Penn's decision to stay the course, while making big moves -- Penn's influence and prominence in the region goes without saying, which is why the opening of its Pennovation Center at the Pennovation Works campus on Grays Ferry Avenue is so momentous. The anchor point fo the campus, which slowly opened over the fall and hosted a celebratory grand opening in October, is now home to scores of promising biomed, engineering, robotic, fabrication and tech startups in its meticulously designed, 58,000 square-foot space. The idea behind the $37.5 million project isn't just to spark innovation, it's also to leverage to the $1.2 billion worth of research Penn produces each year into the commercial space and take the ingenuity that comes out of the Ivy League institution into the world at large. Citing President Amy Gutmann's role in building Pennovation Works, in creasing Penn's endowment by more than $6 billion and transforming the campus as a while, the university's board of trustees also voted to extend President Amy Gutmann's contact until 2022. The new terms will make her the longest serving president in the school's history. (Pictured: Warby Parker Co-Founders Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa with Penn President Amy Gutmann and Board Chairman David L. Cohen as Gutmann cuts the ribbon.)
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