Alumni Engagement Update

2017 Engineer’s Week Reception – Feb. 23, 2017

This year’s Engineers Week reception at the InterContinental Hotel on Thursday, Feb. 23 was a resounding success and enjoyed by all who attended. The Case Alumni Association worked with students, who developed the theme, “Ideate, Create, Innovate.” The celebration included a new reception-style format with food stations, student and corporate displays and more networking time than ever before. The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, chaired by Dr. Robert Gao, was this year’s featured department. Students and faculty demonstrated and shared posters and research projects.

The highlight of the evening was our keynote speaker, Dr. Janet Kavandi, former astronaut and current director of NASA’s John H. Glenn Research Center. She gave an inspiring presentation to the nearly 600 students, faculty, alumni and industry representatives in attendance. Dr. Kavandi provided the audience a glimpse into her unique and exciting career path and offered valuable advice to guests.

Alumni Engagement Update

Case on Location: San Francisco, CA – March 16, 2017

The Case Alumni Association, in conjunction with Weatherhead School of Management and the Alumni Association of Case Western Reserve University, hosted an “Insights into Pitching Startups” panel discussion and networking event at The Battery in San Francisco.

Weatherhead School of Management Professor Scott Shane shared findings from recent experiments he conducted training founders how to pitch to accredited investors. Following his talk, a panel of Case Western Reserve alumni shared their experience evaluating start-up pitches and discussed what works, and what does not work, when pitching investors. Engineering alumnus, Eric Ver Ploeg ’88 was among the expert panelists that evening. He is an individual venture investor with Ver Ploeg Venture Syndicate.

Oil and Gas Industry Energy

Forum – April 6, 2017

We had a full-capacity crowd of 300 students, alumni and guests at our April 6 event. Thank you again to the Case Alumni Association President Jeffrey Herzog ‘79, WSM ’86 for bringing the idea to our attention. Thank you to our wonderful alumni panelists, who gave a great overview of the industry and the role their Case education played in their career success. And thank you to all who offered feedback on this important industry event. It has sparked a request for another event in the future.

‘Firsts’

from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

From left to right:

Diana Essock ’75

First female undergraduate

Jennie S. Hwang PhD ’76 First female Ph.D. graduate

Jennifer Carter, PhD

First female faculty member