Case Alumnus Winter 2019

Case Alumnus The Magazine of the Case Alumni Association

Winter 2019 • vol. 32 • no. 1

Growing the future Programs like Envoys bring new talent to science and engineering

Serious Fun: Choosing Junior-Senior Scholarship winners Siemens opens new lab

Aiken legacy shines

Why Case robotics rocks

Think the innovation emerging from the Case School of Engineering is worth a podcast? So do we. That’s why we launched Thinkbox Radio. We reach a coast-to-coast audience with stories of the people who make Case a place of discovery.

Find us at www.casealum.org/podcast

Dean’s Message

Let’s work together to shape the future Dear alumni and friends of the Case School of Engineering, First, I would like to thank you. I have never felt more welcome than I have since joining the Case School of Engineering as the Charles H. Phipps Dean this fall. As I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with our incredible faculty, students, staff and alumni, my appreciation for all the admirable qualities that drew me to Case Western Reserve has only grown, and I’m even prouder today to count myself as part of this outstanding community.

All the admirable qualities that drew me to Case Western Reserve has only grown, and I’m even prouder today to count myself as part of this outstanding community.

My first few months here have served to confirm what I already knew—this community of innovators is exceptional, but like the very best engineers, it is not satisfied. I recognized the high caliber of our researchers, students and alumni before I ever stepped foot on campus, and now that I’m a part of it, I witness daily that drive to keep getting better, and it’s truly inspiring.

The school’s renowned academic excellence and culture of innovation are an ideal foundation from which to launch new initiatives that will help us attract even more research funding, improve graduate student recruitment, drive our rankings up and more.

As we shape the future of the Case School of Engineering, our alumni will be critical in creating that vision and bringing it to life. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with many of you over the past five months and I look forward to engaging even more with this vibrant alumni community as we build our strategy for the school. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together.

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

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Growing engineers boosts careers, the economy and Case

In its 2018 ranking of the world’s topperforming CEOs, Harvard Business Review reported that, for the second year in a row, the top chief executive officers were more likely to have an engineering degree than an MBA. Business experts were not surprised. They say the rise in technology companies places more computer engineers in leadership positions. But it’s also true that boards of directors are increasingly attracted to the natural abilities of engineers, who are seen as problem solvers who can figure out complex systems, making the enterprise more competitive. Plus, there’s a reputation that comes with an engineering degree: People assume you’re smart.

Case has a 138-year history of training world-class scientists and engineers. While our graduates work around the world, many apply their skills in Northeast Ohio. Case talent is plainly evident at the region’s most successful companies, startups, manufacturers, hospitals and research labs.

When we make it easier for smart men and women to become engineers and scientists, we strengthen not only Case but the region’s economy. Alumni support is critical to this one-two punch.

In this issue of Case Alumnus, we explore programs that are helping to “grow the ranks” of scientists and engineers by making it easier for talented young people to earn Case degrees. Professor Dave Schiraldi’s Envoys crusade is one inspiring example. The program identifies promising teens who lack access to critical classes in their schools and brings them to campus for life-changing experiences.

The Junior-Senior Scholarship Program, which alumni fund and help run, helps assure that our best students can afford to finish their degree programs. Finally, the story on Paul Buchheit’s return to campus illustrates the power of alumni mentors. Computer science and engineering majors flocked to hear the creator of Gmail share his insight into successful innovations and careers.

Students love to hear from our alumni. You don’t have to be a tech star to offer guidance and advice. If you’re willing to share your time and insight, we’ll help connect you to the opportunities.

We can think of no better mission for the Case Alumni Association than to help grow the ranks of engineers—for the university and for our shared prosperity.

Robert Smith Editor Robert.smith@casealum.org

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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.

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

OFFICERS Marvin Schwartz ’68, PhD ’73, President Ronald Cass ’84, 1st Vice President Sunniva Collins, MS ‘91, PhD ‘95, 2nd Vice President Joe Fakult ’90, Secretary Nick Barendt ’95, MS ’98, Treasurer Brian Casselberry ‘95, Assistant Treasurer

STAFF Stephen Zinram, Executive Director Thomas Conlon, Chief Financial Officer Emily Speer, Director of Gift Planning and Grants Compliance Robert Smith, Director of Communications Kelly Hendricks, Director of Alumni Relations Ryan Strine, Director of Annual Fund Janna Greer, Manager of Donor Relations and Grants Pamela Burtonshaw, Database Administrator Melissa Slager, Manager, Executive Office

CASE ALUMNUS Robert L. Smith, Editor Steve Toth, Toth Creative Group, Layout and Design The Watkins Printing Co., Printing

PHOTO CREDITS Wetzler’s Photography Hilary Bovay 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.

WINTER 2019 • vol. 32 • no. 1

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Cover Story Envoys for Engineering

The Envoys program cultivates a new source of scientists and engineers by tapping hidden talent in urban schools.

Features 14 Crowning Scholars

Alumni meet the new generation, and recall their own college experience, as they help stellar students attain a Case degree.

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18 A Tech Star Returns Alumnus Paul Buchheit, the

creator of Gmail, captivated students with his Google success story.

20 Case Robotics Rocks Why a once-modest student

group has rocketed to national prominence.

28 A Comedy of Engineers Through improv, students learn

skills that might make them better engineers.

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DEPARTMENTS 1 2 4 6 8 23 30 32

Dean’s Message Editor’s column Letters, posts and emails Around the Quad Alumni newsmakers Class Notes In Memoriam Long We’ll Remember (nostalgia)

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On the cover: Participants in the Envoys program of the Case School of Engineering include (back row, left to right) Mehmet Fesli, Akcire Jones, Deztany Clay, Kennedy Sheridan and Analisa Pellot.

(Front row, left to right) Jose Diaz Jr., Tryreno Sowell (Envoys director) and Mason Ali.

VISIT WWW.CASEALUM.ORG FOR THE LATEST NEWS AND EVENTS!

The best way to stay connected to the Case Alumni Association between magazine issues is to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Please join our sites today for the latest news on alumni, students, faculty and innovative research and projects.

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Letters, posts and emails

Capturing the flag for Case After reading our story on Professor Frank Merat’s collection of Case memorabilia, “Keeper of the Keepsakes,” Larry Pool ’62 wrote to say he had a Case flag that flew over the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The 4 x 6 banner will soon join Frank’s collection, but we had to know how Larry came by such a keepsake. Here’s the story: I graduated from CIT in 1962 and went to work for a company in Perrysburg, Ohio. The founder of that company happened to be a Case alum from around 1917. They had a couple of guys in the Engineering Department who had attended Case on the G.I. Bill after World War II. When the one guy heard that I’d graduated from Case, he couldn’t wait to share the flag story and give me the flag.

It seems like a couple of the vets decided to skip classes and go see the Indians play at the old Municipal Stadium, as they were in a pennant race (1946?). Well, it was a hot afternoon, and they had had a few beers when they noticed the Case flag flying

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from the upper deck roof. After deciding that they had faced bigger challenges in Germany, they started plotting. They hid in the stadium until dark, then climbed up on the roof and dehoisted (heisted) the flag.

Here the plan faced a minor obstacle, as all of the gates were now chained shut.

So, they found a hiding spot, spent the night, sobered up, and left when people were coming in the next day.

The guy who gave the flag to me is deceased, so I am relying on my memory of his tale. But it certainly does ring true to some of the antics Case guys were fond of doing. If his partner in crime is still around, I would surely like to hear the story from him.

I’ve been moving that Case flag around for 50 years. I hung it out a couple of times when we lived in Painesville, but I stopped displaying it when we moved to Chicago, and people asked if I worked for Case Tractor Co. I was kind of worried my kids would just toss it if I croaked. They were never impressed with the S-C-I…E-N-C-E! cheer. So I’m glad the flag is finding a home.

Larry Pool ’62 Alpharetta, Georgia

First biomedical engineer Our story on the Department of Biomedical Engineering celebrating its 50th anniversary in the summer Case Alumnus prompted an enthusiastic letter from an early student, excerpted here: I may have been the first biomedical engineering graduate in June 1968. I started with the department in 1967, joining 15 or so guys who were working on doctoral projects.

For my master’s project, A Study of an Elastic Muscle Endoprosthesis, I tried to find a way to help children with drop foot issues. I used sheep to test a spring device incorporated into a plastic implant.

Bringing sheep to the basement of the VA hospital was probably a unique way to test ankle dynamics.

At that time, I was the only student not interested in a doctoral degree. I started looking for work with medical device companies, but no one was interested in a “bio-medical engineer.” I had interviews, but they just could not figure out how to hire an engineer with a degree in biomedical engineering. Note: Case Institute of Technology decreed that I had a master’s of science in engineering.

So we returned to Seattle and I was able to get hired at Boeing as a mechanical engineer. I got bored with mechanical engineering. In the company paper, I read an article about a team called “human engineering” working with airplane and spacecraft engineering projects. I jumped in right away.

I led the coordination and development of the Man Systems Integration Standards, used by every manned system at NASA. I spent four years with NASA working on the space station as a Level 2 Manager of Human Engineering.

When you see a picture of an astronaut looking out of the Cupola window

of the International Space Station, you are looking at the results of my first set of requirements.

Keith Miller ’68 Puyallup, Washington

From Case Quad to the Ponderosa Two readers wrote to inform us that Albert Michelson, the Case professor who laid the foundation for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, also inspired an episode of the television western Bonanza.

In all the Michelson stuff I’ve read, in Case Alumnus, Dr. Cramer’s history of the university, and random other sources, I’ve never seen a reference to Dr. Michelson’s appearance on Bonanza.

I would have been two months short of my 5th birthday at the time this episode originally aired. I haven’t watched the episode, but a quick online search reveals that William Schallert, who played the father on The Patty Duke Show, played Michelson’s teacher.

Michelson’s parents are also portrayed.

While clearing out a pile of magazines in anticipation of moving, I came across a letter to the editor in the May 2017 issue of Air & Space Smithsonian.

