LilyLoop Wins 2024 Y-Prize Competition

Rima Chavali, C’27, W’27, Neha Chelamkuri, C’27, W’27, and Kylie Chang, ENG’27, W’27

For more than 10 years, the Y-Prize competition has challenged students to build their entrepreneurial skills. Students team up to create business plans using technology invented at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. The team with the best commercial application wins $10,000 to help make its idea a reality.
 
This year Rima Chavali, C’27, W’27, Neha Chelamkuri, C’27, W’27, and Kylie Chang, ENG’27, W’27, won for LilyLoop, a line of “smart” period products that alerts users when to change tampons and captures menstrual flow data for diagnostic purposes. Each pad or tampon contains a tiny, body-safe sensor that sends moisture levels to a discreet wearable that interprets and sends data to an app for precise menstrual flow insights.
 
LilyLoop will initially focus on patients with diagnosed uterine fibroids, a leading cause of menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding). From there, the team hopes to expand to provide the product to a broader consumer base.
 
The Y Prize is cosponsored by the Mack Institute, Penn Engineering, Wharton, Venture Lab, and the Penn Center for Innovation.

Arts & Sciences News

Marisa C. Kozlowski Named Next Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences

Kozlowski, who joined the Penn faculty in 1997, succeeds Mark Trodden, who transitions to the Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences on June 1.

View Article >
One Fourth Year, One Alum Receive 2025 Hertz Fellowship

Eric Tao, C’25, Gr’25 (left), and Suraj Chandran, C’23, were awarded the honor, part of a group of 19 fellows selected this year. Each one receives five years of funding toward a doctoral program.

View Article >
Benjamin Nathans Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction

Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History, won for his book “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.”

View Article >
Mark Devlin Elected to National Academy of Sciences

He joins three others from Penn to receive the honor this year, all recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

View Article >
Michael Jones-Correa and Sophia Rosenfeld Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

They join three others from the University of Pennsylvania, selected as part of the Academy’s mission to convene leaders from “every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together.”

View Article >
Eva Del Soldato Awarded 2025-26 Rome Prize

She joins Sean Burkholder, of the Weitzman School of Design, and just 33 others in receiving the prestigious honor from the American Academy in Rome.

View Article >