Case Alumnus Spring 2021

The Magazine of the Case Alumni Association since 1921

Spring 2021

THE GLASS GURU Arun Varshneya, MS ’68, PhD ’70

PANDEMIC TEACHING: WHAT WORKED?

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ALUMNI ADVICE FOR THE CLASS OF 2021

SAVE THE DATE HOMECOMING

2021

OCTOBER

21-24

A WIDER WELCOME We anticipate welcoming alumni back to campus for Homecoming 2021. But we realize some will want to engage from home. So we’re planning a mix of live and online events.

Find updates and details at casealumni.org/homecoming

YourCase/YourChoice

CASE FUND®

ISSACS

ENVOYS

The Case Fund supports current and future Case engineers and scientists by allowing funds to be appropriated at the Dean’s discretion. These funds could be used for scholarships, laboratory upgrades, state-of-the-art technology or many other areas that support students, faculty and researchers.

The Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems aims to make the university a research leader in the Internet of Things, which will underpin the future of cities, factories and healthcare. Your support will help faculty and students apply IoT technology to projects that create jobs and solve problems in the community.

The Envoys programs helps high school students from under-resourced schools discover STEM fields and dive into science. Each year, students are selected for immersion into research, mentorship and STEM coursework on Case Quad. With your support, we can reach many more potential scientists and engineers.

TO LEARN MORE VISIT CASEALUMNI.ORG/CAMPAIGNS

Dean’s Message

Better days, exciting times ahead As we prepare to close the book on an academic year that was anything but typical, we do so with an increased feeling of hope and growing confidence that a return to normal — even a slightly modified version of normal — is imminent.

Over the past year, we, as a university, have continued to find ways to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

At this time last year, our faculty, staff and students were working together to manufacture much-needed personal protection equipment (PPE) and other tools

…we look forward to multiple homecomings, starting with the return of our full student body to campus and, later, with our alumni as we host an in-person homecoming celebration once again. for our frontline healthcare workers. Our community continues to work toward solutions for the pandemic, although today it’s in the form of staffing our on-campus vaccine clinic and working with local health departments to develop specialized carriers to keep those much sought-after vaccinations safe.

Last year, we celebrated commencement in a fully-virtual format. This year, we feel fortunate to be able to celebrate our graduates with in-person ceremonies. Though limited in terms of attendance, our graduates will have the opportunity to celebrate their achievements with their peers.

As I look ahead to the coming months, we have much to anticipate. On July 1, we will welcome fellow engineer Eric Kaler as he takes on the role of president of Case Western Reserve University. In the fall, we look forward to multiple homecomings, starting with the return of our full student body to campus and, later, with our alumni as we host an in-person homecoming celebration once again.

The past year has tested us in ways we could have never imagined. We have lost, we have learned and, hopefully, we have gained a new appreciation for the simple things in life we may have previously taken for granted. I remain grateful for the immense strength and perseverance I have seen from our alumni, students, faculty and staff — but also look ahead to the coming months with a great sense of relief and hope for better days to come.

Thank you for your continued support of the Case School of Engineering. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Best regards, Venkataramanan “Ragu” Balakrishnan Charles H. Phipps Dean, Case School of Engineering

Spring 2021

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Encouraging words I love words of wisdom, maybe because I have so few to offer. “You’re not as good as you think you are,” is what I would tell my 22-year-old self.

Thanks to Case alumni, our new graduates have a deeper font of knowledge to draw from. They maybe have more need for it, too.

The Class of 2021 endured a year like no other.

The cancellations and disappointments fell like the rain. Too many suffered a grievous loss. They have come out on the other side of a pandemic with hard-earned Case degrees. Now what? Now this: Have dreams and goals….

Take care of yourself….

The Case Alumnus is published quarterly for members and friends of the Case Alumni Association, which serves the interests of more than 20,000 alumni of the Case School of Applied Science, Case Institute of Technology and the Case School of Engineering.

Established in 1885 by the first five graduates of the Case School of Applied Science, the Case Alumni Association is the oldest independent alumni association of engineering and applied science graduates in the nation.

The Case Alumnus is a publication of the Case Alumni Association, Inc., a 501(c)3 public charity under the IRS code.

Take notes and take risks…

Eighteen of our alumni, all men and women of achievement, are helping send off our May graduates with guidance they would give to their younger selves. They are speaking to members of the Class of 2021, but their advice is timeless.

You, too, will get a boost hearing from people like Ka-Pi Hoh ’84, MS ’87, PhD ’89. She’s one of the top scientists at Lubrizol Corp. but also a change agent who helped establish its research centers in England and China. How does she do it?

“Network broadly to understand how the organization works and who does what,” she advises. “Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know… and, even more importantly, how you work with them.”

She adds: There are more opportunities to be successful doing something you enjoy.

I was anxious to hear back from Bruce Banks ’64, the top patent producer at NASA Glenn. What’s his secret?

Keep a notepad by your bedside, he advises, for those late-night flashes of brilliance. Also, examine what would happen if you did the opposite of what you know is a possible solution.

Hmmm.

Many of you had the chance to hear from Don Thomas ’77, PhD, the NASA astronaut who delivered a riveting keynote address at our Engineers Week Reception in 2020. Don told a tale of epic perseverance.

He followed a boyhood dream to the stars, again and again.

When you read his counsel, I think you’ll agree it could help young alumni to realize their dreams. I think you’ll also appreciate that he wants them to experience that kind of success and satisfaction in life. We all do.

Godspeed to the Class of 2021.

Robert L. Smith Editor Robert.Smith@casealum.org

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casealumni.org

CASE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, INC. Tomlinson Hall, Room 109 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106-1712 216-231-4567 casealum@casealum.org casealumni.org

OFFICERS Sunniva Collins, MS ’91, PhD ’94, President Ron Cass ’84, 1st Vice President Joe Fakult ’90, 2nd Vice President Brian Casselberry ’95, Treasurer Frank Merat ’72, MS ’75, PhD ’78, Assistant Treasurer Curtis Grant ’11, MEM ‘12, Secretary

STAFF Stephen Zinram, Executive Director Thomas Conlon, Chief Financial Officer Emily Speer, Director of Gift Planning and Grants Compliance Robert L. Smith, Director of Communications Kelly Hendricks, Director of Alumni Relations Ryan Strine, Director of Annual Giving Janna Greer, Manager of Donor Relations and Grants Lillian Messner, Manager of Digital Content and Design Pamela Burtonshaw, Database Manager Melissa Slager, Manager, Executive Office

CASE ALUMNUS Robert L. Smith, Editor Lillian Messner, Art Director Steve Toth, Toth Creative Group, Layout and Design Duke Print & Mail Solutions

PHOTO CREDITS Wetzler’s Photography Roadell Hickman Photography Flaticon.com, Icons

THE MAGAZINE OF THE CASE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SINCE 1921 To serve and advance the interests of the Case School of Engineering, the math and applied sciences of Case Western Reserve University and its alumni and students.

Spring 2021

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ISSACS rising

A tech-savvy institute aims to make CWRU a leader in the Internet of Things.

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Teaching through Covid

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Redesigning labs, lectures and lessons, Case professors responded to one of the greatest challenges of their time.

Cover Story A Gold Medal career

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Alumnus Arun Varshneya advanced glass science to meet the needs of smartphones and medicine. Then he launched a company and saved lives.

Words to live by Case alumni offer life advice to the Class of 2021

Alumni Adventures 26 Wild blue yonder Already an aerobatic pilot,

Stephen Becker aims even higher.

Engineering+ 27 How’s your emotional IQ? Joe Mayer can help you to

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collaborate and lead as an engineer or scientist.

DEPARTMENTS 1 2 4 7 10 24 28 33 35 36

Dean’s Message Editor’s column Letters, posts and emails Around the Quad Alumni Newsmakers NewsBytes Class Notes In Memoriam Tribute — David Baldwin ’49 Long We'll Remember

Cover photo by Jim Buckley of Buckley Creative Works.

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Spring 2021

3

Letters, posts and emails The Centennial edition of Case Alumnus inspired memories and many letters, including these: Great issue celebrating 100 years!

I especially enjoyed the article on the “Zooming” Phi Kaps. As a Phi Kap myself, I knew some of those mentioned, who were seniors when we were freshmen.

FYI, we also have a group of brothers from 1963-65 who keep in touch via group emails (we’re not quite ready for Zoom). We also have an in-person reunion each September (not this year,

because of Covid).

And there’s another, larger group of brothers who graduated a couple years after us who also get together bi-annually.

Ed McHenry, a former president of the CAA, is a member of that group.

Best regards, Bob Smialek ’65, MS ’67, PhD ’70 Dublin, Ohio rsmialek@columbus.rr.com

While I was sad to read of Professor Dov Hazony's passing in the Case Alumnus magazine, I was happy to see that he was honored on a page in the magazine. He had an enormous influence on my life path. I wasn't initially a serious student at Case, but he became my senior project advisor and he eventually suggested that I pursue a master's degree, something that never occurred to me. I eventually received the PhD degree in electrical engineering from UVA, was a professor in ECE for 18 years at NMSU and UA, and was honored as a Fellow of the IEEE for my research in error-correcting codes.

William E. Ryan ’81, PhD • Oro Valley, AZ • fastbiba@gmail.com

I have several comments related to the Winter 2021 issue: Dr. Schuele was my advisor for my freshman year. He always put the needs of the students as his priority.

It was interesting to read how John Jenkins ’54 used the room lamps to heat his food. Our freshman class was the first in the new dorms in the quadrangle. We would draw the drapes so the resident grad students could not see in the room. Then we would lay our wet laundry over the lamps to dry them. Being short of funds, we did not want to spend the 10 cents for each 10 minutes of the dorm dryers.

After I went off the food plan my sophomore year, I would get a huge jar of peanut butter and a huge jar of jelly.

With some bread and carefully eating from the top down to minimize spoilage, I had PB&J sandwiches for weeks. My goal was meals for the week for less than $10.

Final note: When Case and WRU merged our senior year, we were given the option of graduating with a CWRU degree or a CIT degree. I chose CIT. Fond memories all,

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James (Jim) J. Genova, ’68 (physics), PhD Whitsett, NC jimlx90@gmail.com

Reading the letters from ’50s alumni in the winter 2021 Alumnus issue brought back two special memories of life at CIT. The first, pure pleasure, and the second was at my expense.

We were blessed to have a world-class orchestra and conductor right across the street. Several of us formed an organization, in name only, The Symphony Forum.

Subsequently, the Physics Department Chairman, Professor Shanklin, arranged for us to attend concerts, recording sessions, rehearsals and participate as supernumeraries when the Metropolitan Opera came to Cleveland. This resulted in lifelong memories of George Szell-led performances often featuring world-renowned soloists and leading opera performers.

The second memory was of an occurrence on a cold crisp Saturday morning while walking from the campus to the nearby Tasty-Burger restaurant for

breakfast. Dressed in a warm winter coat, hat and gloves and striding down Euclid Avenue, I was pleasantly surprised that everyone I passed had a smile on their face. Feeling really great as I walked, the reactions of everyone I passed confirmed my belief that the morning was perfect and the whole world was in order. Only later when two little girls passed me did I learn the truth. As they walked by, I heard one say to the other, “He must be from Case, he has his coat buttoned wrong.”

Richard Socash ’60 Boulder, CO Rege.So@gmail.com

SUBMIT YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR Send by email to: Casealum@casealum.org

Or by mail to:

Case Alumnus Tomlinson Hall, Room 109 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland OH 44106

Reading of James McGuffin-Cawley’s promotion to Faculty Director of Sears think[box] prompted Wendy Gibbons ’82 to share her own connection to the innovation center: My husband, John Gibbons (BSEE ’81, MSEE ’83), has been the lab director of the EECS lab since October 2016 and works near the Sears think[box] maker space. In 2018 he took training to allow him to use various tools at think[box].

Over the weeks that John was training, he would tell me about his latest certification. His excitement about completing

the training for all 10 sets of tools inspired me to ask an artist friend to create the attached “think[box]er” artwork for John.

It is displayed in his office in 314 Glennan.

Wendy (Mead) Gibbons, BSSE ’82 Macedonia, OH gibbonsw71@windstream.net

The Engineering Game was fantastic. Jim Kilmer was an excellent host. It was so enjoyable to see the students, faculty and alumni as participants. And yes, it was interesting listening to the dean and incoming president. Good job to everyone involved in the event.