“A Light at the End of the Tunnel” (Oldies & Oddities, Feb/Mar 2017) reminded me that Albert Michelson was portrayed in an episode of the television show Bonanza, first broadcast on March 18, 1962. In the episode, Michelson recruits Ben Cartwright and his son Adam to help with the initial mirror rotations and timing equations. There was some

manufactured drama, but the episode did have Ben helping the young physicist get into the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, which Michelson did in fact attend. The episode also included narration recounting that Michelson won the Nobel Prize in physics based on his precise measurements of the speed of light.

Stephen Hashioka, DDS Chicago, Illinois

He did spend part of his youth in Virginia City, Nevada, where the Bonanza ranch, the Ponderosa, was located.

Just a little something different on one of Case’s favorites.

Paul R. Fishel Jr. ’79 Columbus, Ohio paulfisheljr@frontier.com

Editor’s note: The episode, “Look to the Stars,” can be found by searching YouTube for the terms Michelson and Bonanza.

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Around the Quad A great place to become an American, Case!

A Thwing Center ballroom buzzed with anticipation November 13, as men and women from around the world waited to be sworn in as new Americans. None sat taller than Lucas Zhao.

The freshman computer science major could not believe his luck. Naturalization ceremonies typically unfold in a federal courtroom downtown. But in celebration of International Education Week, CWRU’s Center for International Affairs had invited U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Parker to bring the proceeding to campus.

“This is so cool,” Zhao, 19, said moments before the ceremony, the final step in his quest to become a U.S. citizen.

“I’m probably the happiest one here.”

To be sure, there were plenty of smiles in the grand hall. Twenty–eight men and women from nearly as many cultures were ready take the Oath of Allegiance as friends and family members snapped photos, smiled and cried.

Zhao came to America from England as a small child and grew up outside of

New York City. He always felt American, he said. When he turned 18, he decided to make it official.

“I’ve always been here but I couldn’t make my voice heard,” he said. “Now I can vote. I can serve on a jury. I can go through the citizen line at the airport.”

Zhao’s parents, who are citizens of China, were not able to make it to Cleveland for the ceremony. So he stood alone, but at home, as he took the Oath of Allegiance.

Staff from the international center, including Vice Provost David Fleshler, congratulated him. A banner at the front of the room declared #YouAreWelcomeHereCWRU. When asked who was with him on this special day, Zhao replied, “Case!”

SNAPSHOT OF A HISTORY-MAKING CLASS Case Western Reserve welcomed the largest, most academically accomplished class in university history this fall.

The numbers tell the story of the Class of 2022.

17% come from underrepresented groups

10% identified as the first in the family to go to college

20% of the incoming students are international, hailing from 50 nations

26,646 applied for undergraduate admission, another record. Fewer than 30% were accepted

37% plan to major in engineering

1,390 students arrived, a university record

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30% of those engineering majors are women

Jai Kadambi wins Worthington Medal for designing better, lifesaving pumps Jaikrishnan “Jai” Kadambi, PhD, professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received the Henry R. Worthington Medal and its $5,000 prize at the 2018 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in November. He was honored for his contributions to the design and development of pumping technologies, particularly slurry pumps for the mining and fossil fuel industry, but also lifesaving pumps used in heart surgery.

It was a fitting honor for a researcher who had open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve in 1994 and later developed pumps that can briefly substitute for the human heart.

“This is a big award, for Jai and for the department,” said Robert Gao, the Chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “He’s the expert in his field.”

Kadambi arrived at the Case School of Engineering from Westinghouse Industries in 1985 and began studying coal slurries. He developed the method to obtain information about the velocity and behavior of particles in the slurry by making the slurry transparent— utilizing refractive index matching techniques and laser-based flow visualization.

Soon, he and his graduate students began working with Cleveland Clinic and NASA to apply his technique to understanding blood flow through

mechanical valves, coronary artery stents and heart pumps.

“Blood basically is a slurry,” Kadambi explained at the time. “It has plasma, which is liquid, and red blood cells and platelets, which are particles.”

At one point, his team set up a pulsating heart loop in the Glennan Building that mechanically simulated how blood flows through the human heart. He was also involved in developing a slurry pump flow facility.

Kadambi moved into an administrative role in 2008, becoming Associate Chair of the department, and retired last year after 33 years on Case Quad.

“He belongs to that generation that brought a lot of fame to this department,” Gao said.

From a new lab, Siemens will help Case train tomorrow’s energy engineers Opportunities and threats portend great changes for the nation’s power grid, which must evolve to handle renewable energy and to respond to extreme weather wrought by climate change.

A flexible “smart grid” will demand a newly trained force of energy engineers. Siemens and the Case School of Engineering plan to work together to staff the ranks.

In October, representatives of both institutions gathered in Nord Hall for the opening of the Siemens Digital Grid

Lab, where students will learn to run a futuristic grid in real-world scenarios using state-of-the-art software.

The lab complements a new academic track in Energy Systems, one of the first in the nation. It also represents a vote of confidence in Case by one of the world’s largest manufacturers.

Munich-based Siemens has for decades invested in CWRU research, especially medical imaging. This collaboration mark its first investment in Case’s energy technology. The company talked with

15 universities before committing $1.2 million to begin a partnership with the Case School of Engineering.

Mike Carlson, president of Siemens Digital Grid, North America, said he liked the school’s embrace of experiential learning.

More recently, Carlson listed the CWRU-Siemens partnership among the company’s year-end highlights.

Faculty leaders of the new track, meanwhile, hope to see 30 to 40 new students enroll each year.

Engineering with heart. Dan Lacks honored with Service to Society Award For a study abroad class called “Managing in a Global Economy,” Professor Daniel Lacks gathered Case students in the African nation of Tanzania in January 2018. There, they helped design and install solar power systems in villages where children studied by lamp oil.

More than half the students were engineering majors in the class that Lacks co-taught with Weatherhead Professor Michael Goldberg. Later, many expressed a newfound appreciation for the power of engineers to solve problems and improve lives.

In October, Lacks was honored with the AIChE Service to Society Award at the annual chemical engineering conference in Pittsburgh. His peers had more than a single solar project in mind.

Lacks, the chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, created a study abroad opportunity for engineering students that allowed them to practice thermodynamics in Botswana.

He has taken dozens of students to

perform solar panel installations in developing countries like Lesotho and Namibia. And he was the first western faculty member to visit an engineering school in Myanmar, where he played a key role in updating the country’s engineering curriculum.

No wonder former CSE Dean Jeffrey Duerk once observed: “Dan is truly a global citizen, both in terms of his research reputation and valuable international perspective.”

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ALUMNI

newsmakers

Alumni newsmakers

The skill of an artist, the eye of a polymer engineer Rina Banerjee ’93 proves, artfully, that a degree in engineering can lead to success in many pursuits. Trained at Case as a polymer engineer, she has become a celebrated artist in the nation’s Indian-American community.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is now presenting a major exhibition of her work.

“Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World” reflects the skill of an artist and the eye of a materials scientist.

Banerjee shared her story at a lecture at Brown University in November. Born in Calcutta, India, she came to New York via England with her family as a young girl. Hailing from a family of engineers, she faced “a lot of pressure” to follow suit,

she said. So she studied the sciences and polymer engineering at the Case School of Engineering and went to work as a research chemist.

She soon found that engineering was not her calling. Still, her studies of polymer science taught her how to make “useful” things from base materials.

This knowledge inspired her to start making sculptures that combined plastics and found objects. She enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts program at Yale and received her degree in 1995.

As a sculptor and a multimedia artist, she’s become known for creating dynamic, multisensory artwork that explores themes of migration and global connectedness. Immigrants and materials scientists will no doubt understand where she’s coming from.

“Make Me a Summary of the World” will show in Philadelphia through March 2019, move to the San Jose Museum of Art in California in May and then tour nationally. Learn more at www.pafa.org/.

Hurray for Hiro. Case-trained physicist named honorary consul to Japan For its first honorary consul in Cleveland, Japan picked alumnus Hiroyuki “Hiro” Fujita, PhD ’98, a physicist and former international student who launched a successful medical device company.

Fujita is the founder and president of Quality Electrodynamics, a Mayfield manufacturer of radiofrequency coils for medical imaging machines. The company, which exports to Europe and Asia, began with innovations Fujita developed in the physics lab at Case.

A native of Osaka, Japan, Fujita came to Case in 1992 to earn his doctorate. After scientific positions at Picker International, GE Healthcare and the physics department, he started QED in 2006 with four employees. Today, the company employs more than 100.

A resident of Pepper Pike, Fujita remains a close friend of the university. He’s an adjunct professor in the Department of Physics and

serves on the Visiting Committee of the Center for International Affairs. He also serves on the President’s Visiting Committee, International Visiting Committee and the Inamori Center of Ethics and Excellence Advisory Board.

As honorary consul, he’ll represent Japanese residents and promote cultural exchanges and Japan-America business ties in an 18-county region of Northeast Ohio.

Can an engineer really write? D.M. Pulley puts that question to rest Before becoming a bestselling mystery writer, D.M. Pulley ’99 put her civil engineering degree to work as a forensic engineer.

She went deep inside buildings in Cleveland to find out why structural failures occurred. Her fascination with places inspired four novels, including The Dead Key,

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which won the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Her latest book, The Unclaimed Victim ties Cleveland’s infamous Torso Murders of the 1930s to the Gospel Union Press Building, a haunting colossus Pulley discovered when she lived in Tremont.

“I feel the building itself is a labyrinth of bizarre choices and hidden rooms,” she told the News-Herald last year. “It’s over 175,000 square feet with no master planning. You’ve got doors that drop into 10-foot falls on to stair landings.”

A rich setting, indeed, for an engineer who hears ghosts in the walls.

The book is available via Amazon.com and www.dmpulley.com/.

Time to re-launch?

New pilot of Ohio aerospace wants universities in the flight plan Ohio’s aviation industry hums with parts makers and propulsion experts, to a degree that may surprise many Ohioans.

The state is the largest supplier of parts to both Airbus and Boeing.

That’s a fact trumpeted by John Sankovic, MSE ’03, PhD ’06, who suddenly has a new perch from which to share his pride—and his fear.

