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

20% of the incoming students are international, hailing from 50 nations 10% identified as the first in the family to go to college

37% plan to major in engineering

26,646 applied for undergraduate admission, another record. Fewer than 30% were accepted 1,390 students arrived, a university record 30% of those engineering majors are women

Class of 2022

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 In October, Lacks was honored “Managing in a Global Economy,” Profes- with the AIChE Service to Society sor Daniel Lacks gathered Case students Award at the annual chemical in the African nation of Tanzania in engineering conference in January 2018. There, they helped design Pittsburgh. His peers had and install solar power systems in villages more than a single solar where children studied by lamp oil. project in mind.

More than half the students were Lacks, the chair of the engineering majors in the class that Department of Chemical and Lacks co-taught with Weatherhead Biomolecular Engineering, created Professor Michael Goldberg. Later, many a study abroad opportunity for expressed a newfound appreciation for engineering students that allowed them the power of engineers to solve problems to practice thermodynamics in Botswana. and improve lives. 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.”