Dean’s Message

Dear Alumni and Friends of the Case School of Engineering,

I look forward to Engineers Week each year—a chance to celebrate our profession, and to honor past engineers who’ve left a legacy of innovation along with today’s engineering leaders and the current students who are preparing to take up the charge to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

In fact, our annual Engineers Week Reception has been designed to bring engineers of the past, present and future together and give them a chance to mix and mingle, to share their great ideas and to come up with new ones. What began as a modest gathering of mainly students and faculty has grown into a premier event drawing almost 600 innovators of all stripes, from students and faculty to alumni and top industry leaders. And it didn’t happen by chance. We saw in this event an opportunity to build a powerful networking experience for all Case engineers.

I often tell incoming students that the greatest idea in the world is doomed to remain just an idea forever if the brain behind it can’t describe it, communicate it and convince others to believe in it. That’s why we place such a strong emphasis on cultivating complementary competencies like effective communication skills and successful team dynamics. These competencies are sometimes forgotten in terms of attributes of successful engineers. As I tell our new students when I address them on the Friday before their first day of classes: “If you can’t speak clearly and write concisely, you will work for someone who does!”

We see those lessons brought to life when we watch our students at the E-Week Reception, rubbing elbows and sharing their innovations with alumni—one of the best professional resources our students have. And, as you’ll read in the pages ahead, we’re incorporating more opportunities for strengthening interpersonal skills into our undergraduate curriculum, adding a class dedicated to professional development that will create valuable student-alumni connections, as well as bolstering other mentorship programs (while preserving the depth and rigor of a Case degree). And the connections don’t just benefit our students, they also put our alumni in touch with top upcoming talent for their own organizations.

Watching our students and alumni meet, engage and learn from each other is inspiring. I can’t wait to see how these valuable connections between engineers present and future will help our profession grow.

Sincerely,

Dean and Leonard Case Professor of Engineering