Susie Nagorney ’76 Pepper Pike, OH via Facebook

Alex Trebek. Jim Kilmer ’00, MS ’00, has a real talent for the adlib.

Tom Kicher ’59, MS ’62, PhD ’65 Willoughby Hills, OH tom@kicher.com

Congratulations on a well-executed event! It was great to see the engineers presenting a light-hearted event and having fun. You have to go back to the ’50s and remember Stunt Night to find engineers enjoying some comic relief.

The program also presented a serious side, which deserves kudos.

By the way, Ken Jennings may have some real competition in replacing

I just saw the recording of the Engineering Game as I was unable to watch it live. Frankly, I did not know what to expect, but figured it would be hokey and dull. Boy was I wrong. Jim, you could have a second career on TV. The late great Alex Trebek could not have done a better job.

Absolutely first rate. I did not even fast forward for a minute as I was glued to my screen. And, that says a lot after a year of Zoom meetings, webinars, arbitrations, mediations and depositions. Not a week goes by when I am not on Zoom for a dozen hours or more. But, this was special.

It was incredibly well produced. The selection of contestants was terrific. Frankly, I am truly glad that I was not asked to participate as an alum as I would have had an embarrassing lack of knowledge and would have added nothing. The panelists were perfect. The presentation of the Gutti Memorial Teaching Award added to the program as Debra McGivney clearly is an outstanding professor to whom students would relate and as a recruiting tool, she is a star.

Again, congratulations to all. Totally great job. And, yes, this should be an annual event. I would bet that next year even more people will attend. Hopefully, it can be done before a “live studio audience” next year as well as broadcast on the net.

Stay well, Michael Diamant ’68 Shaker Heights, OH MDiamant@taftlaw.com Spring 2021

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Letters, posts and emails

Thanks for the tribute to my late friend, Donald E. Schuele, PhD ’63, in the last issue of Case Alumnus.

However, I would like to point out the greatest achievement that Don made to Case and the University, which was the creation and execution of the competitive Merit Scholarship Program. In my opinion, it saved Case and the University in the years following federation.

Enrollment at Case Tech had declined in the early 1970s from 500-550 per year

to under 250 by 1972.

The University was in deficit and prospects were bleak. Don was dean of the undergraduates at Case Tech and admissions were under his charge. With the help of Brownie Neff ’32, Don met with Kelvin Smith and outlined an idea for a new merit-based scholarship program based on a competitive exam for admitted students.

Kelvin Smith went to President Lou Toepfer and gave him a check for $250,000 and said he would tell him what it was for in three weeks! During that time, Don and his friend, Jack Lohwater, a great mathematician and teacher, drafted the program. They would invite students to campus each spring to take a two-part math exam and either a chemistry, physics or biology exam. A faculty committee would determine the top 10 students to receive a full-tuition scholarship, regardless of financial need.

The objective was to recruit the very best to Case. In addition, stellar students would visit campus, meet faculty and similar students and help attract others to come to Case.

Don approached the CAA and asked

for 30 additional one-half tuition scholarships to award runners-up. Thus, Don had 10 full-tuition and 30 half scholarships fully funded for four years to attract the best and brightest. The program attracted almost 200 students and parents the first year. More than half eventually enrolled.

With the addition of eight full-tuition scholarships from the Horsburgh family and two from Alex Truehaft, the numbers grew to more than 800 students over two weekends. Enrollment soared and by 1980 Case Tech had more than 2,000 undergraduates, the most in history.

The real secret to this success was the opportunity for Don and Jack to address the parents while their children were taking the tests. They walked the stage of Strosacker talking about the importance of a strong background in math and physics and how Case placed students in the right academic classes.

Parents remarked about how this was the first school that talked about academics first! And, while they waited for their children to finish the exam, a huge lunch was served in Fribley Commons and Don was there to answer their questions. After lunch, students met with faculty members.

Don also revamped all the recruiting materials with the help of the late George Havens ’49, an advertising and marketing executive. This, coupled with the competitive merit scholarship program, saved Case and helped the University to recover.

Roger H. Cerne ’63 Executive Director Emeritus Case Alumni Association

I was pleasantly surprised when I received my Winter 2021 Case Alumnus this past week to find a large two-page article in the magazine presenting information about my background (“Curiously Brilliant”). I found the article very well written, factual and consistent with my thoughts and perspectives from my experiences resulting from my education at Case.

It is with great pride that I have experienced many benefits resulting from my education at Case that your article so nicely presented. Thank you for your efforts.

Regards, Bruce Banks ’64 • Olmstead Township, Ohio • bruce.a.banks@nasa.gov 6

casealumni.org

Around the Quad Commencement 2021

After polling students, the university opts for in-person graduation ceremonies

In another sign of return to normalcy, Case Western Reserve University will hold limited in-person commencement ceremonies beginning May 16.

The decision came after a poll of graduating seniors and graduate students found that more than half would “definitely” attend live events and another 21 percent said they would “probably” be there.

University leaders also expressed encouragement in the accelerating rates of vaccinations and lowered prevalence of Covid-19 in the region and on campus.

The positivity rate on campus, where testing is widespread, has steadily decreased since January and in March dipped below 0.5 percent, interim President Scott Cowen reported to staff and faculty.

“Like many of you, we treasure the tradition of graduates coming together to celebrate their achievements and receive the diplomas they worked so hard to earn,” Cowen said in a March 19 email to hopeful graduates. “We were glad to read that so many of you felt similar sentiments.”

Still, the university intends to continue precautions, including physical distancing.

Instead of a mass gathering, plans call for several smaller ceremonies for specific schools and colleges. Also, attendance will be limited to the graduates themselves and select faculty and staff.

Cowen expressed regret that parents will not be allowed to attend. All events will take place on Freiberger Field and will be livestreamed so family and friends

can watch them unfold in real time. Here are more details: • Plans call for in-person graduation ceremonies for schools awarding professional or graduate degrees, including the Case School of Engineering • The first two ceremonies, for law and medicine, will take place on Sunday, May 16.

• Undergraduate ceremonies, including those for engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences, will take place on Sunday, May 30 • The remaining schools’ diploma ceremonies will happen on the preceding Friday and Saturday (May 28-29) The university cautions that public health conditions could force plans to change. Times and updates will be posted at case.edu/commencement/about/ 2021-commencement-updates.

Go STEM and go bold

Alumna delivered encouraging words to Case students tuned into the annual SWE luncheon

Keynote speaker Hang Loi (top row, third from left) preached courage and resilience.

Nearly 80 people, mostly female science and engineering majors, Zoomed into the annual luncheon of the Society of Women Engineers during Engineers Week in February. They beamed as Hang Loi ’88 advised them to stride boldly into their chosen careers, for they were already well on their way to success.

“A STEM degree makes you marketable,” said Loi, an engineer and inventor at 3M in Minneapolis. “And being marketable is a sign of career success.”

Loi earned her bachelor’s degree in

chemical engineering at Case, but also a bachelor’s degree in piano through the Department of Music. While she did not go on to play professionally, she believes music lends her an edge in innovation.

“Music gave me bragging rights,” she said. “It gave me confidence that I could do something difficult.”

Loi rose through the engineering ranks at 3M, where she is the Global Supplier Relationship Manager for its consumer electronics business. In November, she was honored by the

Society of Women Engineers at the WE20 Virtual Conference for two patents she recently attained for innovations to multilayer optical films.

Her luncheon address, moved online because of the pandemic, was titled “Courage and Resilience.” She urged the students to practice self-reflection and to set goals.

“If you can, really, really, really try to set 5- to 10-year goals,” she said. “Just really focus on yourself and figure out where you want to go. What do you want to achieve?”

If you’re not sure, seek advice, Loi said. Ask questions — she wishes she had asked more. Then march forward with confidence.

“The world needs more scientists and engineers,” she said.

Learn more about the CWRU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers at cwru.swe.org/.

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Around the Quad New material world

White Hall will become a bigger, brighter place for materials scientists

The construction underway in the Charles M. White Metallurgy Building, home to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been a long time coming. It was more than 10 years ago that a visiting committee recommended dramatic updates to a building designed for an earlier era.

The wait will have been worth it, promises Jim McGuffin-Cawley, PhD ’84, the former department chair and the Arthur S. Holden Professor of Engineering. A $1.2 million renovation will result in a new entranceway from Case Quad, a stateof-the-art materials science lab and new spaces for networking and collaboration.

“It’s going to have a completely different look and feel,” said McGuffin-Cawley, who began fundraising for the project a decade ago. “It’s going to just change things for a generation of students.”

Opened in 1961, White Hall is a hard-to-navigate warren of sharp turns and outdated spaces. For example, it has four dark rooms designed for imaging equipment seldom used anymore.

Come fall, when it reopens, students, faculty and visitors will stroll into a bright, glass-walled lobby that showcases a new Materials Teaching Laboratory.

McGuffin-Cawley hopes a roomy new

student lounge will foster more of the faculty-student interaction that is a hallmark of a Case education.

The renovations should be completed in time for the start of fall classes and for alumni tours at Homecoming in October. Meanwhile, the Department of Materials Sciences is seeking to raise funds to furnish the lab with modern materials science equipment, including a tabletop scanning electron microscope, an X-ray diffractometer and a thermalanalysis system.

To learn more about how to help, go to casealumni.org/give/ and choose “Materials Science.”

Sharing the thrill of engineering

As a leader of Robotics for All, freshman Garrett Tieng is helping pull more youth into STEM

By John Garcia ’21 Garrett Tieng ’24 threw himself into robotics in high school, reading up on strategies and collaborating with friends on his Botball team. But he did more than explore his own passion for engineering. He found ways to open doors for others.

At age 15, Tieng became a teacher for Robotics for All, a collective of volunteers launched by a former high school robotics teammate in Palo Alto, California. The non-profit group provides free STEM classes and robotics training to youth who might not otherwise have the opportunity.

Now a first year at the Case School of Engineering, Tieng is the vice president 8

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and chief operating officer of a crusade with impact.

Since its start in 2017, Robotics for All has grown to encompass more than 220 volunteers like himself. Meanwhile, more than 1,200 K-8th grade student have been trained through its online and in-person (pre-pandemic) courses. Tieng oversees the development of curricula for online coding classes and is anxious to return to a live classroom environment. He’d love to again see children learning the fundamentals of robotics with Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits.

“It was such a joy to be able to share my passion with students who otherwise may not have been able to experience robotics,” he said.

As a volunteer instructor, Tieng discovered a love for teaching. He would like to bring Robotics for All to more

underserved communities. Tieng created a Board of Directors to lend the organization more structure and helped transition to remote classes when Covid-19 hit. In the summer of 2020, he directed the development of online classes in Fundamentals of Programming, Python and Scratch.

Meanwhile, he continues to explore engineering as a mechanical and aerospace engineering major and as a member of the Case Aeronautics Team, where he helps design planes for competitions and memes with friends.

If engineering schools find more STEM-enthused youth in the years ahead, it may well be because of recruiters like Garrett Tieng.

Learn more about Robotics for All at robiticsforall.net.

ISSACS rising One of the newest engineering institutes at CWRU is leading the region into the Internet of Things.

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s there a Ring doorbell on your home? Do you wear an activity tracker that counts your steps and heartbeats? Does your manufacturing plant use sensors to monitor key systems and machines?

If so, you’re already touched by the Internet of Things, an emerging technology where routine devices connect to larger networks to enhance their impact and efficiency. So promising is IoT in manufacturing alone that some experts see a “fourth industrial revolution” on the horizon.

One of the newest institutes to spring from the Case School of Engineering is poised to seize the moment. ISSACS, the Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems, hopes to make CWRU a research leader in this interconnected world.

“Developing new courses and labs is a priority for ISSACS, because preparing our students for a connected, digital future, regardless of their major, is critical,” said Nick Barendt ’95, MS ’98, an adjunct professor in the Case School of Engineering and the executive director of ISSACS. The institute was born in 2016 at CSE to develop expertise in the emerging Internet of Things, often defined as the array of internet-connected objects and systems of everyday life. IoT is expected to impact both industries and communities, government and medicine as it creates new troves of data and ways to act upon that data.

