Assessment.”
  • “Critical AI Literacy: Reimagining Education and Public Policy at Penn State.”
  • “Transforming How Students Learn From Visual Displays in Biology.”
  • “AI-Augmented Education in Water Resources Engineering.” —Penn State News

 

Improving Outcomes

NIH awards Penn State health research institute $28.2M to help rural communities. 

The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the Penn State College of Medicine has received a seven-year, $28.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The funding will help the institute pioneer scalable models to solve health challenges in rural areas and turn medical discoveries into real-world treatments, according to Jennifer Kraschnewski, who directs CTSI.

The project aims to develop innovative programming for communities with limited access to healthcare and research opportunities, and to use artificial intelligence and biomedical data sciences to integrate clinical and research data in order to better serve the needs of rural communities and to better represent them in clinical trials.

“This award shows our commitment to making sure the latest medical breakthroughs and clinical trials reach everyone, especially people in rural areas who are often left out of research,” said Kraschnewski, who is also the vice dean for research, clinical and translational science at the College of Medicine. —Penn State News