Sankovic, who earned his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from the Case School of Engineering, in September was named president and CEO of the Ohio Aerospace Institute.

The nonprofit research center promotes Ohio’s aerospace industry, in part by tapping the research power of the state’s doctoral-granting engineering schools.

To report to his new job, he walked next door from the NASA Glenn Research Center, where he worked for 31 years and rose to the position of Chief Technologist and Director of the Office of Technology Incubation. His pride in Ohio aviation is tempered by a nagging concern.

Sure, the Wright brothers designed their airplane in Dayton, and Ohio’s Neil Armstrong and John Glenn led the nation into space. But what has the state done lately for aerospace innovation?

Sankovic fears Ohio could be left behind as airlines pivot toward hybrid engines and greater fuel efficiency. For Ohio manufacturers to keep pace, he says, they are going to need new and stronger ties to university research labs.

“It’s a white space of new opportunity” requiring new propulsion systems,

advanced materials and new kinds of engines, he argues. “They have to be made somewhere. Why not here? We have the manufacturing expertise.”

Sankovic wants to get his consortium of schools behind a push to design “electrified aircraft,” which will require advances in energy storage. That could tap the expertise of the Great Lakes Energy Institute at the Case School of Engineering. It will also, he says, require engineering schools to devote more energy and resources to aerospace.

“I really do see a need to strengthen the aerospace component of our universities,” he said. “We’ve lost a little bit. Many are not as active as they could be.”

He recalls when Ohio’s universities and the aerospace industry were once so tight, the president of Case Institute of Technology, T. Keith Glennan, took a leave to run NASA as its first administrator.

If there’s to be another aerospace age in Ohio, Sankovic said, universities will have to again play a leading role.

Pain free, drug free.

The U.S. invests millions in alumnus-founded company targeting the opioid epidemic With the nation in the throes of an opioid crisis, the healthcare industry is looking for new options for people suffering severe pain. Maria Bennett, MS ’98, may have the relief they need.

She’s the founder and president of SPR Therapeutics, a Cleveland medical device company that has achieved some success fighting pain with electrical stimulation through devices like the Smartpatch, which Bennett invented.

In October, the company announced $10 million worth of investments from

the U.S. Department of Defense in the form of grants and a contract. The largest award, of $6 million, will support clinical testing of the company’s Peripheral Nerve Stimulation System, comparing it against conventional medical management for people with back pain.

A recent study by the Carolinas Pain Institute found that the therapy promises a cheaper and less-invasive treatment option to reduce pain and disability. The authors conclude it could indeed “shift the paradigm” in chronic pain management.

Since its founding in 2010, SPR Therapeutics has attracted about $30 million in research grants and awards. Bennett, who earned her master’s in biomedical engineering at Case, expects to stay busy.

“The management of chronic and post-operative pain continues to be a challenge among U.S. military veterans and the general public,” she said in a statement.

She added that the opioid crisis illuminates the need for drug-free solutions, and that she’s honored the Department of Defense views her company as a worthy investment.

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Envoys for Engineering

Top row left to right: Mehmet Fesli (senior, Horizon Science Academy); Akcire Jones (senior, Horizon Academy); Deztany Clay (senior, Horizon Science Academy); Kennedy Sheridan (junior, Horizon Science Academy); Analisa Pellot (senior, Horizon Science Academy) Front row left to right: Jose Diaz Jr. (senior, Max Hayes High School); Tryreno Sowell, Director for Education and Diversity, CLiPS Envoys; Mason Ali (Senior, MC2 STEM); Imari Warfield (junior, Horizon Science Academy)

A program that launched dozens of Cleveland public school students into STEM fields got its start with a $400 croissant.

By Harlan Spector

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n 2003, Professor David Schiraldi and colleagues in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering were making plans to address a lack of minority students in undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)

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classes. Case had landed a $40 million, 10-year grant from the National Science Foundation for a science and technology center directed by Professor Eric Baer.

Schiraldi’s role under the grant was to develop future scientists. He wanted to focus on high school students from

Cleveland neighborhoods. But he wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.

At a fundraiser for Shaker Heights schools, where his children attended, an auction item caught his eye—breakfast with Jane Campbell, Cleveland’s then mayor.

“I thought this is a way to get to the city and school district,” Schiraldi recalled. “I wanted to have face time with the mayor.

I spent the entire auction night standing there, and every time somebody upped my bid, I upped it again.”

He spent $400 of his own money for breakfast with the mayor.

Over coffee and croissants, he pitched the idea. Mayor Campbell was receptive, and she turned it over to an aide. From there, Schiraldi met with a district official in charge of STEM curriculum, and came up with a plan to recruit talented students from Cleveland high schools.

“He said we want you to work with the neediest schools,” Schiraldi said. “Places where nobody goes to college. You can make it happen where somebody does go to college.”

The challenge was greater than Schiraldi realized. As he pored over student transcripts, he noticed that no students at Cleveland’s Glenville High School on the East Side had taken physics. He asked the principal about it.

“He said the school didn’t offer it. They had offered it, but nobody would take it.

There’s zero percent chance that somebody who didn’t take physics in high school will go on to become an engineer.”

The school didn’t have a chemistry lab, either. The lack of sciences underscored how disadvantaged many Cleveland students are compared to high school students from wealthier districts and private schools.

To address the academic gap, Schiraldi and his team worked science and math coursework into the curriculum of the fledgling project, which became known as the Polymer Envoys Program. The first class of Envoys started in 2006. It became a key education program of the NSF-funded Science and Technology Center for Layered Polymeric Systems—CLiPS for short.

Students enter Envoys the summer before their high school sophomore year, and spend three years engaged in labora-

The challenge was greater than Schiraldi realized. As he pored over student transcripts, he noticed that no students at Cleveland’s Glenville High School on the East Side had taken physics. tory research, each paired with a graduate student who serves as a mentor. The Envoys spend six weeks during the summer and five hours a week during the school year working in the lab, taking coursework and undergoing professional development and college prep training. The program also pays a stipend to students. Schiraldi said the stipend is critical because many students would otherwise need jobs that would interfere with Envoys training.

“The idea is, if you’re doing this really cool technology, it’s a great platform by which to involve young people in STEM

fields,” Schiraldi said. “It’s not just boring science class. It’s plastic lasers, it’s clean water, it’s Blu-ray discs—things kids can relate to.”

Since its inception, 70 students from Cleveland and East Cleveland have come through the program. Fifty of them have graduated (10 are currently enrolled in Envoys). All 50 graduates have gone on to college—many at Case, but also at Ohio State University, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Columbia and other schools.

Forty-four of the 50 Envoys graduates have entered STEM fields.

Guided by his graduate mentor, Zhenpeng Li (left), Envoy Mason Ali has been able to explore the polymer sciences at Case.

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“

When I first came here, I had no experience working in a lab. It just opened up my eyes.

“

– Analisa Pellot

Analisa Pellot, a senior at Horizon Science Academy, works with her graduate mentor, Irlaine Machado, in a lab in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering.

“It takes an incredible commitment for these high school kids,” said Pam Glover, who manages the program as executive director for education and planning for CLiPS. “They have intelligence and they have potential. They just didn’t have the opportunities in their schools. They didn’t have the advantages some students have.

We give them that.”

Current Envoys students say they appreciate the opportunity, which they suspect may be life changing.

“This is the best program I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been in a lot of programs,” said Analisa Pellot, a senior at Horizon Science Academy in Cleveland.

“When I first came here, I had no experience working in a lab. It just opened up my eyes. It’s just amazing to be able to do this. It’s gotten me more interested in biochemistry, in working in a science field.”

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Jose Diaz Jr., a senior at Cleveland’s Max Hayes High School, expects Envoys to launch him toward engineering school.

“I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t even know existed,” he said. “This has been a huge transition for me. I feel like I’m getting a lot of skills I would not have learned at Max Hayes. I want to go to college and become a chemical engineer.”

Mason Ali, a senior at Cleveland’s MC2 STEM High School, feels the pull toward graphic arts. But that’s OK, too.

“It’s a program that has allowed me to expand my mind, into calculus and the sciences,” he said. “It’s given me an opportunity to experience what a job will be like.

So I’m really appreciative. I plan to work on computers as a graphic designer. My backup is polymer science.”

Taneisha Deans from Glenville High School was one of the first to graduate

from the Envoys program, and she was the first to advance to graduate school. She now works as a PhD research scientist at DSM in Michigan. Another Envoys alum, Santiago Chabrier of Max Hayes High School, is a chemical engineer for Sherwin-Williams.

And another, Terrence Mathis of Shaw High School in East Cleveland, is an engineer at PMI Industries in Cleveland.

Envoys graduate Arik Stewart, a computer science major at Case, said the program exposed him to polymer research.

It was intimidating at first, but working with polymer aerogel in Schiraldi’s lab was a turning point in his life. The lightweight gel is a strong and flexible insulator.

Stewart was involved with testing different compositions of aerogel, and he was amazed by its versatility.

“It’s about all the possibilities you can do with it,” he said. “I was thinking about

“

It takes an incredible commitment for these high school kids. They didn’t have the advantages some students have. We give them that.

“

– Pam Glover

Mason Ali, a senior at MC2 STEM High School, says the Envoys program has sparked his interest in calculus and the sciences.

laptops. This material can be used in laptop components. That was the first thing I thought of.”

But the Envoys program was about more than just polymers, he said. He learned how to organize his work, how to create a resume, make presentations and fill out college applications.

One-on-one relationships with graduate students play a large role in the program’s success.

“The graduate students are not just teachers, they’re role models,” Glover said. “They’re mentors, they’re surrogate parents to an extent, they’re big brothers and sisters.”

After 17 years at Case, Schiraldi is considering retirement. A table in his office is covered with large plastic bags filled with lightweight brown and green nuggets that from a distance might be

mistaken for some sort of puffed snack food. It’s actually aerogel cat litter.

Schiraldi came up with idea one day after lugging a 40-pound bag of cat litter from the pet store. He and a former student are patent holders for the featherweight litter, which is one-tenth the weight of cat litter and absorbs just as much liquid.