To create the institute, Case faculty collaborated with the Case Alumni Association and members of the Silicon Valley Task Force, including computing pioneer Donald Knuth ’60, who suggested adding the focus on internet security. Originally, the title embraced only smart and connected systems.

“Don Knuth said, ‘You’re missing something,’” recalled Ken Loparo, PhD ’77, the founding academic director of ISSACS. “I said, ‘What?” He said, ‘Security.’ That’s how it became ISSACS with two Ss.” In 2018, ISSACS was promoted to a university-wide institute to better coordinate efforts across campus and with regional partners. For example, ISSACS is a charter member of the IoT Collaborative, a partnership with Cleveland State University that aims to use IoT to enhance the economy and the quality of life in Northeast Ohio.

Since its inception, ISSACS has attracted about $15 million in research funding. The Cleveland Foundation has invested significantly in capacity building – providing money for new engineering courses and recruiting and hiring faculty with IoT expertise. As a result, the institute supports a growing array of student and faculty projects that aim to apply IoT to solve problems and create jobs: • Working with internet provider DigitalC, a Case visiting scholar is trying to close the digital divide in Cleveland by building out a low-cost broadband network. The pandemic showed this to be a critical need as urban children were thrown into remote learning with internet access in their homes.

• In collaboration with Cuyahoga County and the Fund for Our Economic Future, Case researchers plan to apply technology to address the “spatial mismatch” separating city residents from job centers and

try to devise solutions.

• The U.S. Department of Energy is supporting an effort by Loparo to identify ways to use smartmanufacturing technologies to improve productivity and energy efficiency at a local factory.

The early success of ISSACS is gratifying to Loparo, who helped to create the institute while chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

“

Developing new courses and labs is a priority for ISSACS, because preparing our students for a connected, digital future, regardless of their major, is critical.

”

He brought Barendt to campus from the Cleveland software industry in 2015 to begin teaching Introduction to Connected Devices and to marshal expertise. Six years later, that class is part of an IoT ecosystem spreading beyond campus.

“ISSACS builds on the foundational technologies of IoT — sensing, networking and communications, data analytics, security, control and decision-making — to fuel the digital transformation in communities and industry,” Loparo said.

“New courses and projects with community and industry partners provides unique opportunities for our students and faculty.”

ISSACS was showcased in the university’s “Think Big: Institutes and Centers Campaign” in February. Learn more about the institute and the campaign at case.edu/issacs/.

Spring 2021

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ALUMNI

newsmakers

Alumni newsmakers

Mission possible

Case-trained scientists are helping NASA explore Mars for signs of life

The nation was riveted as the Perseverance rover descended to Mars February 18 at the end of a parachute.

But few watched as intently as the Case alumni at Gooch & Housego, a global leader in photonics technology in the Cleveland suburb of Highland Heights.

Katie Colbaugh ’13, MS ’15, and Matt Whittaker ’96, MSE ’00, PhD ’07, are crystal growth scientists. They grew crystals that were packed aboard Perseverance to help analyze soil and send the images back to Earth. Their experiments could speed the answer to the mission’s key question: did the Red Planet once support life?

The rover will collect rocks that will be returned to Earth 10 years from now, but the work of the Case alumni will help scientists to analyze pictures much

sooner. Their crystal is a core component in the rover’s SuperCam, which can analyze the chemical makeup of Martian soil on the spot.

“If there was life present, they might have left traces of evidence,” Colbaugh explained to News 5, the ABC affiliate in Cleveland.

She described feeling a “wow factor,” knowing that a crystal she helped grow is now a part of the exploration of Mars.

“I think we lose sight of the exciting technology that we’re doing here because we’re used to it and we’re here every day, and so an event like this was certainly exciting for all of us here,” she said.

Gooch & Housego’s Highland Heights facility is one of the few places in the world growing crystals to use for such devices.

“It’s very exciting to see the rover land,” Whitaker agreed, “but it’s the people that are going to be working in the rooms analyzing data for years to come where all of the discoveries are going to start.”

He said he's looking forward to the data and research to follow.

“I can tell you that everybody who works in this facility was at home watching that landing, and I was too and it was really exciting,” said Whittaker, who earned all three of his Case degrees in materials science. “This is just the beginning of the science. The engineering challenge to get here was extremely impressive and they pulled it off, it looked like perfectly, but now — to me — is when the fun part of the details and all the analysis starts.”

Unforgettable lessons

With a $2 million gift, Bob Herbold supports inspired teaching Former Microsoft COO Bob Herbold, MS ’66, PhD ’68, gained a lifetime of inspiration from his education at Case Institute of Technology. Fifty years later, he still keeps in touch with his favorite math professor, Richard Varga ’50, PhD. “Professor Varga was a tremendous

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mentor — so much so that I still speak to him several times a year,” Herbold told The Daily, the university’s online news source, in announcing an uncommon gift.

To foster great teaching in the Case tradition, Herbold committed $2 million to endow a first-of-its-kind professorship at the Case School of Engineering. The Robert J. Herbold Professor of Transformative Teaching professorship will recognize and support a faculty member who excels at teaching and mentoring.

The first professorship will be held

by Harold Connamacher, professor of computer and data science.

“Recently, I had an opportunity to monitor a class taught by Harold Connamacher and was really impressed,” said Herbold, who earned his master’s degree in mathematics and his doctorate in computer science at CIT. “Through this professorship, I hope to be able to recognize and reward teachers, like Harold, who are extraordinary in their field.”

Healthy pivot

Alumna leads food-tech startup to early success As president and CEO of Foster Farms, Laura Flanagan ’90 led one of the largest poultry producers in the western United States. She left the meat business in 2019, when she became president of Ripple Foods, a California-based maker of plant-based foods and beverages intended to be nutritious and sustainable.

She may be just what the non-dairy

milk needed.

Ripple reported double-digit sales growth in 2020, its fifth year in business, and is expanding its distribution and product offerings. NutritionInvestor. com, which covers investment in the food and beverage industry, noted that Ripple’s rise coincides with the addition of key new executives, including Flanagan.

She reports feeling right at home.

“I gravitated to our mission of creating food that is good for people and good for

the planet,” Flanagan said. “We are building a great team to take Ripple's growth to the next level.”

Flanagan earned her bachelor’s degree in systems and control engineering at Case and worked as a manufacturing engineer for Saturn Corp. before earning her MBA at Stanford and entering the food industry.

A supporter of her alma mater, she earned the Case Alumni Association’s Meritorious Service Award in 2013 while president of the Snack Division of ConAgra Foods.

Scholar athlete

Spartan football standout Patrick Crossey earns prestigious NCAA award As a captain of the Spartan football team, Patrick Crossey ’20 led the team to two PAC Championships and a pair of NCAA Playoff berths — while earning a 3.81 grade point average as a civil engineering major.

He’s now working for a construction company in the Washington D.C. area, but the collegiate honors continue.

Crossey in February was awarded the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, which recognizes student athletes who excelled both academically and athletically in the last year of their eligibility. The honor includes a

$10,000 scholarship for graduate school.

Crossey is the seventh player in the history of CWRU football to earn the prestigious award. He follows Cody Calhoun ’18, now a scientist and clinical research assistant for the Ohio State University College of Medicine, and Dayton Snyder ’16, a biomedical engineer and cancer researcher at CWRU. A starting safety all four years, Crossey ended his career ranked ninth in program history in tackles, with 294. He was also a leader in his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, where he served as secretary.

Crossey specialized in construction management in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In July he started with Grunley Construction Co. as an engineer. He said he would like to use the NCAA scholarship to pursue an MBA.

Electric innovator

Another engineering professor joins the National Academy of Inventors The research of Professor Rohan Akolkar, PhD ’04, has resulted in new nano-materials and electrochemical fabrication processes.

Those discoveries have in turn enabled production of highperformance microprocessors used in computers, cell phones and other electronics devices.

His success pushing the envelope in electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering has not gone unnoticed.

In February, Akolkar was elected to the

National Academy of Inventors as a Senior Member, recognizing him as one of the nation’s top young academic scientists.

A chemical engineer, Akolkar is the fourth CSE faculty member to be selected for the academy in the past year. He follows in the footsteps of Anant Madabhushi, the Donnell Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Umut Gurkan, associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and Scott Bruder, adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering.

Dean Venkataramanan “Ragu” Balakrishnan said Akolkar’s election was well-deserved and enhances Case’s

research reputation.

“His field-leading work in electrochemistry, his leadership at the Great Lakes Energy Institute, and the meaningful partnerships he has established with our national laboratories have helped to cement Case Western Reserve’s position as a leader in catalyzing breakthroughs in energy and sustainability,” the dean said.

Akolkar, the faculty director of the Great Lakes Energy Institute, earned his doctorate in chemical engineering from the Case School of Engineering and won numerous industry awards and patents during his eight-year tenure in research and development at Intel.

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Katie Wheaton's class Zooms into ECIV 360, Civil Engineering Systems.

Teaching through Covid When the pandemic struck, Case professors became education innovators. They’re not done yet.

By Robert L. Smith

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ormally, Larry Sears ’69 would prepare his students for their exploration into electric circuits in the classroom–with lectures where he could see the light, or bewilderment, in their eyes.

Then he paired them into project teams for the lab. Covid-19 brought an abrupt halt to such face-to-face interaction.

The Wittke Award-winning instructor needed to find a new way to impart knowledge. Fast.

Soon into the pandemic year, students became intimately familiar with Sears’ basement office, the new epicenter of Applied Circuits Design. He had added more cameras to his computer, installed 12

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“It was an interesting experience, no doubt about it.”

As they learned Circuits, Larry Sears' students became familiar with the home office of an engineer.

blinds to dim the sunlight, and practiced Zoom lectures on his wife, Sally, as he polished teaching from home.

He also made instructional videos to relay key skills, like how to use an oscilloscope, mindful that his students were now without lab partners, learning alone.

“They did fine, they really did,” said Sears, an adjunct professor in the Case School of Engineering. “But I could tell it was harder. It was an interesting experience, no doubt about it.”

When the pandemic struck, CSE professors and teaching assistants scrambled to design safe, socially-distanced instruction, pretty much innovating on the fly. Their novel approaches, widely introduced in the fall of 2020, continued with spring semester, which began February 1. By then, a sense of urgency had cooled into a measure of confidence.

Something was working.

Curious news arrived with course evaluations in November. In the endof-class surveys, Case students heaped praise on their teachers and in general expressed satisfaction with the quality of instruction in the time of Covid. Donald Feke ’76, MS ’77, PhD, the vice provost for Undergraduate Education at CWRU, reported that fall 2020 classes attained some of the highest-rated reviews of recent years.

“We took these as very good signs that students are appreciative of the efforts” being made by the university and its professors, Feke said.

Those efforts created smaller in-person classes and labs, online classes and hybrid classes — a blend of the two approaches.

New teaching systems emerged, aided by technology and, often, by a professor’s personality. When the pandemic finally passes, many of the solutions may endure.

A video star is born Michael Hore, PhD, had been teaching Physical Chemistry for Engineers for five years when the pandemic made

Stage lights, a green screen and recording-quality microphone helped Professor Mike Hore deliver lectures from home.

“As I told my students, I don’t think online education is a substitute for in-person. But if you take is seriously, it can be just as fulfilling — or pretty close.”

Mike Hore, associate professor of Macromolecular Science and Engineering

his 75-minute lecture classes obsolete.

His third-year students would be taking EMAC 351 remotely, and at different times, as they tuned into recorded classes from time zones around the world.

Hore, an associate professor of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, needed to find a way to explain thermodynamics in bite-sized, pre-recorded lessons.

But how?

“I watch a lot of YouTube videos,” he said. “I bought a nice microphone and a GoPro camera and a mic stand.”

He became an academic filmmaker.

From a home office fashioned into a studio, Hore produced videos inspired

by YouTube shows like “Minute Physics.”

Across the fall semester, he created some 40 videos of about 30 minutes each: Colorful programs with narration, still photos and special effects.

He blended in live lectures and live office hours, where he answered questions.

“The students really liked it. They said it was engaging,” he said. “I guess it reinforces my belief that art is everywhere in science!”

Hore continued his custom video approach in the spring semester with EMAC 352, Polymer Physics and Engineering, which required a new library of videos. And he assumes he will be using the broadcast strategy into the future.

