Case Connections – STEM Education and Campus News

Case Connections

2017 ALL IN Day of Giving

The Case Alumni Association and the Case School of Engineering are proud partners in the fifth annual Day of Giving planned at Case Western Reserve University on Wednesday, June 14, 2017. We are asking all alumni, faculty, staff and students to consider making a gift to the Case Fund® that day. Each school is given a participation goal, and if we meet the targeted number of donors (179 for us), we will earn additional dollars from the university!

Mark your calendars and watch our social media sites, email and websites to learn more. If you are interested in volunteering that day to help push out the message using #CWRUALLIN, please contact Ryan Strine, the manager of the annual fund at ryan.strine@casealum.org or 216.368.6399.

CWRU students win 2 of top 3 awards at South by Southwest’s ‘Student Startup Madness’

Two Case Western Reserve University student startups won two of the top three awards earlier this spring in the “Student Startup Madness” championship at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.

Parihug, co-founded by second-year mechanical and aerospace engineering student Xyla Foxlin, placed second winning a $3,000 award. Reflexion Interactive Technologies, co-founded by Matt Campagna, placed third, winning a $2,000 award.

They were among eight finalists competing in a pitch competition that started with a pool of 200 entries.

Continuing Legacy

Congratulations to the 2017 recipients of the Richard ’39 and Opal Vanderhoof Scholarship and Prize Fund for undergraduate and graduate civil engineering students. The 2017 recipients are Ben Allan, Nicolas Heim, Jacob Lunn and Lauren Rendos.

Richard Vanderhoof (1917-2015) has given generously to his alma mater in appreciation of the education and help he received while a student at the Case School of Applied Science, including to the Richard ’39 and Opal Vanderhoof Infrastructure Research and Education Facility, also located in the civil engineering department.

news from across campus

CWRU selected as one of nation’s top 10 centers for biomedical research

The Hartwell Foundation, a Memphis-based philanthropic institution that funds innovative biomedical research to benefit children of the United States, has again selected Case Western Reserve University among its 2017 Top 10 Centers of Biomedical Research.

The other 2017 Hartwell Top 10 Research Centers include Cornell University, Duke University, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Davis, University of California, San Diego, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, University of Virginia and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“In addition to the honor of being identified with such an elite group of research universities, the national designation allows us to submit three nominees next year instead of two, so we will have a greater chance to obtain funding,” said Lynn Singer, deputy provost and vice president for academic affairs. Additionally, by participating in the 2017 competition Case Western Reserve is positioned to qualify for a Hartwell postdoctoral fellowship. For each CWRU nominee selected for a 2017 Individual Biomedical Research Award, the university will receive funding for one postdoctoral candidate of its choice in biomedical science that exemplifies the values of The Hartwell Foundation.

More accolades for Dean Jeffrey L. Duerk PhD ’87

Jeffrey L. Duerk, dean of the Case School of Engineering, has been elected by his colleagues in the College of Fellows in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering to serve as a member of the organization’s Board of Directors as a director-at-large.

AIMBE is a nonprofit organization representing the top 2 percent of researchers and scholars in the field. Founded in 1991, the organization serves as an advocate for public policy issues related to improving lives through medical and biological engineering. As director-at-large, Duerk will help set strategic priorities for AIMBE and direct the course of the organization’s future.

Duerk has served in a number of key leadership positions in professional organizations during his career, including as president of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, chair of the 2004 ISMRM Program Committee (Kyoto, Japan), treasurer of the ISMRM, editor-in-chief of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and member of the ISMRM Board of Trustees and a 2011 recipient of its Silver Medal. He has also served as the chair of the Program Committee for the IEEE-EMBS flagship annual meeting in Chicago, 2014, a member of the EMBS Ad-Com, IEEE-TMI and IEEE-TBME reviewer over many years. He is a fellow of the IEEE, the ISMRM, AIMBE and the NAI, and a member of the inaugural class of Distinguished Researchers of the Academy of Radiology Research.