Dr. JOSEPH MASON (Associate Professor of Finance, Drexel University's LeBow College of Business): Some of the securities created can be safer than the underlying risk of the pool.

NPR: Banks Pay the Price for Risky Mortgage Bets

Foreclosure is expensive, typically eating up 20-25% of the loan balance, says Joseph Mason of Drexel University.

ECONOMIST: Mortgage restructuring

Finance professor Joseph Mason of Drexel University says the Wall Street butchers can trim the fat from the least risky securities, but they can't get rid of it all together.

NPR: Banks Pay the Price for Risky Mortgage Bets

Joseph Mason, who teaches finance at Drexel University, was one of the first to warn that subprime defaults would have dangerous consequences for the financial-services industry.

ECONOMIST: The costs of clearing up the subprime crisis

Dr. Eugenia Ellis, a professor of engineering and architecture at Drexel University, who works with LED installations, said an efficiency improvement at the level Philips forecasts would be impressive.

NPR: Goodbye Fluorescent Bulb? Philips Says Yes.

Paleontologists at Drexel University are a little fed up with the traditional tools of paleontology.

FORBES: Scientists Are Building Robot Dinosaurs Out Of 3-D Printed Fossils

An ambitious and complex initiative like this one requires a hefty amount of funding, which the students have been successful at receiving both from Drexel University and outside sources.

FORBES: A Smart House Keeps On Learning

Now after studying business at Drexel University and journalism at NYU, I compete for bylines, primarily writing about the business of sports.

FORBES: Dwyane Wade Puts Basketball And Fatherhood Into Perspective

At Drexel University in Philadelphia, for instance, an engineer named Moshe Kam tested handwriting examiners against members of the general public.

ECONOMIST: Whose body of evidence?