As necessity spurs invention, the pandemic pushed educators to find new teaching strategies and even to launch new classes.

Some physics professors had custommade lab kits sent to students’ homes to ensure that laboratory experiences were not lost. Some departments invited only a few students to smaller in-person labs for hands-on work, then had them share the results with team members.

And some launched whole new courses.

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New look at the land Katie Wheaton’s students are among the most visible on campus.

Every fall, you see them scattered around Case Quad, standing behind colorful tripods as they peer through total stations and measure the lay of the land. ECIV 160, Surveying & Computer Graphics, was an especially popular class fall semester.

“We survey outside, and the students were grateful to have an opportunity to be on campus with classmates in a safe setting,” said Wheaton ’01, an instructor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

But not everyone could enjoy the live experience. Two weeks before the start of the school year, the university announced it would not offer university housing to sophomores and juniors, a dramatic effort to trim the campus population. Many of Wheaton’s 30 students — about half the class — had to learn from home. Surveying the Quad was not an option for them.

“The last thing you want is for them to sit and look at PowerPoint slides on Zoom,” said Wheaton, a Gutti Memorial Teaching Award winner.

“This whole endeavor to rethink our curriculum, it really makes you assess how you’ve been teaching.”

The department had been planning to add high-end computer drafting to the curriculum. Suddenly, the time was ripe. ECIV 160B, Building Information Modeling & Computer Graphics, was born. The students Zooming in from home learned how to use 3D modeling software from adjunct Phil Nagle of Osborn Engineering, an expert in BIM. Since they were all on the same computer screen, they could access and learn the software simultaneously, much as if they were in a computer lab.

“That’s been pretty neat,” Wheaton said.

In the future, she thinks she’ll keep some of the approaches adopted for remote teaching, including software training via Zoom.

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Engineering students learn surveying on Case Quad pre-pandemic.

NICE WORK

In course evaluations, students expressed satisfaction with the way their instructors taught through the pandemic

Forty-one percent of CWRU students filled out course evaluations at the end of fall semester, six points higher than the normal rate. The eager respondents were presented with three new, pandemic-related questions asking them to rate their classroom experience (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 meaning “strongly agree”).

1. The structure and format of the course adopted by the instructor to accommodate the pandemic-constrained learning environment were effective Average response: 4.33 2. During this semester, I had the opportunity to effectively engage with the instructor either virtually or in a socially-distanced in-person environment Average response: 4.28 3. I felt that my learning in this course was successful, despite the complications of the pandemic Average response: 4.24 Donald Feke ’76, MS ’77, PhD, the vice provost for Undergraduate Education at CWRU, sees a stellar report card.

“These results are quite good, and generally show that students were quite satisfied with their educational experience in the Fall 2020 semester despite the complications of the pandemic,” he wrote to staff and faculty.

That’s not all. The survey also asked students to provide their overall assessment of the course. Feke compared the Fall 2020 rating to the past three years.

Term

Overall rating of the course

Fall 2020

3.95

Fall 2019

3.82

Fall 2018

3.80

Fall 2017

3.78

The results show a higher rating for Fall 2020 courses compared to recent years, Feke observed.

The pandemic forced teachers to pivot quickly and often dramatically. Surveys show a key audience is impressed with the efforts.

“Before going into this, I would not have thought of that,” she said. “I think this challenge led to some improvements.

That’s one of the happy outcomes.”

The students who missed surveying can take the venerable class this fall, provided it fits with their schedule. If it does not, the requirement will be waived, satisfied by ECIV 160B. Everyone is mindful of what is lost as they seek to balance learning and safety.

Wish you were here Hore said exams and discussions indicated his students were learning what they needed to know.

“I would say their performance was as good as if they had taken the class (live),” he said. “I think they did well. As I told my students, I don’t think online education is a substitute for in-person. But if you take it seriously, it can be just as fulfilling — or pretty close.”

Sears said he missed the playful interaction and face-to-face collaboration with his students, whom he now saw through a computer screen.

“I couldn’t tell if they were laughing at my jokes,” he said. “I never learned what anybody really looked like.”

Mostly, he missed the one-on-one instruction and teamwork. Applied Circuits Design is lab intensive, as students work in pairs to build and test a circuit.

Now they had to do that on their own, then present their results to the class via Zoom.

Students still came into the Sears Design Laboratory in the Glennan building, but in limited numbers. They wore masks and were spaced apart.

“Teaching assistants offered guidance from a distance, but they couldn’t adjust equipment or inspect a student’s circuit,” said Sears, the lab’s namesake. “And, of course, working without a partner increased the workload and slowed students down.”

Sears added a Sunday morning Zoom lecture, which proved popular among the students. And it maybe helped that there were fewer social distractions during the pandemic.

Roomy work stations, small class sizes and masks allowed from some in-person instruction this spring, as with this civil engineering lab in Bingham.

“It was a challenge. But they frankly were not going to parties, so they probably had more time on their hands,” he said.

He’s not the only one eager to get back to live performances.

Missing the classroom For about 50 second-year students, Christine Duval’s class is their first three-credit dive into chemical engineering. Typically, ECHE 260 — Introduction to Chemical Systems — meets thrice weekly. Duval, an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering, likes to break the class into small groups for chats, “pair shares” and project work.

to walking around a classroom. You can drop in on a group and see what’s going on” — then call everyone back together to figure out a problem.

Her students learned chemical processes, how to apply the first law of thermodynamics, and the results on the final exam mirrored previous years.

“We went slower online. It’s just more cumbersome,” said Duval. “But I think it really forced you to look at your course and ask, ‘What are the concepts we absolutely want to learn here?’”

Despite her success with remote instruction, Duval was looking forward to spring semester and teaching Radiochemistry to a dozen graduate students.

“I was really nervous going into it, and I was a little pessimistic, but I think it went really well.”

Christine Duval, assistant professor of Chemical Engineering

Now they were all in a Zoom matrix on her computer screen. Gulp.

“I was really nervous going into it, and I was a little pessimistic, but I think it went really well,” she said. “It turns out Zoom has a lot of good features.”

Duval, whose creativity and energy had already earned her an Early Career Research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, dove into the new format.

She discovered the chat features and followed small groups into break-out rooms, which she described as “similar

Because ECHE 479 is a small class, and most graduate students live on or near campus, they could meet in-person. They could hold live group discussions.

There’s still no substitute for that, Duval said.

“I missed being in the classroom,” she said. “There’s a lot of energy you get from students. The computer screen just cuts that out. Teaching is fun!”

Questions or observations? Email casealum@casealum.org.

Spring 2021

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THE GLASS GURU

“

A Case education was always about using science for the betterment of society.

Saxon Glass Technologies, co-founded by Arun Varshneya, is the exclusive provider of glass cartridges for the lifesaving EpiPen. Photo by Olivia Piazza, Alfred University

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”

Propelled by “Case drive,” Arun Varshneya used glass science to build better products and save lives. He’ll receive our Gold Medal at Homecoming this fall.

By Robert L. Smith

A

run Varshneya, MS ’68, PhD ’70, was a college student in England in 1964, a young scientist curious about glass technology but unsure of his future, when Professor Alfred Cooper arrived from America. The visiting professor, one of the world’s foremost ceramicists, became his advisor in an honors engineering program. A mutual admiration blossomed. Quicker than Varshneya imagined possible, he was on a ship sailing across the Atlantic toward the promise of a full scholarship.

“It’s called destiny, I think,” Varshneya said recently. “Al Cooper and I hit it off.

He said, ‘Come join me at Case Institute of Technology.’ He was a glass guy.”

Varshneya came to Cleveland and became a glass guy: One of the best in the world.

In October, Varshneya plans to return to his alma mater to be honored at Homecoming & Reunion Weekend.

The entrepreneur and professor emeritus from Alfred University is to receive the Gold Medal award, the highest honor bestowed annually by the Case Alumni Association, in recognition of professional achievement and scientific leadership.

In the world of glass, Arun Varshneya is Waterford crystal — the top of the line.

For 30 years, he was a researcher and professor of glass engineering science at Alfred, Cooper’s alma mater and the only university in the nation with a PhD in glass science. His textbook, Fundamentals of Inorganic Glasses, now in its 3rd edition,

is the science’s bible. His innovations have earned him 10 patents and resulted in high-performance glass for smartphones and medical devices.

Most notably, Varshneya helped develop the chemicallystrengthened glass that allows the EpiPen to reliably deliver life-saving shots. That eureka moment led to his company, Saxon Glass Technologies.

“It’s quite amazing the number of things he’s been involved with over the years,” said former classmate Robert Smialek ’65, MS ’67, PhD ’70. “He’s quite a dynamic personality. He’s world renowned. And he’s a great guy, besides.”

Varshneya is generally soft-spoken but hard to miss under a full head of pepper-sprinkled white hair. His broad face breaks often into a friendly smile. He was born and raised in Agra, India, a city famous for the Taj Mahal. His father, a businessman, sold chemicals and laboratory glass products. He suggested his inquisitive son explore glass technology.

“He told me I would find it interesting.

Glass is something between a liquid and a solid. I was always curious, ‘What is it?’”

He went to the University of Sheffield for a second bachelor’s degree and to find out more. Cooper, who was preparing to lead ceramics engineering at CIT, became his advisor on his senior project. He saw something in the young scientist and suggested he would thrive at Case.

Varshneya recalls his mentor making the expensive transatlantic phone call to Cleveland. Not long after, Spring 2021

17

“

He said, ‘Just pack your bags and come to Cleveland.’ In those times, personal connections had a way of working.

a dean called back and asked to talk with the young prospect.

“He said, ‘Just pack your bags and come to Cleveland,’” Varshneya recalls. “In those times, personal connections had a way of working.”

An education in full His education broadened on Case Quad. He joined the Department of Metallurgy as a graduate assistant but took courses in mathematics and engineering as well as materials science. He minored in physics.

“I really enjoyed my Case education,” Varshneya said. “Case gave me depth and breadth in the subject matter. That was a tremendous boon to me. I learned not only about glass. I learned about ceramics, about metals and polymers. They were like, ‘Hey, take whatever courses you like.

See where it takes you.’”

After earning a master’s degree in metallurgy, he went on for his doctorate in materials science. Then he joined Ford Scientific Labs in Dearborn, Michigan, 18

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working on chemical strengthening of auto glass. He jumped to GE Lighting to work at Nela Park, the historic smart park in East Cleveland. There he reconnected with Smialek, who hired him into his lamp lab.

“He was an outstanding contributor for the company,” Smialek said.

Varshneya developed a reputation as a problem solver and an innovator and was given freedom to do research, including early work on molecular dynamics, glass sealing and finite element stress analysis of glass products.

“I did a lot of science at Nela Park,” he said. “It was beautiful.”

Still, he had always wanted to teach.

When Alfred University offered a faculty position, “I couldn’t resist.”

In 1982, after a dozen years in industry, Varshneya joined the faculty of Alfred, a small university in the hills of western New York state, where he helped develop the glass science and engineering program and taught undergraduate and graduate level courses. His work generated about 160 publications, according

”

to the university. His students called him the “Glass Guru.” Today, they sprinkle the leadership ranks of science and engineering operations around the country.

In 2019, two former students organized a “Festschrift,” for a celebratory symposium in honor of Varshneya and his lifetime achievements, at the 25th Annual International Congress on Glass in Boston.

The four-day symposium drew hundreds of former students and colleagues, as well as leading lights in glass science from around the world.

Varshneya had retired from Alfred in 2011, but not from glass. He was already deep into his venture as a problem-solving glass engineer.

Science for humanity The EpiPen injector is used to treat severe allergic reactions to calamities like bee stings and peanuts. The device delivers epinephrine, an antidote to life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

Key to the device working is an impermeable glass cartridge, which holds the

medicine. The problem was that the glass kept breaking.

In 1995, a pharmaceutical company approached Alfred University for help.

Varshneya and colleagues developed an ion-exchange process that strengthened the glass by replacing some of the sodium ions at the glass surface with larger potassium ions.

“That stuff gives you a huge amount of compression, and that compression leads to glass strengthening,” he said.

The cartridges became nearly unbreakable. Before the Alfred process, as many as one in 10 EpiPens broke during injections, Varshneya said. Afterward, the failure rate dropped to below one in 1 million.

