Around the Quad

arounD the QuaD Following a legend

First Joe Prahl Scholar feels honored and challenged

Emily Hwang never had the chance to meet Professor Joe Prahl, but she knows that generations of Case students were inspired by him. Upon learning she was the first recipient of the Joe Prahl Scholarship, she said she felt honored and challenged to do her very best.

“To follow in that name, I think that’s huge,” said Hwang, a third-year student at the Case School of Engineering. “And even if [the selection committee] saw a little speck of what Joe Prahl was, I think that’s really cool.”

Prahl taught at Case for more than 50 years and impacted the lives of thousands of students before his death in April 2018. His name became closely associated with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, which he chaired for 15 years.

Hwang, a mechanical engineering major from Ann Arbor, Michigan, recently completed an eight-month co-op with GE Aviation, working as a test engineer in its Rockford, Illinois, facilities. Back at Case, she’s a member of Pi Beta Phi, a social sorority, and Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity. She volunteers at the Cleveland Kids Book Bank and is a member of Cru, a campus Christian organization. She was named a Junior Senior Scholar by the Case Alumni Association.

Hwang said she’s looking forward to seeing who will be picked after her to carry on the Prahl legacy.

Richard Mueller ’95 established the Joe Prahl scholarship with a $25,000 gift soon after learning of the death of his undergraduate advisor. Dozens more alumni have since contributed, quickly endowing a scholarship that will support an undergraduate studying mechanical engineering.

To donate to the Joe Prahl Scholarship Fund, go to casealum.org/joeprahlfund or send your contribution to the Case Alumni Foundation, 10900 Euclid Ave, Tomlinson Hall-Room 109, Cleveland OH 44106, and indicate Joe Prahl Scholarship Fund in the memo.

Super Drone

Professor’s electrified aircraft may foretell the future of flight

A wealth of aerospace innovation His innovation turns the wings themhas come out of Ohio, starting with the selves into batteries powering the plane. Wright brothers in their Dayton bicycle The technology not only extends flight shop. Vikas Prakash, time and distance, but it allows more room a Case professor in the fuselage for payload. Ultimately, of mechanical it’s hoped that such technology could be and aerospace used in a fully-electric passenger-carrying engineering, may regional jet. be adding another “That’s the idea, that’s what we’re chapter to the state’s aiming for in the long run,” said Prakash, aviation history. who made news in 2017 when he was

In a test flight in late February, awarded a NASA grant to work toward Prakash’s autonomous drone stayed developing electric regional aircrafts. aloft for nearly three hours on a single The February 22 test flight “demonbattery charge—about double the strates that the use of the structural previous time for the same plane. His battery is a winning concept,” Prakash secret? A newly designed “structural” said. “This will allow our crafts to fly battery. longer and/or carry heavier payloads without compromising fuselage space.”

He conducted the test with Case alumnus Jeff Taylor ’09, a pioneering drone maker and founder and CEO of Event 38 Unmanned Systems in Akron. Aerospace publications around the world reported the news. No doubt the industry will have its eyes on this pair for years to come.

Sree Sreenath, PhD, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, had his named enshrined in Cleveland history April 16 when he was inducted into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame.

More than 500 people, including colleagues from the Case School of Engineering, attended the awards ceremony in the Grand Ballroom of the Cleveland Marriott at Key Center.

Sreenath, a specialist in systems biology, was honored for his roles as an educator, researcher and humanitarian. He is president of Sewa International, a Hindu faith-based organization that specializes in disaster relief and recovery. Inspired by the motto “Service above self,” Sewa works in 22 nations of the world, including the United States. In Greater Cleveland, it runs tutoring and mentoring programs in area schools with help from students from Case Western Reserve.

Sreenath, who emigrated from India to earn his doctoral degree, said community service is a family tradition that he feels privileged to continue.

“When you serve, you gain an enormous amount of satisfaction that money cannot buy,” he said. “You’re giving your time, which is more valuable than money. You’re putting yourself in the shoes of people needing help. It is humbling.

It is uplifting.”

Upon induction into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame, Sreenath joined a pantheon that includes U.S. Senator George Voinovich, entrepreneur Monte Ahuja, lawyer Jose Feliciano, chemist Jeanette Grasselli Brown MS ’58 and civil rights leader Rev. Otis Moss.

Hot shot

Hillary Hellmann is one for the record books

Hillary Hellmann has left plenty for her fans to ponder at the end of her basketball career at Case Western Reserve. In 99 games during her collegiate career, she collected 1,593 points—second in team history— and shot a record 220 three-pointers.

The 437 points she poured in this season placed her first among University Athletic Association players. She was named an All-UAA First Team honoree and one of 10 finalists for the Jostens Trophy, an honor bestowed upon

Division III basketball players. Meanwhile, she has earned a 3.7 grade point average while majoring in mechanical engineering. Hellmann’s off to Boston in May to work for Gillette. But CWRU and Sears think[box] will hold a special place in her heart.

“Sears think[box]…was such a big part of my life for 2 1/2 years [as a student employee],” she told The Daily. “I was there before work, after work, just trying to get things done. It’s a very enjoyable space because you get to be around a lot of creative people.”

She said she found great friends through her sorority, Phi Mu, and the professional engineering fraternity, Theta Tau.

“I really think I found a great fit in Case Western,” she said. “It’s allowed me to be a better version of myself in a lot of ways. Just to have the opportunity to do all those things was something I never expected out of my college experience and something I can be proud of.”

Robot wizard

The Navy is looking to Kathryn Daltorio, PhD '13, for robots that can reach the beaches

If you spend any time watching crabs, a 2019 Young Investigators Award as Kathryn Daltorio, PhD, does, you’ll from the Office of Naval Research. notice they don’t really crawl across the She’ll receive between $500,000 and beach. They grab the ground with their $750,000 to advance her vision of a pointy claws and pull themselves along. crab-like robot, one that can slog across

In that crab-like grip—strong enough dangerous beaches—perhaps to search to withstand pounding for unexploded ordnance. waves—Daltorio ’05, “You want to be able to crawl around MSE ’07, PhD ’13, in the surf zone to make those places sees a powerful safer,” Daltorio explained. “We’re exploring amphibious robot. ideas of crab locomotion, and crab-like The U.S. Navy agrees. approaches to rough ground.” The assistant As a specialist in biologically inspired professor of mechanical robots, she talks enthusiastically about and aerospace engineering is one of a such things. Daltorio was a student of select group of researchers awarded Professor Roger Quinn, who helped pioneer the genre. In 2017, she became his colleague when she joined the faculty. Her experimentation with beetle-like climbing robots led her to imagine machines that can grip with the force of nature. In her newly opened “crab lab” on the eighth floor of the Glennan Building, she and her students study prototypes of amphibious robots as they crawl through tubs of sand and defy artificial waves induced in a giant fish tank. “I feel like biology sets this tremendous standard of how robots can work,” Daltorio said. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to meet it. But we can be inspired by it!”