Year 2 Awardees

Developing an AI Companion Prototype for Homebound Adults

This project aims to address the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation in the United States (US) among homebound older adults. The interdisciplinary team and community partner (Connectedly©) propose developing an AI companion with input from the end users to determine what the prototype would look like and how it would function. In a multi-phase project, the objective is to develop an AI companion prototype for homebound older adults.

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Community Lead

Marypat Tracy, MSW, LCSW

Executive Director
Connectedly

Matura.1 (1)

Nursing Lead

Lea Ann Matura, PhD, RN, FAAN

Associate Professor of Nursing

Insup Lee.1 (1)

Engineering Lead

Insup Lee, PhD

Cecilia Fitler Moore Professor of Computer and Information Science

Sokolsky.1 (1)

Engineering Co-Lead

Oleg Sokolsky, PhD

Research Professor of Computer and Information Science

Community Site

Connectedly has a 40 year history of creating social connections for underserved and vulnerable older Philadelphians by strengthening community support networks, reducing social isolation, and improving the well-being of older adults, especially women and their families.

Project Updates

LCH Community Health Center Patient Engagement: A Collaboration Exploring Digital Determinants of Health for Promoting Health Equity

The objective of this Phase 1 formative work project is to use a mixed method design to quantitatively and qualitatively explore digital determinants of health (DDoHs) at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels. In collaboration with LCH Health and Community Services, this study incorporates a digital environment domain to understand health disparities across the lifespan. Findings may inform the development and testing of culturally and linguistically tailored digital health tools to optimize patient health outcomes in a predominantly farm working community.

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Community Lead

Margarita Garay-Zarco

Director of Human Resources
LCH Community Health Center

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Nursing Lead

Adriana Perez, PhD, ANP-BC, FAAN

Anthony Buividas Term Chair Gerontology
Associate Professor of Nursing

Carmen Alvarez .3 (1)

Nursing Co-Lead

Carmen Alvarez PhD, CRNP, CNM, FAAN

Associate Professor of Nursing

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Engineering Lead

Damon Centola, PhD

Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering

Community Site

LCH‘s mission is to improve the health and well-being of people and communities by providing high quality healthcare, resources, and social services. LCH sets the highest possible standard for community health and wellness by creating and sustaining the resources, conditions, and opportunities that enable all LCH patients and community members to experience their optimal health and wellness.works to improve life outcomes for community members of the North Philadelphia Hunting Park-East Tioga community so current residents and future generations live happy, healthy, and civically engaged lives. They work with their neighbors to address issues of systemic violence, poverty, and disinvestment that have induced trauma, built barriers, and challenged the health and prosperity of this community. Taking a holistic approach, North10 is striving to make impactful change not only by delivering high-quality programs and services in response to stated community preferences, but also by serving as the community backbone.

Project Updates

Building a Virtual AI Platform for Finger Exercise to Increase Exercise Accessibility and Social Interaction for Older Adults with Disabilities

This proposal aims to develop and test an AI-driven virtual platform for finger exercise, designed to enhance health and well-being in older adults with disabilities by providing real-time monitoring and interactive group sessions, making exercise accessible, engaging, and sustainable.

Rose Richardson.2 (1)

Community Lead

Rose Richardson

Executive Director
LCFS’s West Philadelphia Senior Community Center

Dr Liu.2 (1)

Nursing Lead

Jianghong Liu, PhD, RN, FAAN

Marjorie O. Rendell
Endowed Professor in Healthy Transitions
Professor of Nursing

TCM Engineering.2 (1)

Engineering Lead

Jianbo Shi, PhD

Professor of Computer and Information Science

Community Site

West Philadelphia Senior Community Center, WPSCC, is a program under the Lutheran Children and Family Service. They are driven by their dedication to the well-being and choices of the older adults they serve — with each individual’s unique preferences accommodated by the variety of different avenues provided to age successfully, maintain health, nurture inspiration, build resiliency, and/or renew hope. As a faith-based organization, Liberty Lutheran also partners with churches across eastern Pennsylvania to bring the love, hope and peace of Christ to those who are vulnerable.mission is to improve the health and well-being of people and communities by providing high quality healthcare, resources, and social services.

Project Updates

Year 1 Awardees

Heat Islands

This project aims to address the problem of urban heat stress in the Hunting Park / East Tioga area of Philadelphia. This pilot work will include the development and construction of a prototype for a cooling shelter that can be integrated into local bus stops in areas that people use regularly.

Nikki Bagby

Nikki Bagby

Chief External Affairs Officer
North10 Philadelphia

Sara Jacoby

Sara Jacoby, MPH, MSN, PhD, FAAN

Associate Professor of Nursing

Paulo Arratia

Paulo Arratia, PhD

Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics

Dorit Aviv

Dorit Aviv, PhD, AIA

Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design

Community Site

North10, Philadelphia works to improve life outcomes for community members of the North Philadelphia Hunting Park-East Tioga community so current residents and future generations live happy, healthy, and civically engaged lives. They work with their neighbors to address issues of systemic violence, poverty, and disinvestment that have induced trauma, built barriers, and challenged the health and prosperity of this community. Taking a holistic approach, North10 is striving to make impactful change not only by delivering high-quality programs and services in response to stated community preferences, but also by serving as the community backbone.

Project Updates

“Chilling on the 10 Spot”

The Heat Island team is busy working on their “Chilling on the 10 Spot” cooling station bus stop. The designs are complete, and construction will start in June. Plans are underway for the first week of August for the testing of the station in front of the Lenfest Center. Dr Jacoby is working with the team to develop health-related messaging and imagery on heat and health for display within the demonstration cooling station. The team is also working on developing … Read More

Smoothie Bike

The Smoothie Bike Project is a collaboration that engages Penn students, local high school students, and Netter Center staff in re-purposing used bikes and used blenders into educational and joyful kid-powered smoothie making machines.