At the suggestion of the pharmaceutical company, Varshneya cofounded Saxon Glass Technologies to create the glass cartridges exclusively for the EpiPen. Joining him later as Saxon's CFO was his wife, Darshana, whom he wed in 1973 in an arranged marriage. The couple had already raised three daughters. Now they wrote a startup success story. By 2019, Saxon Glass employed about 35 people and was shipping 35 million EpiPen cartridges a year.

Its formulas helped develop the chemically-strengthened glass that protects smartphones, but Varshneya is most proud of his success with the EpiPen. “I think the best part is that my staff helps to save thousands of lives each year,” he said. “And that’s very satisfying. Call it the ‘Case drive.’ A Case education was always about using science for the betterment of society. When I was a student, everyone knew that.”

In October, he and Darshana left Alfred, New York, and moved to northern Virginia, to a new home near one of their daughters and their grandchild.

He still leads Saxon as president but is planning to step away. He’s looking forward to coming home to Case for the Homecoming awards ceremony, to visiting a campus he has not seen in several years.

“I’m honored and humbled,” he said.

“And I’m proud that I was able to carry on the Case legacy.”

Learn more about Homecoming 2021, including the Case Alumni Association Awards Ceremony, at casealumni.org/homecoming.

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Words of Wisdom Eighteen alumni offer the Class of 2021 advice to live by.

JOSHUA MARTIN III ’66

Law partner, former State Superior Court Judge and telecom CEO Wilmington, Delaware Physics

Have dreams and goals but be receptive to new career opportunities that might present themselves. Don’t be afraid of the unknown. Rely on your excellent Case education to explore new frontiers that will provide you with professional and personal satisfaction.

If you think of solving a problem just 8 hours a day, you are selling yourself short of opportunity. I have found that putting a notepad and pen by my bed allows me to jot down a thought that may come to light when I am drifting off to sleep or when I wake up suddenly at night.

Understanding the details of why something did not or doesn’t work helps you find potential solutions. Examining what would happen if you did the opposite of what you know is a possible solution, to see the details of causes and effects, may lead to solutions that are free from flaws.

BRUCE BANKS ’64

Senior Physicist at NASA Glenn; 2020 inductee, NASA Inventors Hall of Fame Olmsted Township, Ohio Physics

KIRSTEN BOWEN ’96

Great Lakes Transportation Lead, Vice President, Michael Baker International Sagamore Hills, Ohio Civil Engineering

Take advantage of any opportunity that comes your way because you never know where it might lead you. Be confident in your abilities and do not be afraid to take risks even if you think you aren’t qualified.

No matter what the job, always do the best job you can do. And if you’re doing a job for free, do it like they’re paying you. (That’s how they see it).

And if you can’t do it well, don’t do it – no one will be happy with the results.

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JIM VEZINA MS ’90

Founder of BottleRoom 3 and Spark Ranch Highlands Ranch, Colorado Computer Engineering

BOB HERBOLD ’66, MS ’68 Former Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft Bellevue, Washington Computer Engineering

Always focus on doing an outstanding job in carrying out your current responsibilities, and don’t worry about getting rewarded ( promotion, money, praise, etc.). Don’t worry; consistent good work will yield those rewards!

Also, always allocate time for family and friends.

AMY CHAN ’04 Life is a marathon, not a sprint, so take care of yourself. The learning is just beginning now that you finished college. Good luck!

KA-PI HOH ’84, MS ’87, PHD ’89

Organizational Change Manager, research chemist, Lubrizol Corp.

Painesville, Ohio Macromolecular Science and Engineering

Director of Skin Care and R&D, Proctor & Gamble Cincinnati, Ohio Chemical Engineering

Know the business you’re in and how you contribute to the bottom line.

Network broadly to understand how the organization works and who does what. Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know… and, even more importantly, how you work with them. Cultivate your emotional intelligence and your ability to work with others.

Even after graduation, continue to learn, develop and grow yourself.

Take risks, be flexible/adaptable and be open to feedback. Identify and tap your passions and your strengths.

There are more opportunities to be successful doing something you enjoy.

GINA BEIM ’87, MSM ’04 Find a mentor. Strive to be humble but confident – not an easy balance.

IAN CHARNAS ’05

Co-founder and Director of Innovation and Technology, Sears think[box] Cleveland, Ohio Mechanical and Computer Engineering

Founder and President, MCDA Consulting Shaker Heights, Ohio Systems & Control Engineering

Take notes and take risks: As you move on to exciting new opportunities, take good notes. Overconfidence bias lets us think we'll remember what seems clear to us in the present, but it's so easy to forget why you made a certain decision or how you calculated a certain result. I have a lab notebook I maintain in Google Drive for each of my projects, with headings for each calendar date I worked on the project along with whatever I learned.

This is like a searchable augmented storage system for your brain.

Also, take risks! You'll never again be as young as you are today (that's true for all of us!) so try saying yes to new experiences. It can help you overcome fears and you can almost always change your mind if it doesn't work out.

Spring 2021

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CARMEN FONTANA ’00, MS ’05 Leader of Modern Software Delivery practice, Centric Consulting Chagrin Falls, Ohio Computer Engineering and Management

My best advice is to be "open to opportunity." Your career does not need to be linear – don't feel obligated to stay in one lane. Some of my best career growth came when I took a step off the beaten path to try something completely unexpected.

If you have the ability, focus on working on things that will fundamentally improve the world, society, or even life for a small group of people. Alternatively, work on things that help other people build things that improve the world, society, or even life for a small group of people. Question whether every piece of work you're about to do has a meaningful outcome. Focus on these outcomes, not just output. It'll help you make meaningful change that will compound. Also, these things worth doing and building are often really, really, hard. But that's what makes them worth doing.

LARRY SEARS ’69

Inventor/developer of new technologies, including remote meter reading Chagrin Falls, Ohio Electrical Engineering

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Co-founder and CEO, Workbench Palo Alto, California Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

To use a trite phrase, "think out of the box." In other words, for an idea to be profoundly innovative, it will, at first, likely sound absurd. The statement is reminiscent of an event that happened at a conference of physicists in, I believe, the 1960s. Someone presented a paper about strange, hypothetical atomic particles. The ideas presented were so new and bizarre that there was a bit of an uproar. Someone, it may have been Feynman, said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we all know that this is a crazy theory; the question is, is it crazy enough to be correct?"

You're much more likely to achieve a goal if you plan for it. There are few limits to what you can accomplish if you don't take credit for it. Let your skills support your idealism.

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PRINCE GHOSH ’19

GLENN RICART ’71, MS ’73, PHD

Computing pioneer enshrined in the Internet Hall of Fame Salt Lake City, Utah Computer Engineering

As you graduate from CWRU, know that you leave with an incredible skill set that will allow you to do just about anything in life that you can dream of. For me, that dream was to become an astronaut and orbit the Earth, which I was able to do four times aboard the Space Shuttle. So, whatever your ultimate dream is in life, know that you now have the ability to turn that dream into reality. It may take some time yet for you to get there, and most likely involve continued hard work and dedication, but I urge you all to persist on your journey. Never give up on your dream in life and one day you too will reach the stars.

CAL AL-DHUBAIB ’16 CEO and founder, Pandata Cleveland, Ohio Data Science

If I were to go back in time, I would tell my younger self to not stress too much about the grades or even the major. We assume that our major will define our career. But the reality is our careers are a journey — and if you're open to it, you may discover very rewarding paths and grow in unexpected ways. In fact, when we sample a breadth of disciplines in our careers, we bring a unique perspective to the table which is its own form of a competitive advantage.

Keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, just a little bit at a time, by taking on new challenges and learning new things. Case provides a great foundation and it's up to you to build upon that foundation.

DR. G. MAC MCNICHOLS ’65 President, McNichols Foundation Winchester, Virginia Management Science

DON THOMAS ’77, PHD NASA Astronaut Baltimore, Maryland Physics

HILLARY EMER ’07, MS ’07 Senior Director of Business Systems, Intelerad Medical Systems Cary, North Carolina Mechanical Engineering

The most important thing I learned while at Case was not the specifics of each course I took, though these were valuable, but rather the ability to continue learning throughout life. We learned how to learn at Case.

“Experiential” learning: In labs, making things work; in groups, making relationships work; in extracurricular activities, finding yourself. All are important to one’s career, family life and self-respect. Get a hobby, get extra exercise, work on relationships and you will have a wonderful life.

There is more to our lives than our work, there is more to our work than our jobs. Focus more, don't try to do too many different things.

Appreciate what others do.

JIM MCGUFFINCAWLEY, PHD ’84 Arthur S. Holden Professor of Engineering at the Case School of Engineering Shaker Heights, Ohio Materials Science

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NewsBytes The right stuff For his course in airline fight performance and design at North Carolina A&T State University, Leonard C. Uitenham ’75, MS ’81, PhD ’85, teaches from a pilot’s perspective. He was a naval aviator for the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring as a colonel after the Iraq War. The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering is equally impressed with his success as an administrator. Upon enshrining Uitenham into its College of Fellows this year, AIMBE cited his work founding the first ABET-accredited bioengineering program at an historically black college.

Great start For Jennifer Carter, this school year was her first as an associate professor with tenure in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Her promotion followed a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

It’s the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers just beginning their research careers — but don’t expect it to change her much.

“My research is interesting, but the most important thing it does is support the education and training of engineers that go off and solve other challenges,” Carter said. “I engineer engineers — it is how I make humanity better.”

Uptown Plum ripens Plum Market Kitchen opened in March in Uptown, putting an uncommon grocery store in walking distance of campus.

With a focus on natural foods and grab-and-go meals, Plum markets have proven popular in college towns and CWRU has taken steps to make sure this one does, too.

The Uptown Plum is a collaboration of the Detroit-based grocery chain and Bon Appetit, the university’s food-service provider. Students can use their CWRU meal plans for some options, and staff and faculty can pay with CaseCash.

Out of this world Electrical engineer Venkata Raja Gosula ’85, MS ’87, takes pride knowing his power management chips enhance battery life in mobile devices and embedded systems around the world. But now one of his microchips, developed for Qualcomm, is part of the circuitry inside the “Ingenuity” helicopter helping the Perseverance rover explore Mars.

“Knowing that the circuits I designed are running under the hood all over the place is what engineering pride is all about,” said Gosula, a project leader at Cisco. “But to know they are also humming on Mars is icing on the cake.”

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Ultimate cultural exchange Mercy Amankwah came to CWRU from Ghana to earn a PhD in applied mathematics.

She expected challenges adjusting to a new college and culture. What she did not expect was the keen interest in her perspective.

“You are on the right track if you are considering studying here,” she told the newsletter of the Center for International Affairs. “Once you get here, be open minded and embrace the different cultures, because there are people from all over the world in this community who are also interested in learning something from your culture.”

Pandemic tested dean

Thwingo? A cooler Bingo Forced to dine in their dorm rooms and Zoom into classes this year, students were naturally anxious to get out and mix with one another, anywhere. But that’s not the only reason Thursday night Bingo drew crowds to the Thwing Center Ballroom.

Quickly nicknamed Thwingo, the games feature cool prizes, playful banter and a chance to join a large yet socially-distanced gathering of young people. The student newspaper, The Observer, credited Thwingo with “filling an event-sized hole in our collective hearts” and predicted a new CWRU tradition has been born.

On March 1, Professor Daniel Lacks became Associate Dean of Academics for the Case School of Engineering.

He’ll fill the considerable shoes of Marc Buchner, PhD, who returned to full-time teaching after infusing the dean’s office with his energy and sense of humor since 2016. In announcing Lacks’ appointment, Dean Balakrishnan praised his guidance of the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering through unprecedented times.

“Dan’s leadership and creative programming helped maintain community spirit during the difficulties of the pandemic,” the dean said, “leading to some of the highest student satisfaction scores ever received for his department.”

Return to normal?

Sharing his vision for fall semester, interim University President Scott Cowen told staff and faculty in April that he sees full occupancy of residence halls and mostly in-person classes. He also predicted that extracurricular activities and campus events will return to normal.

Those plans rely upon Covid-19 cases continuing to fall, Cowen cautioned, and mask protocols and surveillance testing will remain. But after a year of challenges and disappointments, his sunny outlook was welcome news.

