The University of Pennsylvania is one of the world’s leading institutions of higher education. Consistently ranked among the top 20 worldwide, the Ivy League school founded in 1740 is one of the oldest and best established American Universities.
The Gömböc has multiple ties to Penn: Professor Douglas Jerolmack, one of the American coauthors of the study deducing the provenance of Martian pebbles using Gömböc-inspired geometric theory, is part of the Penn Faculty and he is also coauthor of the 2020 study tying Plato’s cube to the Gömböc. Penn is home to the world-class GRASP laboratories, led by Professor Vijay Kumar, developing Gömböc-inspired piko-drones, designed for collective flight.
These multiple ties might have contributed to the decision of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) to put Gömböc 1740 on permanent exhibit, carrying the year of foundation of Penn as a serial number. G1740 is visible for faculty and students in the central MEAM showcase, located in the Towne building.
Our uppermost picture shows department chairman Professor Kevin Turner who, braving the extreme COVID situation in Philadelphia, placed G1740 to its final home.
The production of Gömböc 1740 has been supported by Mr. Ottó Albrecht.