He is proud of Envoys but concerned about its future. The 10-year, NSF grant expired in 2016. They have kept the program going with generous alumni gifts and other contributions. A crowdfunding campaign sponsored by the Case Alumni Association in February 2017 raised about $6,000, with the help of Macromolecular Science and Engineering alumni.

They are trying to figure out how to raise about $150,000 a year. The money pays for a full-time employee, student

stipends, summer instruction and other program costs.

The full-time employee is Tryreno Sowell, education director of the program.

Schiraldi tells the story about how Sowell once took a vacation day to help a student graduate move to Eastern Michigan University. The student didn’t know how to get to Michigan by bus.

“Our guy did that for this student,” Schiraldi said. “When he told us about it, we got a little teary-eyed. We told him to at least turn in an expense report for the mileage, and he said, ‘No, this one is on me.’ That’s who we are supporting.”

To learn more about the Envoys program, or to offer your support, contact Pam Glover; pbg@case.edu, 216-368-5966.

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Crowning scholars As they choose Junior-Senior Scholars, alumni meet the new generation and recall their own days at Case.

By Robert L. Smith

A

young man with a mop of reddish-brown hair sat at the head of a conference table, fidgeting slightly. He faced eight men and women—the interview team that would decide whether he received a scholarship to help pay for his junior year.

He had already described his hometown, his career goals and why he chose to attend Case Western Reserve University. Now came the clincher, the question that might settle things.

“Tell us what makes you different from other students,” Joe Fakult ’90 said in a soft, easygoing voice. “What’s unique about you?”

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The young man paused, drew a breath and shared a personal odyssey.

During sophomore year of high school, an exhausting illness kept him home most of the school year. With hours to kill, he began studying aircraft design.

He even dragged himself out of bed long enough to build his first radiocontrolled plane.

Today, he manages the chronic disease well enough to play club soccer while pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering. That high school nightmare launched a dream.

“That was an awful time for me, looking back,” he said. “But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

The judges stared silently at one another as he left the room, then bent over papers and recorded their scores.

Who deserves help becoming a Case engineer, mathematician or scientist? That’s a question deeply pondered by people who believe it strikes at the core mission of an alumni association. Each year around this time, alumni join faculty and staff of the Case Alumni Association to interview freshmen and sophomores seeking to be crowned Junior-Senior Scholars.

Last March, the selection committee awarded a little more than $500,000—in amounts ranging

from $2,000 to $10,000—to 121 men and women attending the Case School of Engineering or the College of Arts and Sciences.

Soon, a volunteer committee will do it again.

For students, the scholarships offer academic distinction and often sorely needed cash. Full tuition at CWRU exceeds $60,000. Some students said the grants would help them decide if they were able to return for another semester, or graduate without crushing debt.

For alumni, the selection process offers a chance to help the CAA perform a fiduciary responsibility and something more. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with their own college experience and to meet the new generation, in whose anxious faces they often see themselves.

“We all had to pay that tuition bill,” said Fakult, the chair of the Scholarship Committee. “These kids have some of the same ambitions. They’re a pretty select group. You don’t survive here unless you’re talented. What we’re really looking for is leadership.”

A senior engineer for Safran Power in Twinsburg, Fakult is nearing a decade on the committee. It’s a volunteer role that helped earn him a Meritorious Service Award at Homecoming 2018.

He takes seriously a process he believes supports the future of the alumni association and the university he loves.

“In a sense, this is step one in recruiting the next generation to our organization,” he said. “We’re trying to identify the students who have that capacity to support our school.”

Working closely with Janna Greer, CAA’s Manager of Donor Relations and Grants, Fakult helps orchestrate a process that demands empathy, curiosity and stamina.

“I always look for a spark.

Is the student taking hold of their own education—and taking advantage of everything the university offers?”

– Donald Feke

reporting to the stately library on the second floor of Tomlinson Hall shortly after noon. They arrive one at a time, 10 minutes apart, for five straight days, until 130 or more have been interviewed.

Alumni volunteers work in rotating shifts. Many pull interview duty for a single afternoon, but even that exposes them to the aspirations of dozens of students.

For Harry Farmer, ’55, MS ’65, it’s a glimpse into a new generation

gaining confidence. He marvels at the changes he witnesses in a 10-minute interview.

“They come in shaky, a little scared.

By the end they’re outgoing, expressing themselves,” he observed. “It just rejuvenates me. It makes me feel positive about our future leaders.”

To reach the conference table, each student has achieved at least a 3.0 grade point average and been recommended by a faculty member. The selectors are also aware of their financial need, as reported

Many are called During the last week in February or first week in March, students begin Janna Greer, Manager of Donor Relations and Grants for the Case Alumni Association, directs the scholarship program and participates in the judging.

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Who deserves help becoming a Case engineer, mathematician or scientist? That’s a question pondered by people who believe it strikes at the core mission of an alumni association.

to the university, and their involvement in volunteer activities and campus groups.

The interview offers a chance to get to know the students a little better, to judge composure and sincerity, and perhaps discern the achievers from the strivers.

“I always look for a spark,” said scholarship committee member Donald Feke ’76, MS ’77, a professor of chemical engineering and the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education.

“Is the student taking hold of their own education—and taking advantage of everything the university offers?”

Associate Professor Sunniva Collins, MS ’91, PhD ’95, teaches mechanical and aerospace engineering and many of the applicants are her students.

“I just like to see what they’re all doing. To see what they’re all jazzed about,” she said.

But she’s also looking for that special “Case quality” that goes beyond academics.

“Are you also well-rounded enough that you’re thinking outside of yourself?

I think that’s what really separates the Case graduate—the ability to walk in and take a leadership position and make something happen,” she said.

“What’s special about you?”

A young woman took the seat at the head of the table and waited as the

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judges scanned her application. She wore a conservative suit and a look of expectation. She laughed at a committee member’s observation that she belonged to a dazzling array of student groups.

Her favorite? The Global Health Design Collaborative. It took her to Uganda to design a clean water project.

She divulged that she loves engineering research, and is keen on working in Navy labs, but also that she took out a $30,000 loan at 10 percent interest to pay this year’s tuition bill.

Next year, she’s not sure if she can afford to come back. “My parents help but the rest is up to me,” she said.

Tuition was a big concern to the woman who followed her, a third-year student from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Family savings covered the first three years at CWRU, she said. “The last year’s kind of on me.”

An internship in machining at a Willoughby manufacturer helped her to pay the bills, and fired her passion for mechanical engineering, to some dismay back home.

“No one in my family is an engineer,” she explained.

The selectors lob the same general questions at each candidate, but the answers are far from predictable, as they reflect myriad backgrounds and personalities.

Some responses required translation. A petite young woman from suburban Chicago identified herself as a member of the campus

Quiddich Club, adding, “I play beater.”

Greer explained to the committee that Quiddich is the marquee sport at Hogwarts, where Harry Potter matriculated, and that Case indeed fields a team.

The eager applicant added that she dances with the Mather Modern Dance Club and thinks wind energy is the future.

Her uncommon quality? “I have this unnatural optimism—and I like to share it!”

Fears, concerns and surprises Students were all asked to name something about Case they wish they could change, as if with a magic wand.

Many of the women cited security concerns, saying they did not always feel safe on and around campus. Young men were more likely to cite a lack of school spirit, which they say is most evident at sporting events.

No one lacked enthusiasm for science and engineering, but many voiced a desire to explore other sides of campus, even the humanities. Asked to name a favorite course, the students often cited SAGES classes like fly fishing, meditation and “Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry.” “Most of the class was engineers,” a young man said.

Standout qualities were as diverse as the students. A young woman taught herself Spanish to enrich her travel

“I just like to see what they’re all doing. To see what they’re all jazzed about.”

– Sunniva Collins

From left: Steve Zinram, Sunniva Collins, MS ’91, PhD ’95, Janna Greer, Tom Conlon, Mark Sherman, MS ’85, Ed Cordiano ’97 and Joe Fakult ’90.

experiences. A young man said he taught himself to play the ukulele, then taught others in his dorm, adding, “I’ve kind of started something.”

Not surprisingly, most were complimentary of the university as they sought to impress its representatives. But many were quite specific about what they liked and what they discovered, often to their surprise. They praised “amazing professors,” research opportunities and the University Circle neighborhood.

“I don’t think I would have found the opportunities that I found at Case anywhere else,” said one young woman, a second-year student in electrical engineering. “The people, the clubs, the access to research. It’s just been amazing.”

The talent and zeal of the students makes it difficult for the selectors, who have a limited pool of money to disperse.

Ed Cordiano ’97 was serving on the scholarship committee for the first time. He was surprised to see so much of the drive that he recalled from his own days at Case, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering.

“It’s a new crop of kids, but the challenges they face are still very similar,” said Cordiano, the owner and president of CMIT Solutions of Cleveland East & Southwest. “They don’t have a lot of money, yet you see the things they do to pay for a university like Case, maybe to pay for one year. You hear that, you remember what it takes.”

Fakult is hoping the alumni association can find a way to boost the scholarships. Grants averaging $4,000 and $5,000 don’t make much of a dent in a tuition bill that runs in the tens of thousands, he noted.

“We’re a 10 percent off coupon,” he said. “We need to make a more meaningful contribution.”

That may be his parting gift. He plans to step down from the committee after this year, though he admits he says that every year. He suspects he will miss the experience. Across eight years, he has interviewed more than 1,400 students and awarded just over $5 million in scholarship monies.

He recommends the job.

“It’s a fun thing to do,” Fakult said.

“Not everybody wants to get involved in raising money. But distributing money?

It’s a fun thing to do.”

If you would like to join the scholarship committee, or learn more about its work, contact Janna Greer; janna.greer@caselaum.org, 216-368-3647.

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An alumnus returns a tech star, and students flock to hear him

Gmail creator Paul Buchheit came back to Case to learn from today’s students. They had plenty of questions for him, too.

T

hey knew he was part of Internet history. They knew he created the email application they grew up with. And they knew he earned his computer science degree from the Case School of Engineering, just as they were striving to do.