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Daniel Merin, MS

Rebel Ventures Board Chairperson

Monique Dowd

Monique Dowd, EdD, RD, LDN

Advanced Senior Lecturer of Nutrition Science
Associate Director of Undergraduate Nutrition Programs, School of Nursing

FELICE@XPOZD.COM

Dustyn Roberts, PE, PhD

Practice Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics

Community Site

Rebel Ventures is a youth-driven healthy food business run by high school students and supported by Penn students that includes a non-profit business entity. At its core it is an educational activity. Students learn about the food system by competing in the real-world competitive food marketplace – the pedagogy is deep engagement through projects, problem-solving, and partnership. To examine these issues the Rebel Crew researches, shares knowledge, seeks out expertise, and makes decisions democratically.

Project Updates

Spring 2024

Research teams have met weekly to share updates on their projects. Engineering students were busy with their bike designs. A visit was made by the team to Paul Robeson High School to get acquainted with some of the participants and to witness the building of a smoothie bike. Once the prototype is ready, it will be transferred to the School of Nursing. Dr. Down is working creating a description of this new ABCS opportunity for the Nursing 3750 course: 5-7 … Read More

Digital Healing: Co-Creating Youth Digital Creative Arts Space for Community Wellbeing

Digital Healing is a web-based platform, which will be co-designed and co-developed as an AI-driven culturally responsive youth digital co-creative arts space for community healing in partnership with youth-led organization called Creative Resilient Youth (CRY) in Philadelphia.

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Andrea Ngan

Co-Director
Creative Resilient Youth (CRY)

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Siva Mathiyazhagan, PhD, MSW

Research Assistant Professor
School of Social Policy and Practice

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Sharath Chandra Guntuku, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of
Computer & Information Science

Choi, Seul Ki

Seul Ki Choi, PhD, MPH

Research Assistant Professor
School of Nursing

Community Site

CRY is an intergenerational collective promoting equitable mental health care by realizing youth-led models of care through co-learning, socially engaged art, and leadership training. CRY envisions a future where every young person has the healing resources and skills needed to: Access their authentic selves to define and communicate care for themselves on their own terms; Influence how mental health is talked about and cared for in their peer group, families, and communities, and other youth-serving spaces; and create tools to address injustices in youth mental health care systems

Project Updates

Phase 1 Final Session and Celebration

Creative Resilient Youth (CRY), one of Penn4Cs initial awardees, had their Penn4C Digital Art & Healing Phase 1 Final Session and Celebration last week at the Asian Arts Initiative Space. The Digital Healing Project, one of the initial projects awarded by Penn4C, addresses the ongoing mental health challenges of BIPOC young individuals in the Philadelphia region. The Digital Healing project is unique in adopting design justice principles in the end-to-end co-design of mental health support to young people through digital … Read More

Re-Imagining Childhood Asthma and Electronic Health Records: A Community-Based Approach

Asthma is a major non-communicable disease affecting children, especially those from marginalized communities, because of limited access to information. This project will explore how medical information systems can be improved to provide better care for young, marginalized asthma patients.

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Sonya Sanders

Community Organizer
Philly Thrive

kenrick cato

Kenrick Cato, PhD, RN, CPHIMS, FAAN

Professor of Nursing CE

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Andrew Head, PhD

Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science

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Aviv Landau, PhD, MSW

Research Assistant Professor
School of Social Policy and Practice

Community Site

Philly Thrive won the permanent closure of the South Philly oil refinery, ending 150 years of deadly pollution. Now Philly Thrive organizes to protect affordable housing and fight displacement of Grays Ferry residents, and to win a robust cleanup of the refinery site, family sustaining jobs, and community-reinvestment as the historic refinery redevelopment progresses.

Project Updates

Spring 2024

Initial activities included the Penn Team working with their community partner, PhillyThrive, to finalize recruitment logistics and creation of an interview guide. The team was able to pilot the interview with a Philly thrive member that suffers from asthma. They have since completed five interviews and has scheduled an additional eight. In the coming weeks they will be reviewing the initial interviews and will be performing member-checking activities. A great start for a great project!

The impact of land care in North Tioga-East Huntington Neighborhood of Philadelphia: Building occupational and public safety into North10’s neighborhood beautification initiatives

The focus of this project is to create a tool to assist in removing debris to improve the wellbeing of the community and individuals in the North Tioga neighborhoods.

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Avarisse Crawford

Chief of Staff
North10 Philadelphia

Sara Jacoby

Sara Jacoby, MPH, MSN, PhD, FAAN

Associate Professor of Nursing

devin carroll

Devin Carroll, PhD

Lecturer
Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Community Site

North10, Philadelphia works to improve life outcomes for community members of the North Philadelphia Hunting Park-East Tioga community so current residents and future generations live happy, healthy, and civically engaged lives. They work with their neighbors to address issues of systemic violence, poverty, and disinvestment that have induced trauma, built barriers, and challenged the health and prosperity of this community. Taking a holistic approach, North10 is striving to make impactful change not only by delivering high-quality programs and services in response to stated community preferences, but also by serving as the community backbone.

Project Updates

Spring 2024

Students Ling Xu and Ming Zou worked with the team at North 10 on their Shatter Sweep Device. The students demonstrated it to the North 10 Neighborhood Promise Program (NPP) team: Al, Donte, Rich, Marcus and Farreed, and Sara Jacoby and Devin Carroll. The team was impressed with the work the students did and had some excellent suggestions. There will be follow-up in the coming months to make modifications to the design so that it will fit the needs of … Read More