Added Dean Balakrishnan in his own message: “We are all optimistic that we will soon be back together.”

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Alumni Adventures

Into the wild blue yonder When not scanning the stars, Stephen Becker finds his thrills doing aerobatic stunts in the clouds.

By John Canale

A

s an astrophysicist, Stephen Becker, MS ’74, PhD, has always been at home among the stars and the clouds. One day, flying his single engine Cessna C-177 over the desert, his skill as an aerobatic pilot saved his life.

He was flying with a partner southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on November 9, 2008, when the engine failed above rough terrain.

“I had to do an emergency landing,” Becker said. “Because of my aerobatic training, I stayed calm. I knew if I made a mistake to correct it, but not over correct it. I found a dirt road and I put it down without a scratch.”

Becker is a Scientist Level 5 at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he has worked for nearly 40 years on top-secret classified projects on nuclear weapons and foreign intelligence. His skill as an aerobatic pilot allows him to break away from work and enjoy the skies as few can.

The native of Evanston, Illinois, doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t want to fly. His first flight came compliments of his grandmother as a 12th birthday gift.

Soaring along the coast of Lake Michigan, he realized he wanted to pilot planes himself. The chance for lessons didn’t come for a number of years, and only then from a lucky break.

After earning his master’s degree in astronomy from Case Institute of Technology, Becker went on for his doctorate at the University of Illinois, which had an aviation institute.

“It was for undergrads who majored in aviation,” Becker explained. “But if they had open spaces, a graduate student could take the spot.”

His thesis advisor hated the idea and would not allow him to take flight classes. Fate intervened when the advisor was offered a sabbatical at the University of Hawaii.

“I took the two-semester class, got my license and have tried to fly as much ever

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Stephen Becker in the cockpit of a T 33 jet trainer following a training flight near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2015

Stephen Becker at 1 a.m. at the 80th parallel off the coast of Greenland — on a National Geographic Epic 80 cruise

since,” Becker said.

Soon, he sought bigger adventures.

At airshows, he had often marveled at the ability of the aerobatic pilots and asked himself, “I wonder what it’s like to do that?”

In 1991, he began to find out. Becker enrolled in aerobatics courses at Santa Fe Regional Airport near his home. He started with training on a high-powered prop plane and eventually elevated to jets.

Among the maneuvers he’s executed are snap rolls, steep turns, loops and a knife’s edge, which is actually flying sideways.

“In a jet, it takes about three minutes to do a complete loop,” Becker said. “It's 3,000 feet in radius. You actually do go through the whole thing with 3Gs on your chest. You feel like a truck ran over you.”

While being slammed with extreme forces, Becker said he must focus on remaining calm, keeping his wings stable

and striving to “not freak out that you’re flying upside down. You almost become one with the plane.”

He once aspired to become an astronaut and nearly saw that dream come true, too. In 1995, he was among 125 finalists selected for the NASA astronaut training program. He failed to make the final cut of 35 — but he has another idea.

Becker is hoping to take part in the Virgin Galactic suborbital flight.

“About 12 years ago, I put my deposit down for a seat on a flight,” he said.

“That means I get the lifelong dream of actually being technically an astronaut.”

Meanwhile, he’ll find his adventures in the skies over Earth, flying upside down and sideways and, if necessary, landing on a desert road.

John Canale is a freelance writer in Greater Cleveland.

Have an alumni adventure to share?

Email casealum@casealum.org.

ENGINEERING + Tools and ideas to sharpen your game

HOW’S YOUR EMOTIONAL IQ?

Now more than ever, engineers need the emotional intelligence to communicate ideas and lead teams. There’s a class for that.

W

hen Joe Mayer, PhD, started in engineering 40 years ago, engineers were widely seen as technical experts best left on their own. They worked in offices behind closed doors. Anyone needing a question answered would, essentially, slide it under the door and wait for a response.

Those solitary work days are gone.

“As time went by and our business environment got so competitive, businesses have had to rely on the ingenuity of more than one person,” says Mayer, a leadership coach and the founder and managing partner of the Mayer Business Group.

“One person cannot have all the answers.”

So companies have come to depend more on teams and teamwork. Engineers who can lead a team, says Mayer, are engineers who can lead a company.

Mayer, a mechanical engineer, believes that so fervently that he designed a class to teach key leadership skills to scientists and engineers. Tops among those skills is “emotional intelligence” — generally defined as the ability to show empathy and communicate effectively.

“Leadership and Interpersonal Skills,” EPOM 400, will be offered again this fall through the online Master of Engineering and online Master of Science in Engineering programs at the Case School of Engineering.

The aim of the course, says Mayer, is to develop leaders who motivate and

inspire others to work as a team toward shared goals. His focus on emotions and personality faces some resistance in a field known for its introverted practitioners, he said. He understands.

“Scientists, including engineers, are not known for being the most outgoing people,” said Mayer, who earned his doctorate in engineering at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. “And introverts are normally very, very measured in how we engage in communication. We need our facts. We have to think through issues before we give our opinion. So communication, the importance of communication, the way we approach and form networks and trust within them, are really key issues for scientists.”

In prioritizing communication skills, Mayer takes his students on a journey into their own personalities. People who are unaware of their own feelings, or who cannot manage them, are unpredictable and make poor leaders. And those who lack a good grasp of their own emotions often fail to recognize the feelings of others.

“If we are authentic leaders, we have to be authentic in a style that will really attract our followers,” said Mayer. “And we can only do that by having a lot of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is part of leadership. It's part of communication.”

The good news, he’s quick to add, is that emotional intelligence can be taught.

Not unlike other job skills, “We can practice

and become better at it,” he said.

The first part of the class has students examine the different components of their personalities and leadership styles. The second part centers on their aspirations: • How do they want their leadership style to be seen by others?

• What do they want to achieve?

• What are their values?

• How can they utilize those values to get to their ideal picture of themselves?

Mayer, an adjunct professor in the Weatherhead School of Management, developed the course several years ago and continues to refine it. Last year he introduced a peer coaching component, where students are challenged to help others look through their plans, question where they stand and develop better learning plans.

His favorite part of the class is the final paper — a cumulative summary that tracks students’ aspirations, personal assessments and plans for how they’ll move forward.

He appreciates the growth that it shows.

“Each of us can be a great leader if we really are conscientious about who we want to be and how we want to lead,” he said.

To learn more about the professional training offered in the online Master of Engineering programs or online Master of Science in Engineering programs at Case School of Engineering, go to online-engineering.case.edu/.

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Class Notes 1950s

1970s

Ronald Botsko ’59 Granbury, Texas

Marc Karon ’70 Wellington, Florida Marc was inducted into the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Industry Hall of Fame during virtual Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week in January. He’s president and CEO of Total Trucks Parts in Florida.

Marc entered the trucking business in the 1970s as an engineer for Bendix, where he earned two patents before moving to Florida to open a distribution business in 1979. Headquartered in West Palm Beach, Total Truck Parts has six locations across Florida and employs more than 100 people. Marc reports he has no plans to retire anytime soon.

Ron took a special interest in NASA’s recent mission to Mars, having invented methods and instruments used to test the integrity of spacecraft in the Saturn and Apollo missions to the Moon. He was featured in his local newspaper, the Hood County News. Ron earned his bachelor’s degree in metallurgy at Case Institute of Technology.

1960s Joel Third ’60 Ridgefield, Connecticut Joel gave a virtual presentation on Currier & Ives prints at the Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center in January and February. He’s a passionate collector of antique prints, including those of the firm created by Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives. Their lithographs were among the most popular wall hangings in 19th-century America.

Michael Diamant ’68 Shaker Heights, Ohio Michael was named to the 2021 SVAMC Tech List of the World’s Leading Technology Neutrals.

SVAMC, the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center, promotes efficient and effective technology dispute resolution by vetting and identifying leading experts. Michael earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering science from Case and his law degree from Harvard Law School. He serves on the board of the Case Alumni Foundation.

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Leonard C. Uitenham ’75, MS ’81, PhD ’85 McLeansville, North Carolina Leonard was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), which represents the top medical and biological engineers in the nation. He’s the National Institute of Aerospace Liaison Professor at North Carolina A&T State University, where he founded the first ABET-accredited bioengineering program at an historically black college. Leonard earned three degrees in macromolecular science and engineering at Case Institute of Technology, including his doctorate. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 31 years, was a naval aviator and retired as a colonel.

Peter Galen ’76 Portland, Oregon

Peter is the co-founder and chief innovation officer of Hemex Health, a Caseconnected startup that aims to create affordable, lifechanging medical diagnostics for

underserved populations. He has worked in the medical device field for 30 years as an engineer, project manager, director and CEO and holds 17 patents. Peter earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Case Institute of Technology.

Debra Wilfong, ’78, MS ’82, PhD ’85 Minneapolis, Minnesota Debra shared her rich industry experience as part of the Women of Wonder: Sharing HERstory series, which celebrated Women’s History Month at CWRU. The former vice president of technology at BP, she also played innovation leadership roles at Donaldson Company and 3M. Debra earned three degrees in polymer science and engineering at Case Institute of Technology, including her doctorate. In retirement, she enjoys traveling and pursuing her love of art, wine and music.

1980s Michael J. Folise ’81, LAW ’84 Seattle, Washington Mike is a patent lawyer and the author of The Inventor’s Handbook.

He led a webinar on attaining and protecting intellectual property rights as part of a Veale Skills Lab in March. Mike earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and applied physics at Case Institute of Technology and his law degree at CWRU. He’s an attorney for Lowe Graham Jones PLLC in Seattle.

Laurence B. Glass ’81 Laramie, Wyoming Brett is the founder and owner of LARIAT. net, which Broadband Communities magazine describes as

the world’s first wireless internet service provider, or WISP. LARIAT.net has been in continuous operation since 1992 deploying rural broadband to unserved areas of Albany County, Wyoming, where the average population density is five people per square mile. Brett earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Case Institute of Technology.

Mike Bothe ’83 Uniontown, Ohio

Mike has joined Middough Inc., a Cleveland-based Engineering, Architectural and Management firm, as senior project manager. Previously, he was a senior process design engineer at Marathon Petroleum, where he worked for a dozen years. Mike earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Case Institute of Technology.

Mike Sieger ’83 Chagrin Falls, Ohio Mike, the claims president at Progressive Corporation, discussed the power of leading with accuracy and efficiency as part of the CWRU Entrepreneurship Speaker Series March 10. His career journey to the top of the insurance world began with an electrical engineering degree from Case.

Ron Cass ’84 Granger Township, Ohio Ron is the founder and CEO of DonorPoint, a donor engagement software developer formerly known as Big River.

The company recently changed its name to reflect a refocusing of mission and business model. DonorPoint guides non-profit organizations toward ecommerce practices that make it easier for donors to support them. Ron, who

earned his Case degree in Systems & Control Engineering, is first vice president of the board of directors of the Case Alumni Association and president of the Case Alumni Foundation.

Ka-Pi Hoh ’84, MS ’87, PhD ’89 Painesville, Ohio Ka-Pi was a presenter at the second annual Mentoring Monday, a Feb. 22 summit that gathers hundreds of Northeast Ohio women to discuss and promote professional development.

A three-degree alumna, she’s the organizational change management director at Lubrizol Corp. and was named one of Northeast Ohio’s Notable Women in STEM by Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Fares Mubarak ’84, MS ’85 Pleasanton, California Fares is the CEO of SPARK Microsystems, a Montreal-based semiconductor company specializing in low power wireless communications for the Internet of Things. He’s a seasoned Silicon Valley executive with more than 30 years of management and hands-on experience in semiconductor design and software development. Fares earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering at Case Institute of Technology.

Venkata Raja Gosula ’85, MS ’87 San Diego, California Raja is the digital ASIC DSP technical leader II at Cisco, leading project teams in the design of computer architecture. He held similar positions at Luxtera and Qualcomm. He came to Case as an international student from Brazil and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. His microchip is in the Ingenuity helicopter that the Perseverance rover carried to Mars.

Elie Habib, MS ’85 San Jose, California Elie is the founder and CEO of MotivaimLeaders, where he applies his years of experience as a Silicon Valley corporate executive and entrepreneur as an executive coach. He’s also the co-founder and a board member of Lebnet, a network of Lebanese American professionals in the high-tech industry. Elie earned his master’s degree in computer engineering at Case Institute of Technology.