When Paul Buchheit ’98, MS ’98, returned to campus in October, students were eager to hear from a tech superstar.

Buchheit, Google’s 23rd employee and the developer of Gmail, did not disappoint.

In a day-long series of encounters, he met with groups of student leaders, lunched with student startup founders, and engaged in a Q&A with an auditorium of science and engineering majors.

Buchheit exhibited the thoughtful bearing of a mentor as he shared career guidance and academic advice. But he also displayed some of the curiosity and appetite of an entrepreneur as he queried students on their interests, passions and favorite computer games.

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“It was just an amazing experience,” said senior Prince Ghosh, a founder of the wind energy startup Boundary Labs, who lunched with Buchheit at Sears think[box]. “Paul is like a living part of modern history—the birth of the Internet.

Plus, he’s a super-cool guy.”

Third-year student Elias Suarez, one of several student leaders to meet with Buchheit in a group setting, said the computer whiz from the dawn of the Internet seemed most interested in learning the likes and desires of today’s Case students. But he also freely shared his own experiences and observations.

“I definitely appreciate it,” said Suarez, the president of HackCWRU and the Association for Computing Machinery.

“Twenty years ago, he was in the same position I’m in. We need role models.

These alumni are not just abstractions, far away. They can connect with us.”

Buchheit, a partner at the venture capital firm Y Combinator, connected

with the largest number of students at the Linsalata Alumni Center in the evening.

He sat back in an armchair onstage and fielded questions from an audience lightly prodded by Professor Frank Merat, the evening’s moderator.

Dressed tech casual in jeans, T-shirt and pink Nike sneakers with lime-green swooshes, Buchheit delivered advice ranging from practical to philosophical, much of it aimed at people who know how to code.

Think like Apple While he began his career at Intel, he told the students they did not need to go to work for corporate America—not if they knew software engineering.

“Right now the demand for CS people is just so high, who cares if you work at Amazon? You can work for any startup,” he said. “If you’re just really good, you’ll get a job.”

He advised them to mix in liberal arts classes with their engineering education, to be sure they can engage both their right and left brains.

“Apple products are not just technically good,” he said. “They have these emotional hooks.”

And he told them to try and work for people smarter than themselves.

“Find the best, fun people to work with. People who, when you talk with them, you’re like, ‘Wow!’ They end up creating these magnetic fields,” he said.

“You bring in all these smart, creative people, and they feed off each other.”

That’s akin to what happened to him early in his career, when he joined a Google staff of fewer than two dozen people, three years out of Case. He had an idea for a better email program—a free, web-based, searchable application—and hammered out a prototype before anyone knew what he was doing.

Gmail went public in 2004 and today is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

“I really wanted it to be awesome,” Buchheit said, adding that his vision dismayed and upset some Google colleagues, who thought he was trying to do too much. A rough draft gave him the evidence he needed to say, “It is possible. I just did it.”

Professor Frank Merat (left) moderated the evening Q&A between students and Paul Buchheit.

Buchheit returned to that thought later, telling students that a product or a prototype beats an idea in the startup game.

He noted that the founders of Airbnb discovered their concept when they threw up a hasty website inviting visitors to sleep on their floor because they needed rent money. The initial experience was positive and shaped their convictions, maybe better than any investment could have.

If you have an idea, “Try it out” at a feasible scale, he said. “Like, what can you do over the weekend?”

“We need role models. These alumni are not just abstractions, far away. They can connect with us.”

– Elias Suarez

There will never be a better time, he added.

“A lot of the value of college is just having time and space to explore and fail and figure out what you want to be doing,” he said.

Buchheit came at the invitation of administrators of the Case School of Engineering, who had asked him to share his insights with students.

In an interview with Case Alumnus, he described a mutually beneficial experience.

“I kind of had the feeling, 20 years ago, that I knew where things were going,” he said. “I was pretty confident and optimistic. I don’t feel that way anymore, so I’m trying to fish it out.”

Laughing, he said curiosity drew him back.

“Maybe the students know,” he shrugged. “Hopefully, this is beneficial and fun for everyone.”

Students love to hear the real-world experiences of alumni. If you would be willing to share your expertise as a mentor, contact Kelly Hendricks, director of alumni relations; Kelly.hendricks@casealum.org, 216-368-0635.

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Andrea Norris and Rhys Hamlet are leading the Case robotics team to new heights.

Case Robotics Rocks

CWRUbotix has grown from a modest club into a national high achiever and one of the largest engineering student groups. What happened?

By Eddie Kerekes

F

or members of CWRUbotix, there are a few aspects of the robotics that bring them back every year.

The chance to dive into interesting and engaging projects is one. So is feeling like a valuable member of a team.

But the main draw for Andrea Norris, a junior electrical engineering major from San Diego, is the sense of accomplishment she feels after finishing a robot and succeeding at a competition.

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Norris, the team’s treasurer, says that feeling of success draws her back again and again.

“When you build something and it actually works and goes on to actually do well in competition, that’s kind of addictive,” she said.

Plenty of engineering students know the feeling. CWRUbotix, Case’s robotics team, has risen from a small group of dedicated engineers just seven years ago

into a diversified team with more than 70 members and achievements on the national stage. The team will begin broadening its horizons in 2019 as it plans for new competitions that build upon recent successes.

In May, the team finished fourth at the national NASA Robotic Mining Competition. That followed a fifth-place finish in 2017, when the Case team outscored teams from Purdue University,

the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Meanwhile, at the National Robotics Challenge (NRC) in April, CWRUbotix won the Combat Robot tournament for the second-straight year—and the team’s systems engineering paper took first place at NASA RMC, the first time it entered that category.

Rhys Hamlet, the club’s president and a senior mechanical engineering major from Seattle, hopes to build on the momentum. He said one of the team’s goals this year is to win NASA RMC for the first time.

In that contest, the team designs a single robot that must be able to collect samples on a simulated Martian terrain.

Building such a machine requires multiple skills, deep planning and constant collaboration. For example, the mining robot has mechanical, hardware and software teams. The mechanical team is further divided into locomotion, excavation and depository groups, while the software team contains autonomy and localization groups.

“We usually look for something that breaks people down by general technical interest and then by specialization,” said Hamlet.

The team tries to give everyone a role they can be proud to possess, he added.

“When people know they have a specific job to do and a specific thing they need to get working, you feel a lot more connected to the project as a whole,” Norris said.

NRC, which is held in Marion, Ohio, demands separate robots for different competitions. This year, the team is planning on competing in the micromouse, combat and autonomous vehicle events. In the past, it also designed robots for the maze, rescue and sumo categories.

New trend, new challenges CWRUbotix is riding an engineering trend. Interest in robotics education

and robotics clubs has risen dramatically across the country at both the high school and collegiate levels. Over 530,000 students competed in the FIRST robotics competition, for high school students and lower, during the 2017–18 school year.

CWRUbotix has sought to harness this growing interest, adopting the motto “We build robots because robots are awesome.”

Traditionally, the team restricts itself to two major competitions—NRC and NASA RMC. But because of growing membership, Hamlet said it is adding the Marine Advanced Technology Education ROV competition, held in June in Kingsport, Tennessee. For that event, the team must design a remotely operated vehicle to complete underwater tasks.

“It’s the next step for our team to grow and be bigger and more successful and more active in the Case community,” Norris said.

Hamlet thinks a busy competition schedule will build a stronger club.

“You look at really successful design team programs, and a lot of the ones that have really grown, do multiple things,” he added. “It seems like the clubs and design teams that really have the longest life and really stick around at other universities do this multi-project thing.”

Still, one quality separates CWRUbotix from other high-achieving collegiate teams: a large presence of mechanical engineering students.

Many teams are dominated by students majoring in computer science or electrical engineering, and they often lack people who know how to actually build the robot. The Case team has the opposite problem, with quite a few mechanical engineers but a small percentage of students who understand the coding behind the mechanics.

Team advisor Richard Bachmann, PhD, said the large numbers of mechanical engineering students derives from the influence of The Center for Biologically Inspired Robotics Research in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Bachmann, an associate professor in the center, said that he mentions the robotics team in his classes as applications for his lectures.

Technical training is key Getting students interested in the team is just half of the battle. Team leaders need to keep that interest while sharpening skills.

In fall 2016, the team started a boot camp in which new members work in

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The robotics exhibit evoked curiosity and occasionally amazement at the Innovation ShowCASE at Homecoming 2018.

small teams to build robots from scratch, under the guidance of an experienced member. Hamlet said the projects allow freshmen and new members to be engaged with the club as soon as they join. They don’t have to wait until the spring semester to start building robots for competitions.

The team also hosts a series of lectures on topics like Solidworks, electrical design and designing circuit boards. The lectures are created and taught by team members, often the leads of current projects.

Norris added that the lectures provide an opportunity for the team to teach relevant information throughout the year.

“I’ve seen people enter these lecture series with no idea what they’re doing,

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and leave two or three sessions later way ahead of where they were,” Hamlet said.

They also are valuable for students to learn skills they can add to their resumes or take to their classes. Norris noted that whenever she encounters transistors in her coursework, she thinks back to the CWRUbotix lecture during her freshman year.

Bachmann said the team has successfully grown strong leaders, who teach the younger members.

Through these efforts, CWRUbotix has become a strong presence on campus and in the Case School of Engineering.

It’s hoping to translate that growth into even more successes at national competitions and demonstrate the value of a Case education.

CWRUbotix receives funding from the Case Alumni Association. If you would like to support the team, contact Janna Greer, Manager of Donor Relations and Grants; janna.greer@casealum.org; 216-368-3647.

Find more information on CWRUbotix at the group’s website, http://cwrubotix.case.edu/.

Class Notes 1960s

John Davin ’60 Rocky River, Ohio John, a star basketball player and golfer for Case Institute of Technology, was inducted into the Spartan Club Hall of Fame at Homecoming 2018. John was one of the leading scorers on the CIT basketball team, earning three letters, serving as a team captain for two years, and claiming a pair of All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference honors. He and six other inductees were first recognized at halftime of the Homecoming football game, a 37–7 win over Saint Vincent College, October 13 at DiSanto Field.

