Penn community invited to grand opening of Pennovation Center

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The Pennovation Center is officially up and running, and it looks as stunning as ever. To celebrate, the Penn community—both old and new—is invited to come together at the 58,000-square-foot space on Friday, Oct. 28. The Grand Opening will be one of several events kicking off Homecoming Weekend.

At 12:30 p.m., stop by to hear special “Pennovation Talks” from a slew of individuals, including President’s Innovation Prize winner William Duckworth, who is running Fever Smart out of the Center. Created while Duckworth was an undergraduate in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the company boasts a technology that allows users to remotely monitor a patient’s body temperature using a smartphone.

“Working out of the Center is exciting for me as it acts as a great bridge between me and Penn after graduation,” says Duckworth, who graduated this past May. “It’s great to still be a part of the Penn family, and it’s also a bridge to the greater Philadelphia community, too, as most of the members actually come from outside of the Penn world, which is awesome.”

Also hear from the Pennovation Center’s Project Design Architect Matthias Hollwich, from HWKN; COSY CEO Jonas Cleveland, who rents an “inventor garage” to build and maintain his company’s indoor mapping product; and Daniel Mellinger, a mechanical engineer at Fortune 500 company Qualcomm, which is opening a research lab at the Pennovation Works development site.

A keynote address and ribbon-cutting ceremony, beginning at 1:30 p.m., will feature Penn President Amy Gutmann, Board Chair David L. Cohen, and Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Warby Parker.

From 2:30 to 4 p.m., there will be a networking reception and open house, where attendees can check out the newly renovated building and chat with the likes of Henry Daniell, from Penn Dental Medicine; Cynthia Otto of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center; and members of PERCH, or the Penn Engineering Research and Collaboration Hub, which occupies the third floor of the Center.

Penn shuttle buses will run from the University City campus to the Center, and back, from noon to 4:30 p.m. Download this map to see your nearest pick-up location.

The Pennovation Center will act as an anchor for Pennovation Works in Grays Ferry. The Center features six rentable inventor garages, co-working space for several hundred members, conference rooms, private offices, event space, wet and dry laboratories equipped with all the basic research necessities, and a café.

Pennovation Center