Kimberly Wiefling, MS ’86 Redwood City, California Kim is the founder and president of Wiefling Consulting, Inc., where she leads behavior-changing “WorkShoks” for global teams. In February, she led a workshop on design thinking and strategies for career success as part of the Women of Wonder series at CWRU. Kim earned her bachelor’s degree in physics at Case Institute of Technology. She’s the author of Scrappy Project Management.

Lee Morgan ’87 Gaithersburg, Maryland Lee is the official veterinarian of Alaska’s Iditarod Sled Dog Race, performing veterinary care for 300+ canines at checkpoints during the annual 30-day Nome-to-Anchorage dog sled race. He’s the owner of Georgetown Veterinary Hospital in Washington, D.C. Lee earned his bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in chemistry from Case, where he ran track and field for legendary Coach Bill Sudeck and worked summers as a dolphin trainer at Kings Island.

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Class Notes 1990s Linda Rae, MS ’90 Shaker Heights, Ohio Linda has joined GE Digital in Cleveland as general manager of its Power Generation and Oil & Gas Business Unit. Previously, she was president of Qualitrol and before that commercial president of Tektronix. Linda earned her master’s degree in electrical engineering from Case Institute of Technology and her MBA from the Weatherhead School. Soon after, she joined Keithley Instruments, where she rose to become president and led Keithley through the acquisition by Tektronix.

She’s a member of the board of directors of the Great Lakes Science Center.

Chris Holt ’95 Columbus, Ohio

Chris is the co-founder and COO of Power to Hydrogen, a Columbus startup that won a NASA grant to develop a power source for a future Moon base.

The company was awarded $3.4 million to develop a prototype of its reversible fuel cell technology, which uses solar energy to produce hydrogen and power around the clock. It spun off from pH Matter LLC, a materials science company which Chris also co-founded. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics at Case, where he was a brother of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Constance (Boua) Akani, MS ’96 Arlington, Texas Constance is the chief executive officer at Texas IT Consultants.

Previously, she was a principal application architect at Sabre Holdings and a manager of Data Warehouse Development at Travelocity. She earned her master’s degree in computer engineering from the Case School of Engineering.

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Marzell Brown ’96 Euclid, Ohio Marzell is the talent management lead for Rockwell Automation, where he develops relationships with colleges and universities and helps to build a talent pipeline of engineers. He also volunteers his time and skills to design and open MC2STEM and Design Lab high schools. Marzell, a product of Cleveland public schools, earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Case School of Engineering.

Matt Whittaker ’96, MSE ’00, PhD ’07 Kirtland, Ohio Matt is a crystal growth scientist and ICF Manager at Gooch & Housego, a global leader in photonics technology in the Cleveland suburb of Highland Heights. His team’s crystals were packed aboard the Perseverance rover to help analyze soil on Mars and team members were featured on local news reports after the successful landing Feb. 18. Matt earned three degrees in materials science at Case, including his doctorate.

Maria Bennett, MS ’98 Beachwood, Ohio Maria has been named one of the Top 25 Women in Medical Devices for 2021

by The Healthcare Technology Report.

She is the founder and CEO of SPR Therapeutics, a medical device company that has commercialized a non-opioid, nerve stimulation therapy designed to relieve pain. She also serves as vice president of the Beachwood School Board. Maria earned her master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the Case School of Engineering.

2000s Justin Haselton ’03 Broadview Heights, Ohio Justin is the new engineer for North Royalton, Ohio, effective January 14.

He and his employer, CT Consultants, will provide engineering services to the Cleveland suburb of 30,000 people. John joined CT in 2018 and has 13 years’ experience as a civil engineer.

Maxwell H. Briggs ’06, MS ’08, PHD ’15 Cleveland Heights, Ohio Maxwell in September became program executive of NASA iTech, responsible for connecting entrepreneurs and startups to the nation’s space program. Previously, he was the portfolio manager of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and an economic development specialist at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Maxwell joined NASA Glenn in 2009 as a mechanical engineer. He earned three mechanical engineering degrees at Case, including his doctorate.

Susan (Lingenfelter) Paterson ’09 Highland Heights, Ohio Susan is a roadway engineer for the Cleveland offices of TranSystems, where she specializes in transportation engineering. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at the Case School of Engineering and her master’s at Cleveland State University.

2010s Aaron Colorito ’10, MS ’11 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Aaron was chosen as the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania’s Young Engineer of the Year for 2020.

He’s a senior structural engineer in the bridge design group of Michael Baker International, where he specializes in complex bridge analysis and bridge inspection and rehabilitation. He and his wife — Laura (Thompson) Colorito, CWRU ’12 — have two young sons, Leo, 2, and Walker, 6 months.

Abirami Muralidharan, PhD ’11 Minneapolis, Minnesota Abirami is a biomedical engineer for Abbott Laboratories, where she develops devices that promote the restoration and improvement of neurological and cardiac functions. She earned her doctorate in biomedical engineering at the Case School of Engineering.

Oluwakayode Omoyosi ’12, MEM ’14 Lakewood, Ohio Kayode is the project technical lead at Clear Image Technology, a Cleveland medical device company specializing in miniature imaging devices. He’s also a mentor for Minds Matter Cleveland.

Kayode earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at the Case School of Engineering, where he was a member of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Case African Student Union.

Send your updates, including photos, about job promotions, professional development and personal milestones to casealum@casealum.org.

Katherine Colbaugh ’13, MS ’15 Cleveland Heights, Ohio Katie is the value stream manager and a materials scientist at Gooch & Housego, a global leader in photonics technology in the Cleveland suburb of Highland Heights.

She was part of the team that grew crystals packed aboard the Perseverance rover to help analyze soil on Mars. Katie earned her master’s degree in materials science and engineering at Case.

Zhuoying (Zoey) Jiang, MS ’14 Cleveland, Ohio Zoey, a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Case School of Engineering, was selected to participate in the 2020 CEE Rising Stars workshop hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. The workshop targets outstanding women doctoral students and postdocs interested in pursuing teaching and research careers in civil engineering.

Zoey earned her master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Case.

Ross Nanopoulos ’14 Quincy, Massachusetts Ross has joined the Product Security team at Digital Ocean, a cloudcomputing infrastructure provider with data centers worldwide. He was a founding software engineer at Komand, an internet security firm that was acquired by Rapid7, where he became lead security engineer. Ross earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science at Case, where he was a member of the Association of Computing Machinery and the Hacker Society.

Brooke Beecher ’15, MS ’17 Cleveland, Ohio Brooke is the sports performance nutritionist for Case Western Reserve University varsity athletes and the owner and operator of Nutrition with Brooke.

She helps to assess, educate and counsel Spartan athletes on their nutritional needs in order to optimize performance. A former CWRU women’s basketball player, Brooke ranks 10th in school history with 551 career rebounds. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nutrition from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Kristina Collins ’16, MS ’19 Cleveland Heights, Ohio Kristina was the primary convener for the session, “Amateur Radio in Geophysics with HamSCI” at the virtual Fall 2020 meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a major scientific conference. She also organized a worldwide citizen science campaign to look at the ionospheric effects of the Dec. 14 solar eclipse. Kristina earned her degrees in electrical engineering at Case, where she was president of the Case Amateur Radio Club.

Kayla Andersen ’17, MS ’17 Rosemead, California As a mechatronics engineer for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Kayla helped design robotic systems for the Perseverance rover and its Mars mission. She worked on the caching system that will collect samples seeking evidence of past life on Mars.

Kayla earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at Case. An internship led to a full-time job with NASA. In addition to working on robots for space exploration, she rock climbs, plays the trumpet and sings in local bands.

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Class Notes Elizabeth Fregoso ’18 Mountain View, California Elizabeth, a software engineer for Google, has become a mentor for the Women in Science and Engineering Roundtable (WISER) at CWRU. She earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science at Case, where she was president of the Association of Computing Machinery and founded CWRU’s ACM-Women’s chapter. Before joining Google in 2019, she was a Student Cyber Intern for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Darshan Parikh ’18 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Darshan is a hardware engineer in the Pittsburgh office of Netronome, a California-based designer of data center infrastructure.

He earned two bachelor’s degrees at Case, in mechanical and electrical engineering, and served the school as president of the Case Engineers Council.

Jessica Qian ’18 Cleveland, Ohio

Jessica is a consultant and business technology analyst for Deloitte Consulting.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in biomedical and mechanical engineering at Case, where she was president of the Case Engineers Council.

Send your updates, including photos, about job promotions, professional development and personal milestones to casealum@casealum.org.

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Chris Carr ’19 New York, New York Chris is an astrophysicist-in-training and a graduate student at Columbia University, studying galaxy evolution and the Milky Way. He earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and astronomy at CWRU, where he hosted the science radio talk show, Enter Galactic, on campus radio station WRUW-FM 91.1.

Andrew Jimenez ’19 Cleveland, Ohio Andrew has been named secretary of the board of the Latinx Alumni Association of CWRU. The Los Angeles native is a graduate research assistant at the NASA Glenn Research Center while pursuing his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the Case School of Engineering.

2020s Patrick Crossey ’20 Falls Church, Virginia Patrick is an engineer for Grunley Construction in the Washington D.C. area. The former captain of the Spartan football team has been awarded the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, which recognizes excellence on the field and in the classroom and includes $10,000 for graduate school. He’s the seventh player in the history of CWRU football to receive the award. Patrick earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering with a focus on construction management.

Alexander Gordon ’20 Deerfield, Illinois Alex is an automation engineer at PCC Structurals, a

Portland, Oregon-based supplier of structural castings to the aerospace industry. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Case, where he was active in the improv comedy troupe, IMPROVment, and played trumpet for the Spartan Marching Band.

Emily Herrmann ’20 Ogden, Utah Emily is an associate systems engineer for Northrop Grumman. She earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Case, where she also received UAA All-Academic recognition as a member of the Women’s Track & Field team.

She was also a campus tour guide and a member of the Society of Women Engineers.

Jackson Routhier ’20 Westlake, Ohio Jack has joined Invacare Corp. in Elyria as an associate development engineer.

He began with the medical device maker through a co-op while earning his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. Jack brought humor to Case Quad as a member of the campus comedy troupe IMPROVment.

Ern Tan ’20 Cleveland, Ohio

Ern has joined OverDrive, a leading developer of online reading platforms, as an education product support specialist.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Case, where she was a project leader for the Humanitarian Design Corps and wrote for The Observer.

In Memoriam Professor Jack Koenig helped establish the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Institute of Technology, worked tirelessly to elevate it to international prominence, and made his students the center of everything. The emeritus professor passed away Jan. 26, 2021, at age 87.

The Jack L. Koenig Endowed Spectroscopy Fund supports a prize for the top Macromolecular Science graduate students in the field.

For more information, contact emily.speer@casealum.org.

Professor Gheorghe D. Mateescu, PhD ’71, the pride of Cleveland's Romanian community, taught for 53 years in the Department of Chemistry at Case Western Reserve. He died January 22 at the age of 92. With more than 100 published studies, Mateescu was a decorated professor who earned many prizes and distinctions in both the U.S. and his native Romania.

John Kozak ’61, PhD, climaxed a distinguished career in academia as a professor of Chemistry at DePaul University. He died January 13, 2021, at the age of 80. John was a steadfast supporter of Case, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

John and his wife, Catherine, endowed the Kozak Scholarship in Chemistry for undergraduate chemistry majors. For more information, contact emily.speer@casealum.org.