Carl Helrich ’63, PhD Goshen, Indiana Since semi-retiring from Goshen College, Carl has written several textbooks, including The Classical Theory of Fields. He said the book was inspired by a class taught by physics Professor Leslie L. Foldy, which he was allowed to sit in on during his senior year at Case Institute of Technology. “Foldy was magnificent.

He covered the board without once looking back at his notes,” he recalls.

Carl’s books are available on Amazon.com.

Kanapur “Chandra” Savalappan, MS ’63 Monroe, New Jersey Chandra and his wife, Kushala, recently relocated to the U.S. to be closer to their three children. He’s working on his first book, East or West—Life Is Bliss, a semi-autobiographical account of his life

as an engineer and business executive on two continents. Chandra graduated from Case Institute of Technology in 1963 with a master’s degree in environmental engineering and worked in pollution control and environmental engineering in both India and the United States. After he retired in 2000, he founded a school to help educate children in a remote part of India.

Bambang Hidayat, PhD ’65 Bandung, West Java, Indonesia Bambang addressed the conference of the Southeast Asia Astronomical Network (SEAAN) in October 2018 at the Institut Teknologi Sumatera (ITERA) in Lampung, South Sumatra.

A founding member of the Indonesia Society for Sciences, he spoke about “Astronomy as a Cultural Element.”

Bambang earned his doctorate in astronomy from Case Institute of Technology.

David F. Channell ’67, MS ’69, PhD ’75 Dallas, Texas Dave has a new book coming out in 2019. The Rise of Engineering Science: How Technology Became Scientific is described by its publisher, Springer International Publishing, as the first book to look at the “broad history of engineering science.” Dave teaches the history and philosophy of science and technology at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he has been on the faculty for more than 40 years.

Clark Heckert ’68, MS ’68 Carbondale, Colorado Clark has written his first novel, Sudden Storm, an adventure story that follows a Navy SEAL back in time. Not coincidentally, Clark served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He then spent 27 years with DuPont and worked for a decade as a private consultant before retiring to Colorado with his wife, Pamela, to hike and ski. His book is available on Amazon.com.

1970s

George Bibel, MS ’79 Grand Forks, North Dakota George published his third book, Plane Crash: The Forensics of Aviation Disaster (Johns Hopkins University Press), which he co-authored with Captain Robert Hedges, a pilot for Boeing/Airbus. A professor of mechanical engineering at the University of North Dakota, George is a frequently cited expert on transportation accidents. He spoke this year at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics as part of its Distinguished Lecture Series. His presentation was televised on C-SPAN Book TV May 2 and June 23, 2018.

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Class Notes 1980s

Teresa Head-Gordon ’83, PhD Berkeley, California Teresa, the Chancellor’s Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry & Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, was elected to the 2018 class of American Chemical Society Fellows. The Akron native earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Case Institute of Technology and her doctorate in theoretical chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.

Choon Heung Lee, MS ’89, PhD ’93 Jiangyin, China Choon Heung has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co. (JCET Group), a provider of advanced semiconductor packaging and test services headquartered in Jiangyin, China. Lee, who holds 59 industry patents, has served in several senior management positions in the semiconductor industry, most recently with Amkor Technology Inc. He earned his doctorate in theoretical physics from Case Western Reserve.

1990s

Katherine A. Bakeev ’87, PhD Newark, New Jersey Katherine is the Director of Analytical Services and Support for B&W Tek, a Delaware-based producer of optical spectroscopy and laser instrumentation for the pharmaceutical and materials science industries. Formerly she was the Chief Scientist for CAMO Software Inc. Katherine earned her bachelor’s in polymer science and macromolecular engineering from Case Institute of Technology, her master’s in technology management from Stevens Institute of Technology, and her doctorate in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She is editor of Process Analytical Technology: Spectroscopic Tools and Implementation Strategies for the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries, which is now in its second printing.

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Laura J. Flanagan ’90 Wilmette, Illinois Laura was named to the Board of Directors of Callaway Golf Company in November 2018 as it expanded its board from nine to 10 members. She is currently CEO of Foster Farms, one of the leading poultry producers on the West Coast.

Previously, Laura served as President of the Snacks Division of ConAgra Foods in Omaha, Nebraska. She earned her bachelor’s degree in systems and control engineering from Case Institute of Technology in 1990 and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1996. Earlier in her career, she was a manufacturing engineer for Saturn Corp. when it was run by Case alumnus Skip LeFeuvre ’56. In 2013, Laura was awarded the Meritorious Service Award by the Case Alumni Association.

Robin Knauerhase ’90 Portland, Oregon Robin has retired from the Intel Corporation after a 26-year career during which she worked mostly on advanced research in the Intel Labs division. In that span, she was awarded 44 U.S. patents and was published in leading computer science workshops and journals. She earned her bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Case Institute of Technology and her master’s at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. She plans to take a “gap year” to travel and pursue fun projects while she decides whether more tech, academia or LGBTQ advocacy will be her next adventure.

Carlos Grodsinsky, MS ’91, PhD ’93 Hinckley, Ohio Carlos, the chief operating officer at ZIN Technologies, a Middleburg Heights provider of engineering and product development services to NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, was recently named to the board of the Aerozone Alliance. The business group hopes to create an aerospace-oriented jobs hub around Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the NASA Glenn Research Center. An expert in space flight instrumentation, Carlos told Crain’s Cleveland Business he thinks the alliance can help to reinvigorate the regional economy.

Christian Zorman, MS ’91, PhD ’94 Euclid, Ohio Chris was appointed Associate Dean of Research at the Case School of Engineering in October 2018 by Dean Venkataramanan Balakrishnan. He had served in the position on an interim basis for the past year, and the dean credited him with “an exceptional job.”

Chris earned his master’s and doctorate in physics from Case and joined the faculty in 2002 in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is considered an expert in the field of MEMS.

Rina Banerjee ’93 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Rina had her artwork presented by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in a major exhibition, “Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World,” co-organized with the San José Museum of Art. Considered one of the most important artists of the post-colonial Indian diaspora living in the United States, she has exhibited her work most extensively in Europe and South Asia.

Born in Calcutta, India, in 1963, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in polymer engineering from Case in 1993 and took a job as a polymer research chemist upon graduation.

Rina later earned her MFA in fine arts from Yale University.

Robert Stalder ’94 Batesville, Mississippi Rob was named vice chairman of the board of the Phi Kappa Theta Foundation, which supports and guides the national network of Phi Kappa Theta fraternities. He was president of the CWRU chapter of Phi Kappa Theta while an undergraduate studying mechanical engineering.

Rob is the Chief Innovation Officer at Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Tshilidzi Marwala ’95, PhD Johannesburg, South Africa Tshilidzi was one of the keynote speakers at the 2018 Science Forum in Pretoria, South Africa, in December.

He talked about the Moravec paradox and skills needed in the fourth industrial revolution. Tshilidzi is Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Case, his master’s from the University of Pretoria and a PhD in artificial intelligence and engineering from the University of Cambridge. He was also a postdoctoral research associate at the Imperial College of London.

Rong Xu, PhD ’98 Beachwood, Ohio Rong attracted $5 million from the National Institutes of Health for two projects that will try to tackle the biochemistry behind Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Rong, an associate professor in the CWRU School of Medicine’s Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, is an internationally recognized expert in biomedical informatics. She will apply artificial intelligence and big data methods to try to fathom the causes of the dreaded disease. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Peking University, her master’s in biology from Case, and a master’s in computer science and PhD in biomedical informatics from Stanford.

D.M. Pulley ’99 Shaker Heights, Ohio Doreen used her civil engineering degree and love of old buildings to dive into a career as a forensic engineer.

That experience, and a fascination with the Torso Murders of the 1930s, inspired her latest mystery thriller, The Unclaimed Victim. Parts of the novel are set in the Gospel Union Press Building in Tremont, which Doreen describes as a place full of bizarre choices and hidden rooms, more than 175,000 square feet with no master planning. Order the book via Amazon.com.

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Class Notes 2000s

Yijun Deng, PhD ’00 Dresher, Pennsylvania Yijun in May was appointed vice president of drug discovery at Asieris Pharmaceuticals, a China-based biotech company that specializes in cancer drugs. He earned his doctorate in organic chemistry at Case as an international student and worked as a research and development specialist for several U.S.-based drug companies, including Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute and Tetralogic Pharmaceuticals.

Michael Zhang ’07 Costa Mesa, California Michael was named by Intellectual Asset Management magazine to its Strategy 300 list, which identifies the world’s leading intellectual property strategists. He’s director of business development at WiLAN, a patent licensing company based in Ottawa, Canada. Michael earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the Case School of Engineering.

Rakesh Guha ’13 Cleveland Heights, Ohio Rakesh is a catalyst in Cleveland’s startup community. He recently helped to launch StartInCLE, a community of startup founders. He also manages the pop-up tech conference TechPint and was a featured speaker at Startup Scaleup 2018. He earned dual degrees in biomedical engineering and electrical engineering and computer science at Case and works as an engineer for the Canton startup Vlipsy.

2010s

Ashley (Graff) Spears ’04 Edinboro, Pennsylvania Ashley has been appointed director of facilities management and planning at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania after serving in the interim role since April. In her previous position as manager of construction and planning, Ashley oversaw all aspects of major construction projects on Edinboro’s campus. Before joining the university, Ashley was a project manager for Whiting-Turner. She earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Case and a bachelor’s in physics from Edinboro.

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Alaina Strickler ’13 Stanford, California Alaina is a PhD candidate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the department of chemical engineering at Stanford University. She earned her bachelor’s in chemical engineering from Case, where she engaged in research on copper electrodeposition chemistry for semiconductor applications with Professor Uziel Landau. Her current research focuses on the development of advanced electrocatalytic materials for renewable energy conversion technologies, with major applications in fuel cell and electrolyzer devices.

