Around the Quad news from campus

Meal kit services exude an air of luxury, demanding your money and the time to follow a recipe. Not KitcheNet. Founded by Case Western Reserve graduate Trista Li, the social enterprise startup is taking delivered meals in a new direction.

KitcheNet delivers modestly priced grocery boxes to low-income neighborhoods lacking fresh, affordable food.

Li, who graduated in 2013 with a degree in economics and psychology, is still testing her healthy idea in Chicago. But a Weatherhead School of Management class found it promising enough to select her for the inaugural Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition. Hers is one of six teams of young entrepreneurs—all CWRU students or recent graduates— to compete for $50,000 in prize money March 15 at the Larry Sears and Sally Zlotnick Sears think[box].

Organizers hope to speed her success—in the spirit of a legendary venture capitalist.

Cleveland investor David Morgenthaler pioneered the venture capital industry in America and preached the importance of entrepreneurship to Greater Cleveland before his death in 2016. Now his friend and business partner has taken up the crusade.

Bob Pavey, a Case Western Reserve trustee, co-founded the contest to honor Morgenthaler and to train new entrepreneurs. He partnered with JumpStart to provide not only prize money but legal resources and mentoring.

“No matter which of these excellent startups ultimately takes the top prize, each are driven by promising young entrepreneurs who will benefit from the invaluable expertise our professional partners are so generously providing,” Pavey told The Dailey.

The selection process began last fall, when nearly 30 companies submitted ideas to an entrepreneurial finance class taught by Scott Shane, the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, who is coordinating the competition.

The class winnowed the list to a top six. Along with KitcheNet, the finalists include Apollo Medical Devices, Everhire, Hedgemon, ImaginAg and Inspirit. To learn more about the six finalists and the competition, go to www.mpstartup.com/.

Dr. Michael Hore, an assistant professor in the department of macromolecular science and engineering, has been honored by Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, as one of the best teachers in the School of Engineering. He accepted the Srinivasa P. Gutti Memorial Teaching Award Feb. 22 at the annual Engineers Week Reception at the InterContinental Hotel.

“He does a really good job of keeping class engaging,” said Jason Linn, a junior majoring in polymer science engineering and music. “He manages to mix together the really important content with a sense of humor. And he’s a really nice guy.”

The award, named for an outstanding graduate of the School of Engineering who tragically died young, honors an instructor who shows “an exemplary commitment to undergraduate teaching.” Society members nominate candidates who respond to written questions before students elect the winner.

Dr. Hore, 35, teaches an introductory physics course taken by many engineering majors. He said he became interested in engineering while playing with Lego blocks and watching the television character MacGyver solve

problems with science as he grew up on St. Joseph Island, near Sault Ste. Marie, in Ontario, Canada. The family moved to Tennessee, and he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Memphis. In 2012, Dr. Hore was awarded his doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and two years later he came to Case Quad. He lives in Shaker Heights with his wife, Jessie Sun, who is also a materials scientist and who teaches at Laurel School.

Samuel Merriman, an engineering and physics major from Middlesex, Vermont, finished 11th at the 2017 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in November to earn All-America honors for the second-straight season.

He became just the fourth repeat cross country All-

American in program history, placing him in league with Steve Cullen, Peter Kummant and Greg Bowser. His time of 24:37.00 in the 8,000-meter race was the best of his career at that distance and the best ever by a CWRU runner at the NCAA Division III Championships. Congratulations, Sam!

Dr. Mehran Mehregany has launched several technology companies, including the Solon-based innovation firm NineSigma, while accumulating 19 U.S. patents. He’s learned a few things about identifying opportunity and, he says, achieving happiness. Now he’s sharing what he

knows in a new book: Innovation for Engineers: Developing Creative and Entrepreneurial Success. “It teaches innovation to engineers in an engineer’s language and style,” said Mehregany, the Veale Professor of Wireless Health Innovation at CWRU. “As founder of NineSigma, Inc. and through my academic career, I have found that the engineering workforce at companies do not have an engineering-style textbook on innovation, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. My book addresses this gap.”

The book is available on Amazon.com and through the publisher, Springer.com.

Innovations in wind energy tend to focus on building bigger turbine blades, raising them higher or pushing them farther out to sea.

Then there’s Boundary Labs, a Case Western Reserve wind-energy startup applying material science to enhance the state of the art.

The company founders, all Case engineering students, say they have developed a plasma barrier that reduces aerodynamic drag on wind turbine blades. Their idea has taken flight.

The team traveled to Chicago Feb. 8 to compete in the regional Midwest CleanTech University Prize competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. While they did not finish in the prize money, the team garnered more contacts and attention.

In April, they’re off to Pittsburgh to compete for the Allegheny Prize at Carnegie Mellon, then to the California Institute of Technology to compete in the FLOW DOE Cleantech UP business plan competition.

What’s their secret? Company founder Prince Ghosh, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major, described a “dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator” that is flexible enough to wrap around a wind turbine blade or airplane wing to reduce turbulence and increase efficiency. But their real advantage may be a shared devotion.

Ghosh’s teammates include CWRU students Lucas Fridman, Amit Verma, Alejandro Owen and Nihar Chhatiawala. The quintet met during a Great Lakes Energy Institute ThinkEnergy Fellowship last spring on campus. They discovered a shared passion for clean energy research and entrepreneurship, much as the fellowship program had intended.

Said Kim Fleddermann, who runs the fellowship program, “This is a perfect example of what we’re trying to spawn.”

The first in a series of stories on how to give with impact

If you think that the only way you can leave a legacy at the Case Alumni Foundation is by creating a sizeable estate gift that requires professional advice, think again.

Sometimes there is a misunderstanding when people hear about estate gifts. Headlines that declare “biggest gift ever” might come to mind. What people don’t realize is that those headline-making estate gifts are anomalies. Most estate gifts are modest in size and often derive from resources many of us have.

One of the easiest ways to make an impact on our mission is to designate us as a beneficiary of one of your assets, such as a retirement plan account, life insurance policy or bank account. These gifts cost nothing now. Plus, you retain complete control over the assets during your lifetime and can spend the money as you wish. By naming us as the beneficiary, you simply allow for any leftover funds, or a portion of those funds, to transfer to us after your lifetime.

These are gifts you can easily set up yourself. Here are the three things you need:

1. A phone. Call the administrator of your retirement plan, bank account or insurance policy. 2. A form. Request a change-ofbeneficiary form. 3. A pen. Fill out the form and return it to the administrator.

Then call us to let us know about your generosity! It would be our honor to thank you for your gift.

If you have a will and previously worked with an estate planning attorney, it’s a good idea to include that person in your planning process when designating or updating your beneficiaries. Your attorney can make sure that as you add or adjust pieces of your estate plan, it remains cohesive and logical for your current circumstances.

To learn more about the Case Alumni Foundation and the opportunities available to establish an endowed fund, please visit casealum.planmylegacy.org/.