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In Memoriam Donald W. Chenelle; Friend of the CAA; Leroy, OH; 1-24-21

John J. Kozak ’61; Chicago, IL; 1-13-21

Jack L. Koenig; Professor Emeritus; Olmsted Falls, OH; 1-26-21

Fred W. Koch ’61, PhD ’65; Broadview Hts., OH; 10-25-20

Jerome B. Lando; Professor Emeritus; Cleveland, OH; 2-23-21

Ralph P. Meckel ’61; Crystal Lake, IL; 3-22-21

Cloyce L. Purdom ’42; Jacksonville, FL; 9-3-20

Charles F. Boyer ’63; Lapeer, MI; date unknown

Dean B. Cherry ’43; Columbia, SC; 1-25-18

Howard E. Robinson ’63; Mason, OH; 11-23-20

Harry H. Landon, Jr. ’44, MS ’49; Camden, NJ; date unknown

David G. Bush ’64; Charleston, SC; 9-9-20

Gilbert Mart ’44; Palm City, FL; 8-28-20

Howard F. Korman ’64; Torrance, CA; 12-16-20

Walter D. Wood ’46; Burbank, CA; 3-13-20

John H. Doles ’65; Arlington, VA; 2-24-21

Eric J. Simon ’44, MS ‘47; Hackensack, NJ; 3-30-20

Jack K. Galbraith ’65; Deming, NM; 11-10-20

Donald M. Wagner ’47; Pepper Pike, OH; 12-26-20

Walter H. Edling MS ’66; Oberlin, OH; 3-25-21

Joseph M. Curtis ’48; Fairview Park, OH; 1-26-21

Stanley Eisenstat ’66; New Haven, CT; 12-17-20

L. David Baldwin ’49; St. Petersburg, FL; 3-1-21

Donald L. Koller ’66, MA ’68; Rockville, MD; 3-7-21

Irving L. Kaplan ’49; Spring, TX; 1-22-21

Larry W. Virtue ’66, MS ’66; Novi, MI; 12-11-20

Charles H. Kyle ’50; Overland Park, KS; 11-24-20

Richard L. Burden MS ’68; Macedonia, OH; 2-1-21

Elmer S. Vegh ’50, MS ’56; Willoughby, OH; 11-20-20

Philip G. Malone MS ’69; Wynne, AZ; 11-18-20

Edgar D. Jones ’51; Bingham Farms, MI; 11-28-20

Joseph J. Ivicek, Jr. ’70; Lake Oswego, OR; 11-11-20

John W. Luchsinger ’51; Houston, TX; 12-28-20

Allan R. Kirby MS ’71; Le Claire, IA; 1-1-21

Eugene F. Skerl ’51; University Hts. OH; 10-9-20

Gheorghe D. Mateescu PhD ’71; Emeritus Professor, Lakewood, OH; 1-22-21

James E. Ruecke ’52; Auburn Hills, MI; 9-8-20 Dennis A. Swift PhD ’71; Germantown, MD; 7-26-20 Norman “Jim” Connor ’54; Henderson, OH; 12-23-20 John R. Stauffer ’74; Pacific Grove, CA; 1-29-21 Robert K. Warmeling ’54; Cleveland, OH; 10-31-20 Earl E. Bomberger ’75; Soundersburg, PA; 10-2-20 Andrew S. Bogeatzes ’55; New Providence, NJ; 10-15-20 Lois E. Julius ’75; Hinckley, OH; 9-22-20 John G. Gaydos ’56; West Chester, PA; 12-5-20 Bruce R. Wardlaw PhD ’75; Herndon, VA; 3-23-16 Donald D. Lanese ’55, MS ’62; West Bloomfield, MI; 2-10-21 John C. Homer III ’77; Lakewood, OH; 8-22-20 James E. Buxton ’56, MS ’62; Hudson, OH; 3-4-21 William D. Eccli MS ’57; Pompano Beach, FL; 9-29-20

Daiva M. Kinnavy ’79 (nee, Marcinkevicius); Vernon Hills, IL; 1-22-21

Robert G. Leddon ’59; Uniontown, OH; 12-21-20

Carl A. Bochmann ’85; Louisville, KY; 2-14-21

Bruce W. Eckstein ’60; Willoughby, OH; 2-14-21

Nicholas A. Tripoulas PhD ’86; Broadview Hts. OH; 2-10-21

James L. Humphrey ’61; Berne, IN; 1-13-21

34

casealumni.org

TRIBUTE L. David Baldwin February 26, 1925 to March 3, 2021 David Baldwin with Dean Joy Ward

L.

David Baldwin ’49 loved science and revered scientists — especially those from his alma mater. In the latter half of a remarkable life, he quietly and generously supported Case and its researchers to an extraordinary degree.

Upon his death March 3 at age 96, Baldwin was one of the largest donors in the history of Case Western Reserve University. Thanks to endowments he established through the Case Alumni Association, his impact will resonate forever.

Baldwin’s gifts rebuilt labs, helped to hire faculty, launched student programs and scholarships and, most notably, supported researchers in pursuit of breakthroughs. He gave thoughtfully and almost always anonymously.

“It’s phenomenal what he did. He was certainly one of the biggest donors I had,” said Cyrus Taylor, PhD, referring to his 16 years as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“He was adamant he didn’t want any publicity.”

That modesty fit his personality and his lifestyle. Quietly, Baldwin became a self-made millionaire who exceled in physics and electronics and established an enduring legacy.

He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1943 — in a class that included future actor Paul Newman. Baldwin’s father was a leader of the American Contract Bridge League and David Baldwin became an avid and expert bridge player.

After serving in Europe during World War II, Baldwin enrolled at Case Institute of Technology, where he was active in the physics club and was a brother of Sigma Nu. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1949 and his master’s at Columbia.

Baldwin worked for General Dynamics in its Radio Communications Lab before launching Frequency Sources Inc. (FSI) in the mid 1960s. The startup developed technology for the microwave industry.

“He developed a better technology for building microwave cavities,” said Taylor, the Albert A. Michelson Professor of Physics at CWRU. “He clearly had a great idea and the skills to turn it into a fantastic company.”

The sale of the firm to Loral Aerospace established his

fortune. Baldwin taught himself computer programming, which led to other ventures, and lived quietly in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife Virginia.

In 1995, Roger Cerne ’63, then executive director of the Case Alumni Association, received a surprising phone call. Out of the blue, Baldwin called to say he wished to support science innovation at his alma mater with a major gift. It was the start of a long and impactful relationship.

“He was a very quiet guy. A real gentleman. He cared about education. He was just one of those rare breeds,” said Cerne, who now serves the Case School of Engineering as an executive advisor for development.

Baldwin became reacquainted with campus through people like Cerne, Taylor and Don Schuele, PhD ’63, a physicist and the vice dean of Case institute of Technology. He made annual visits to campus, where he met faculty and toured labs that he later re-equipped and endowed.

He helped professors like Arnold Caplan, PhD, perform transformative research. Virginia Baldwin suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and Baldwin was keenly interested in Caplan’s expertise in cell regeneration therapies.

David and Virginia Baldwin “I felt Arnold Caplan’s research was very promising,” Baldwin said years ago. “I wanted my gift to make a difference, and his research has shown its potential to have applications in several diseases.”

Over the years, Baldwin became a recurring contributor to Caplan’s projects, enabling him to explore treatments for cystic fibrosis, lung diseases and, most recently, Covid-19.

“It just changed the way I could collaborate with people, because I had resources,” said Caplan, a professor of Biology.

“I started five or six unique research projects because of him.”

Even as his health declined, Baldwin remained connected to the university and its research aims. He contributed to the College of Arts and Sciences’ “Expanding Horizons” Initiative, which first-year Dean Joy Ward announced just last fall.

She became the latest Case scientist to feel the Baldwin touch. After talking with her, he directed $4 million from an earlier broad commitment to projects within the College’s initiative.

“He always believed Case gave him the foundation to do everything that he did, and I think that was the basis of his longterm interest and loyalty,” Taylor said. “The university lost a great friend and alumnus — and the world lost a great person.”

Spring 2021

35

“LONG WE’LL REMEMBER…” “The troupe was a fantastic support system….

Every week, when we went onstage, I knew the other members would be there to back me up no matter what I said or did.”

GIVE MY REGARDS TO CASE

Improv added mirth and memories to the quest for an engineering degree

By Jack Routhier ’20

F

rom the start of my second year at Case up until a pandemic upended campus life, I had maybe four free Saturday nights. An outsider might assume I was studying, being a biomedical engineering major. But on a Saturday night? To my parents’ chagrin, no.

Saturday nights at 9 p.m., students squeezed into the Eldred Blackbox, a tiny basement theater usually far too warm. But it was all worth it when the lights dimmed, the music sounded and a cast member burst through the back door, welcoming everybody to “IMPROVment: Case Western Reserve University’s Premiere Short Form Improv Musical Comedy Troupe!”

I was a cast member and a pianist for the troupe. We would perform about eight different improvised scenes, each based around different “game” mechanics and fueled by random suggestions from the audience. Half of the games would usually be music based, with either myself or the other pianist scoring the scene or providing something for the actors to sing over. These shows were the highlight of my week.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my major.

I’m happily employed in my field, designing wheelchairs at Invacare. But college is stressful. You can start to feel helpless and alone. The troupe was a fantastic support 36

casealumni.org

system to counteract exactly that. Every week, when we went onstage, I knew the other members would be there to back me up no matter what I said or did.

You see, one of the things you learn quickly about improv is that you’re going to make mistakes. In so many situations, a mistake can feel horrible. But sometimes a mistake is the best thing that can happen during an improv scene. In one show, I realized the piano had been unplugged, but the actors were ready for me to start playing. I was terrified. I nervously began drumming on the piano, and the actor onstage took that as her cue and began to sing.

The audience figured it was intentional.

They loved it. I was just grateful my singer had stepped up to help. But it’s what we were out there to do: Support each other.

Perhaps the best example of the troupe displaying ultimate support while serving as an escape from coursework was the infamous Jalapenbros Show. It’s an idea we lifted from an improv show that some of us caught in New York City. Any time one of the cast members adopted a new character, everybody ate a jalapeno pepper. Naturally, we brought the idea back to campus.

The night of the show — September 22, 2018 — we set a table loaded with the peppers centerstage, promising our audience

all would be gone by the end of the night.

We thought we were prepared, with jugs of milk backstage. Mistakes were made, tears were shed, but the peppers disappeared. I ate four in three minutes while trying to play somebody a serenade. And what did we do the next year? We tried to top it with the Habanerbros Show.

That’s what improv was. A group to commit with me and to me, in big moments and stupid ones.

There’s a lot I loved about Case — being a part of an exciting research lab, playing trumpet in jazz bands. But the time spent with the troupe created my biggest laughs, proudest moments and closest friends.

There’s no feeling like the pure joy of nailing a musical punchline and getting your audience to laugh. That is, until after the show, when the people you admire most say, “DUDE! That timing during internal?”

I don’t know when or if I’ll get that chance again, but I’m thankful I found the group when I did.

Jack is an associate development engineer for Invacare Corp. Give him your regards at jtr76@case.edu.

Do you have a Case memory to share? Let’s hear it. Email robert.smith@casealum.org

Giving Corner

MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE An endowed scholarship can help worthy students attain a Case degree You can change lives and help students achieve their dreams. How? By establishing an endowed scholarship or contributing to an existing endowed scholarship fund.

With the cost of a college education seeming to climb higher every year, the dream of earning a degree can move out of reach for deserving students. Scholarships can help ease the financial burdens students face and put an undergraduate or graduate degree back within their reach.

A Flexible Way to Give When you create an endowed scholarship at the Case Alumni Foundation you can tailor it to meet your preferences.

You can decide what type of students are eligible to receive the gift, the qualifications and the type of support you want your scholarship to provide.

Some things to consider: • Will the scholarship support full- or part-time students?

• Do you want to support graduate or undergraduate students?

• Will it provide full or partial support to the recipient?

• Can it be used to cover the full cost of attendance, including room & board, books and fees or tuition costs only?

• Will the scholarship be awarded based on merit or need?

You can also name your scholarship. This is a heartfelt way to honor a loved one, or someone who had a significant impact on your life.

The Impact of Scholarships When you give the gift of an endowed scholarship, you join nearly 200 other alumni with endowed scholarship funds at the Case Alumni Foundation who: • Are helping to put a quality education within reach of deserving graduate and undergraduate students.

• Want to reward students for their hard work and dedication.

• Are committed to making gifts that will exist in perpetuity.

Take the First Steps You can change a life with a gift that establishes an endowed scholarship for graduate or undergraduate students at the Case Alumni Foundation. To get started, contact Stephen Zinram at 216.368.8841 or stephen.zinram@casealum.org today.

Disclosure Statement: The information in this publication is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor. Figures cited in any examples are for illustrative purposes only. References to tax rates include federal taxes only and are subject to change. State law may further impact your individual results.

CASE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Tomlinson Hall, Room 109 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1712

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