Denn M. Manglona ’14 Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands Denn is working as a civil engineer in the Mariana Islands, where he recently passed the Civil Engineering PE Examination. After earning his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Case he moved to Saipan to be closer to family. He’s an assistant project manager for Pacific Engineering Group and Services.

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

Cal Al-Dhubaib ’16 Lakewood, Ohio Cal was selected for the 2018 class of “Twenty in their 20s” by Crain’s Cleveland Business. Cal, the first person to earn a data science degree from Case, is chief data scientist and partner at Pandata, a data science consulting firm in Lakewood.

Research Projects Agency Riser—a potential superstar with expertise important to national security—at DARPA’s 60th anniversary symposium in September.

A research associate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, she was one of only three award winners chosen to address the 1,600 conference attendees.

Emily shared her groundbreaking research into restoring natural sensation to amputees with prosthetics.

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

ENGINEERS WEEK RECEPTION returns to campus February 28 The Engineers Week reception is chugging back to campus for 2019, in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The reception, the climax to Engineers Week activities, will begin at 5 p.m. February 28 in the Tinkham Veale University Center.

Ujval Reddy Atla, MS ’17 Palo Alto, California Ujval is a systems engineer for Tesla, where he interned while earning his master’s in mechanical engineering at Case. As an international student from India, he participated in CWRU Motorsports and Baja SAE competitions.

He speaks four languages and is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

Adriana Velazquez Berumen, MS ’86, the Senior Advisor on Medical Devices at the World Health Organization (WHO), will deliver the keynote address.

Find tickets and more information at www.casealum.org/engineers-week-2019.

Robert Kearns, who earned his PhD from Case Institute of Technology in 1964, is responsible for that feature of your windshield wipers that gives you an occasional swipe in a misty rain.

He invented the intermittent wiper—then fought for the credit.

Emily Graczyk, PhD ’18 Cleveland Heights, Ohio Emily was one of 50 early-career scientists chosen as a Defense Advanced

Kearns accused automakers of stealing his invention—which he worked on in a lab on Case Quad. He won millions in decades-long litigation before his death in 2005.

His struggle to protect his patents was memorialized in the 2008 movie Flash of Genius.

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A comedy of engineers

In the unscripted world of improv, Case students find fun, teamwork and an unexpected education.

By Eddie Kerekes

T

he lights go dark. Energetic music begins to play. The crowd claps along as if part of the performance.

Suddenly, an actor emerges onstage and shouts, “Welcome to IMPROVment, Case Western Reserve University’s premier short-form improv comedy troupe!”

An hour of high-energy comedy sketches follow. Much of it is staged by students studying theater or the liberal arts, as you might expect. But the cast also

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includes senior Alex Gordon and junior Andy Ogrinc—chemical engineering majors—as well as junior Jack Routhier, an aspiring biomedical engineer. In fact, students studying engineering make up about a quarter of the 20-person troupe.

What’s going on here? Shouldn’t engineering majors be home reviewing Maxwell’s equations for their next exam, or brushing up on applications of the Navier-Stokes equation? They say they

came for the fun and comradery and, to their surprise, ended up learning skills they suspect will make them better engineers.

“Being involved in improv has really helped my soft skills,” said Ogrinc, adding that he’s become adept at improvisation on and off the stage.

“I’m incredibly comfortable giving a presentation in front of people with almost zero preparation,” he explained. “I’m very

comfortable leading a discussion with a bunch of people who don’t always agree.

I’m very comfortable throwing an idea out there and, if no one likes it, throwing it away in the trash.”

He’s also no longer so afraid to fail.

“If you mess up, the audience is rooting harder for you,” he said. “So then when I get it right, there’s an even bigger payoff.”

Whether they joined the troupe intentionally or fell into it on a whim, these aspiring engineers are using IMPROVment to further their skills in both comedy and life.

The troupe began on campus 16 years ago. IMPROVment stages a free performance every Saturday night during the academic year in the Eldred Black Box Theater on Case Quad. Similar to the TV series Whose Line is it Anyway? the shows offer quick improvisations based on audience suggestions, usually with Routhier playing an on-stage keyboard.

One oft-requested game is “Hoedown.”

Four improvisers are given a suggestion from the audience and need to sing a four-line verse following an AABB rhyme scheme and the piano’s melody. The first three lines build up to the punchline.

Like this: It’s my third semester here at Case Western Reserve.

And having a bike on campus is something I really deserve.

But there’s one thing, I give it 0 out of 10, Riding my bike along they say, ‘Get out of the way, freshman!

Improvisers also entertain by reacting to unexpected situations, a core principle of the craft. Onstage, an improviser might make a physical or verbal mistake. The mistake then becomes the main joke of the scene.

Former IMPROVment member Brett DiCello ’18, who graduated from Case with biomedical engineering and theater degrees, likens it to the excitement people feel when they go to concerts and see the performers mess up.

“We live for mistakes,” he said. “The whole idea of a scene is making a big mistake and reveling in it the whole time.”

From left to right: Andy Ogrinc, Alex Gordon and Jack Routhier.

Building a scene, like building a house Another core tenet of improv is teamwork. Gordon, a native of Deerfield, Illinois, compared the making of a great scene to building a house brick by brick.

Each performer brings his or her own bricks and needs to figure out how their jokes and ideas fit in with the rest of the group at that moment. Oftentimes, other performers will approach a scene from a completely different perspective.

“You can’t do a good scene by yourself,” said Routhier, who hails from Westlake, Ohio. “It’s all about teamwork.”

While the performers never end up building anything, they expect to apply this experience in a professional setting.

Engineers need to deal with unexpected scenarios and work with others, they know, whether it’s tackling a team project, convincing the financial department to increase a budget or helping a customer figure out what they want.

DiCello, an Associate Development Engineer at Invacare in Elyria, Ohio, was recently on the other side of the interviewing table, looking for new

co-op hires. He said he advises students to avoid talking about school in their interviews and focus instead on other interesting parts of their lives. The young people he was most impressed by did just that, and got the job.

DiCello, who grew up outside of Pittsburgh, knew of improv comedy from a community center instructor, but Routhier learned about it when he arrived at Case.

Ogrinc’s entry into the group was a bit of an accident. He explained that a friend, who is now in the cast, invited him to join them at auditions his freshman year.

“I was just planning on playing improv games and never thinking about it again,” he said. “I actually didn’t want to do theater at Case Western. I wanted to be focused entirely on engineering. Then I accidentally got a callback. Then I accidentally got on.”

Then he got hooked on improv—on his way to becoming a Case engineer.

Find showtimes at http://improv.case.edu/

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In Memoriam

BELIEF IN ENGINEERING Bob Aiken ’52 and his wife, Brenda, endowed a legacy that will span generations.

As it mourned the loss of alumnus Bob Aiken ’52 this past fall, the university community reflected upon his profound impact and a legacy that will support engineering at Case for decades to come.

Aiken died November 12, 2018, at his home outside of Philadelphia at age 88.

The year before, he and Brenda—his wife of 61 years—committed $20 million to support biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University.

The exceptional gift climaxed a lifetime of support for his alma mater and the engineering programs that he passionately believed in.

“Bob was a warm and wise man who appreciated innovation for the ways it could help people reclaim parts of themselves lost to illness or injury,” University President Barbara Snyder said upon his death. “We are grateful for his support, insight and—most of all—recognition of the power of learning and discovery to transform lives.”

Aiken earned his mechanical engineering degree from Case Institute of Technology in 1952. He spent almost his entire career at the chemical giant DuPont, with the exception of one opportune tour in the Navy. In 1955, he enrolled in Officer’s Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. As a young lieutenant, he was stationed in Naples, Italy. There, he met a naval captain’s daughter, Brenda Jean Ashton, whom he soon married.

The Aikens were members of the Case Dean’s Society for more than 20 years in honor of their leadership level gifts to the Case School of Engineering. In 2005, they established the Robert M. and Brenda A. Aiken Scholarship Fund, which supports juniors and seniors majoring in biomedical engineering. Bob Aiken explained his motivation in a 2007 interview with Case Alumnus.

“My wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 12 years ago, and today she’s just doing great.

But I went back in my mind to 1952, and I could see the advantage of combining mechanical engineering and medicine,” he told the magazine. “I tried to establish the fund for students who want to be mechanical engineers but want to partner, which I’m big on from my business experience, to try to combine the two professions to come out with solutions to problems that will advance the field and reduce suffering.”

In 2013, he was given the Meritorious Service Award by the Case Alumni Association. Soon after, the Aikens began to envision a major, multifaceted strategic initiative fund for biomedical engineering research, students and programs.

President Snyder announced the Aikens’ $20 million gift in the fall of 2017.

The family asks that memorial gifts be made to the Aiken Strategic Initiative at Case Western Reserve c/o CWRU, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106.

