Karl Ulrich
· Professor of Operations, Information and DecisionsUniversity of Pennsylvania · Operations and Information Management
Active 1902–2026
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About
Karl Ulrich is the CIBC Endowed Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he also holds the position of Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests encompass innovation, entrepreneurship, design, product management, housing, and sustainability. Ulrich has played a significant role in fostering innovation within the university community by co-founding institutions such as Venture Lab, Weiss Tech House, and the Integrated Product Design Program. His most recent project involves the design and construction of Tangen Hall, recognized as the largest facility in the world dedicated to student entrepreneurship. Ulrich is a prolific author and inventor, co-authoring influential textbooks like 'Product Design and Development' (8th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2026), and publishing works such as 'Innovation Tournaments' and 'Winning in China.' He has received numerous teaching awards at Wharton, including the Anvil Award, the Miller-Sherrerd Award, and the Excellence in Teaching Award. An accomplished innovator and entrepreneur, Ulrich holds 24 patents and is a founder of Terrapass Inc., which was highlighted by The New York Times, and he designed the Xootr scooter, recognized by Business Week as one of the 50 coolest products of the 21st Century. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT.
Research topics
- Sociology
- Computer Science
- Archaeology
- Mathematics
- Arithmetic
- Geography
Selected publications
Minimum Spatial Housing Requirements for Human Flourishing
Buildings · 2025-07-24 · 3 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingThis study defines evidence-based minimum internal floor areas required to support long-term residential use across different household types. It addresses the following question: what is the smallest viable floor area that supports sustained occupancy without persistent stress, conflict, or turnover? An integrative review method was employed, drawing from behavioural studies in environmental psychology, international regulatory standards, and real-world market data. The analysis focuses on esse…
University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks · 2021 · 1 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingIf Amazon can't win in China, can anyone? When Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos visited China in 2007, he expected that one day soon China would be a double-digit percentage of Amazon's sales. Yet, by 2019, Amazon, the most powerful and successful ecommerce company in the world, had quit China. In Winning in China: 8 Stories of Success and Failure in the World's Largest Economy , Wharton experts Lele Sang and Karl Ulrich explore the success and failure of several well-known companies, including Hyundai , L…
The Satoshi Overhang: Why the Bear Case is Bounded
ArXiv.org · 2026-04-30
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingRenewed public attention on the identity of Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator has sharpened focus on the Satoshi overhang, commonly framed as a tail risk for bitcoin. This paper argues that the mechanical downside of a disposition is bounded well below the existential-loss framing, and that the terminal states most consistent with sixteen years of holder behavior are nonbearish for bitcoin's effective supply. The approximately 1.148 million BTC Patoshi position is analyzed on two tracks. For a pure…
Digital Darwinism: steering the evolution of artificial life in socio-technical systems
AI and Ethics · 2026-04-27
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingAbstract Public debate about artificial intelligence risk centers on hypothetical artificial general intelligence (AGI), but existing software systems are already evolving in ways that could undermine human oversight and institutional control. Cloud platforms, open-source software supply chains, and crypto-economic incentives provide, at electronic speed, the three preconditions of evolution: replication, variation, and differential fitness. This article uses an exploratory scenario method to tr…
The Satoshi Overhang: Why the Bear Case is Bounded
arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-04-30
preprintOpen access1st authorCorrespondingRenewed public attention on the identity of Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator has sharpened focus on the Satoshi overhang, commonly framed as a tail risk for bitcoin. This paper argues that the mechanical downside of a disposition is bounded well below the existential-loss framing, and that the terminal states most consistent with sixteen years of holder behavior are nonbearish for bitcoin's effective supply. The approximately 1.148 million BTC Patoshi position is analyzed on two tracks. For a pure…
Frequent coauthors
- 26 shared
Christian Terwiesch
University of Pennsylvania
- 9 shared
Karan Girotra
SC Johnson (United States)
- 7 shared
Taylor Randall
- 7 shared
Warren Seering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 6 shared
Laura J. Kornish
University of Colorado Boulder
- 5 shared
Rajan Ramaswamy
- 5 shared
Petra Glinski
- 5 shared
Steven D. Eppinger
Awards & honors
- Anvil Award
- Miller-Sherrerd Award
- Excellence in Teaching Award
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