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Walter K. Asbeck ‘36, MS ‘39, PhD ‘40; Chardon, OH; 9-11-18

James D. Henrie ‘57; Crescent, PA; 12-14-18

William B. Seaver ‘38; Fairfield, CT; 7-28-18

Richard I. Kermode ‘57; Lexington, KY; 6-16-18

Robert H. Lease ‘42; Hilton Head Island, SC; 11-19-18

Charles W. Nezbeda ‘57; Brooklyn, OH; 8-30-18

Frank C. Bayer ‘45; Carlsbad, CA; 7-5-16

Richard S. Tunder ‘57, San Jose, CA; 1-27-17

Laura D. Crowl ‘45; Olmsted Falls, OH; 11-25-18

Wendell G. Voss MS ‘57; Indianapolis, IN; 10-11-18

William E. Kreger ‘46; Seattle, WA; 10-31-14

Joel D. Finegan MS ‘58, PhD ‘61; Rockford, IL; 9-11-18

Thomas E. Murphy ‘46; Mentor, OH; 8-12-18

Robert N. Milner ‘58; Paso Robles, CA; 6-14-99

Carl Zwierlein Jr. ‘47; Westlake, OH; 10-15-18

William B. Ferguson Jr. ‘59; Longwood, FL; 3-6-11

Peter W. Allen ‘48; Southbury, CT; 9-3-18

Kentland A. Krause ‘59; Los Angeles, CA; 10-4-18

Alan A. David ‘48; Simpsonville, SC; 5-25-18

Edward F. Miller ‘59, PhD ‘69; North Olmsted, OH; 10-9-18

Ernest C. Krauth ‘48; New Port Richey, FL; 6-10-18

Marvin L. Olson ‘59; Peoria, IL; 10-6-18

Dale K. Mann ‘48; Austin, TX; 5-10-18

Michael J. Skehan ‘59; Cary, NC; 7-2-18

Wilbur C. Myers ‘48; Littleton, CO; 7-31-18

Robert J. Tomsich ‘59; Cleveland, OH; 4-30-18

Val P. Shellenbarger ‘48; Southern Pines, NC; 1-19-16

Harold Farkas ‘60, MS ‘64; Madison, WI; 6-21-18

Robert L. Nekola ‘49; Akron, OH; 5-17-18

James F. Hahn ‘60; Gainesville, GA; 7-17-18

Raymond N. Outzs ‘49; San Diego, CA; 10-13-18

Wayne A. Kuhn ‘60; Redlands, CA; 12-9-17

Simeon D. Teisher ‘49; Albuquerque, NM; 9-20-18

Irving Malkin MS ‘60; Parma, OH; 12-25-18

Lawrence F. Arnold ‘50; Avon Lake, OH; 10-7-18

Harold T. Nissley ‘60, MS ‘69; Los Altos, CA; 9-17-17

J. Norman Beidler ‘50; Turlock, CA; 9-19-18

Gerald A. Praver ‘60; Cambria, CA; 4-30-18

Joseph B. Murdoch ‘50, PhD ‘62; Dover, NH; 9-21-18

John R. Sheller MS ‘60; Middletown, OH; 9-11-18

John W. Overdorff ‘50; Cleveland, OH; 10-17-18

Robert A. Fleming ‘61; Alexandria, VA; 5-16-18

Clair E. Phillips ‘50; Mineola, NY; 4-12-17

Alan D. Buell ‘62; Navarre, FL; 9-1-18

Clarence J. Svoboda ‘50; Eastlake, OH; 7-8-18

Alfred B. Cahen MS ‘62; Cleveland, OH; 4-28-18

Kenneth M. Yarus ‘50; Lyndhurst, OH; 4-26-18

Alexander Kryiakis MS ‘62; St. Petersburg, FL; 9-8-18

Glade R. Fuller ‘51; Chesterton, IN; 9-23-18

James C. LoPresto ‘62, MS ‘64; Edinboro, PA; 10-8-18

Robert M. Aiken ‘52; West Chester, PA; 11-12-18

Jon A. Beyer ‘63; Lomita, CA; 8-25-14

David P. Harry ‘52; Redlands, CA; 9-17-13

William L. Schultz ‘64, MS ‘67, PhD 79; Solon, OH; 7-11-18

Harvey W. Preslan ‘52; Wooster, OH; 8-17-18

James G. Hunter Jr. ‘65; Santa Barbara, CA; 6-1-15

Edward A. Steigerwald ‘52, MS ‘53, PhD ‘59;

Stanley M. Antczak ‘66; Cleveland, OH; 10-10-18

Mayfield Village, OH; 8-29-18

W. David Netzer ‘66; Columbus, OH; 9-9-18

James A. Malley ‘53; Akron, OH; 8-25-18

Robert G. Wilhelm Jr. ‘66, MS ‘68; Powell, OH; 8-20-18

George A. Beck ‘54; Wilmington, NC; 11-3-18

Robert A. Gadosik ‘67; Mentor, OH; 9-24-18

Henry J. Venetta 54; Warren, OH; 8-26-18

Robert A. Hovis MS ‘67; Cleveland, OH; 7-1-18

Morton R. Kagan ‘55; Huntingdon, PA; 4-29-17

John G. Papp ‘67, MS ‘73, PhD ‘74; Middleburg Hts., OH; 4-12-18

James E. Keat Jr. ‘55; Silver Spring, MD; 8-19-18

Robert E. Schafrik ‘67; Williamsburg, VA; 7-10-18

Ray S. Komori ‘55; Ranch Palos Verde, CA; 9-4-18

Ronald C. Domeck ‘68; Hudson, OH; 5-10-15

John “Jack” E. Schmidt Jr. ‘55; Berwyn, PA; 11-26-18

Carl E. Locke MS ‘70; Cleveland, OH; 4-30-18

Stuart R. Blood ‘56; Lexington, KY; 2-7-18

Leonard J. Sedlacek ‘70; North Olmsted, OH; 9-15-18

Cataldo Cialdella MS ‘56; Highland Heights, OH; 11-19-18

Elizabeth M. Dabrowski MS ‘74; Cleveland, OH; 5-19-18

Richard G. Gido ‘56; Albuquerque, NM; 9-8-18

Erik P. Kristoffersen ‘76; Denver, CO; 6-2-18

Kenneth W. Hotz ‘56; Medina, OH; July 2018

Donald D. Solomon MS ‘77, PhD ‘78; North Salt Lake City, UT; 2-6-15

Thomas C. Jones ‘56; Johnson City, TN; 3-4-18

Andreas A. Meyer ‘83, MS ‘85; Cleveland, OH; 3-8-18

Mark G. Morris ‘56; Santa Maria, CA; 7-29-18

Nell E. Owens MS ‘87; Indianapolis, IN; 1-2-19

Alfred B. Thomas ‘56; Grosse Pointe, MI; 9-25-18

Diana J. Reinhardt, nee Howard ‘88; Vancouver, WA; 10-10-18

David O. Carlyle ‘57; Westford, MA; 10-30-18

Paul B. Zajac ‘89; Baton Rouge, LA; 9-12-17

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“LONG WE’LL REMEMBER…”

SEEING COLLEGE MORE CLEARLY It was professors like Leslie Foldy who made Case great.

By Carl Helrich ’63, PhD

L

eslie L. Foldy, Professor of Physics, cast a long shadow over many of us. He was known affectionately as “Laughing Les” because of his perpetual smile. Even while he covered the board with a quick hand, the smile was there.

I first encountered Foldy during the summer after my junior year. I was working for Professor Scanlan in CE during the day and considering the effect of a magnetic field on the transport properties of polar molecules in the evenings. I was an Engineering Science (ES) major, so when I tapped on the door of Foldy’s office looking for help, he had never seen me before. That made no difference. He stopped what he was doing and concentrated on me. After jotting a few lines on a piece of paper, he led me to the reading room and pointed me to the solution to my problem in a publication.

When I was a senior, Foldy allowed me to audit his graduate course in classical electromagnetic fields (P 202). Foldy was magnificent. Before class, he stood off to the side and paged through his notebook.

Then, when class began, he covered the board without once looking back. I took 32

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rapid, scribbled notes with my eyes glued to the board. As soon as I got back to my apartment, I recopied them while my memory was still fresh.

Foldy presented first the experimental basis for each law and then developed the law, just as Newton had claimed it should be done. Everything was crystal clear. But Foldy could still knock you down with exam questions. If you took more than half a page on a Foldy question, you had missed the point, and you were doing the problem wrong. So you had to be on top of things and think clearly. I used the same approach in my textbook The Classical Theory of Fields. His spirit inspired me.

I left Case for Northwestern to finish a PhD program and did not return until the Michelson and Morley celebration 20 years later, as a professor of physics at Goshen College. It was an emotional experience to return to Case. I walked alone into Strosacker Auditorium, into the lecture hall in Rockefeller Physics and then to the room where I took P1 as a freshman.

Case was not easy when I was there. I left with unpleasant feelings. I have come to realize, however, that Case was great.

Case was small with absolutely top people.

So you knew who they were and could talk to them. Leslie Foldy and Martin Klein were among those. I did an undergrad thesis under Jerzy Moszynski (Mechanical Engineering). He later nominated me to the Sigma Xi. A student of mine at Goshen College got a summer REU position at Case and spent a few weeks with Foldy. I took the opportunity to drop by and talk with my former professor, honestly telling him of his influence on me. In the last years of his life, I would say Leslie Foldy was a friend.

I know that I am not the only one who has needed to return. Case has molded each of us in a way that we cannot describe easily. And we must come to appreciate our experience in terms which will not be familiar to others.

Some of us need to return to our roots to understand what Case really was.

Helrich is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at Goshen College.

Break the

Boundaries of Innovation Equip yourself for greater success in engineering.

Case Western Reserve University invites you back to the start, where countless alumni have unlocked the tools to fuel new discoveries and heighten their achievements. You can, too. Research alongside today's engineering masters and let their unyielding commitment to excellence steer you toward a more inventive and rewarding future.

• 4 graduate engineering degree options • #50 Best Engineering Schools1 • #37 National University2 • Entrepreneurial support from CWRU LaunchNet • Join a school of engineering with 270+ research and industry partnerships

Become more when you come back.

online-engineering.case.edu/alumni 1. Retrieved on February 12, 2018, from usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/case-western-reserve-university-02138 2. Retrieved on February 12, 2018, from usnews.com/best-colleges/case-western-reserve-university-3024

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Support the Envoys Program at Case Western!

To help develop tomorrow’s engineers and scientists, the Envoys Program identifies promising talent at underrepresented high schools in Cleveland and East Cleveland.

It offers guidance and specialized instruction at the Case School of Engineering. The result? All 50 Envoys graduates have gone on to college. Most have entered STEM fields. More are ready to launch.

Jose Diaz Jr., senior at Max Hayes High school “This has been a huge transition for me. I feel like I’m getting a lot of skills I would not have learned at Max Hayes. I want to go to college and become a chemical engineer.”

Mason Ali, senior at MC2 STEM High School “It’s a program that has allowed me to expand my mind, into calculus and the sciences. It’s given me an opportunity to experience what a job will be like. So I’m really appreciative.”

Analisa Pellot, senior at Horizon Science Academy “When I first came here, I had no experience working in a lab. It just opened up my eyes. It’s gotten me more interested in biochemistry, in working in a science field.”

Please support the Envoys Program at Case Western by making a gift today at www.casealum.org/envoys.