We are Case

You’ve probably thought about a backup power supply for your home or business, maybe the last time a storm knocked out the electricity for four hours or four days. Dory Power, a startup launched from the Case School of Engineering, is offering a different kind of home generator: A quiet, powerful, solar-friendly battery. Professor Chris Yuan, a battery specialist in the Department of Mechanical an...

Think you know about think[box]? Think again. Claire Dorsett, the dynamic new leader of Sears think[box], brings a background in museum design and hands-on exhibits to the largest open-access maker space on an American college campus. She’s adding new positions and programs to the acclaimed innovation center, including “tinkering opportunities” designed to make it more approachable to novice maker...

A $300 million research flagship is rising on Case Quad and Nick Christie is the man with the plan. As Assistant Vice President for Construction, Campus Planning & Facilities Management at CWRU, he oversees construction projects on campus. That includes the biggest building project in the history of Case Quad-- the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building. Hundreds of workers from nearly...

Driven, smart, creative. That’s Franco “Krais” Kraiselburd, a student so atypical, he typifies today’s Case student. The third-year biomedical engineering major is CEO of his own startup, a guitarist in a rock band, and the founder of a new student group. Hailing from Argentina, he speaks four languages, which is why he can order his pizza in Italian in Little Italy. For complete show notes and a...

Anirban Sen Gupta, a professor of biomedical engineering, has spent much of his career seeking a substitute for whole blood, which is always in short supply. Suddenly, his quest looks a lot more attainable. Sen Gupta’s lab will play a key role in a $46 million federally funded effort to develop artificial blood. It’s a project could achieve an historic first as it revolutionizes approaches to emer...

Joy Ward is a biologist, a climate scientist, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. She’s also a research catalyst who has clearly made her mark since arriving from the University of Kansas three years ago. Her signature program, the Expanding Horizons Initiative, has opened up new research opportunities to faculty and students by funding interdiscipl...

While most popular with students, Sears think[box] is open to all. That includes alumni like Steve Burns ’11, MEM ’11, Brecken Blackburn, PhD ’21, and Matt McPheeters ’12, MS ’13, PhD ’21. The trio tapped the resources of the campus innovation center to launch their company, Lighthanded, and to develop a promising medical device. For additional show notes and the video version of this podcast, ple...

Sears think[box] began a decade ago as a basement maker space in an engineering building. Today it’s the largest open-access innovation center on an American college campus. Jim McGuffin-Cawley, PhD ’84, the faculty director of Sears think[box], shares his vision for the future of this uncommon resource as workers add the finishing touches to the towering Richey-Mixon Building. To lear more please...

You might be surprised to learn that the biggest single source of microplastics in our drinking water is your laundry. The fibers and dies in your clothes teem with specs of plastic, which flow out in the washing machine wastewater. It’s an unseen mess that a trio of young Case engineers aims to clean up. Their startup, CLEANR, is developing a washing machine filter—just as many states and nations...

Eric Kaler, the first engineer to lead Case Western Reserve University in 20 years, is going to make Case a busy place. He wants to grow enrollment, expand the research enterprise, and build a $300 million science and engineering flagship on Case Quad. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Karen, have introduced a new lord of the manor at Harcourt House, a beloved rescue dog named Adelbert—whom you will mee...

In the Energy Lab on Case Quad, Burcu Gurkan is leading a team trying to solve some of society’s biggest challenges—including climate change. The U.S. Department of Energy is backing her efforts to filter carbon dioxide from the air with new techniques, because if her science succeeds, the world will be a cleaner, greener place. More…A scientist for her times Burcu Gurkan is a chemical engineer an...

Young alumni Matt Canel and Ben Kaufman think they have an idea that can open up the music industry to a whole new world of young players. Their 3D printed violins are cheaper, sturdier and more fun than classic wooden violins--and they sound pretty close to the real McCoy. Take a listen, and see why your child or grandchild may be getting started on a 3D Music violin.

YouTube personality and NASA engineer Alex Schepelmann ’09, MS ’10, would like nothing better than to show you how to Super Make Something! Launched by a pair of mechanical engineering degrees from Case, Alex is the new robotics expert at the NASA Glenn Research Center, where he’ll be helping design the Mars’ rover. But he’s better known as the creator of Super Make Something, a high-energy YouTub...

As Covid-19 spread, Professors Yanfang “Fanny” Ye and Ken Loparo, PhD ’77, knew we still needed to live a semblance of normal life. They used data science to help people identify the grocery stores, parks and neighborhoods offering the least chance of infection. Thanks to AI—and rapid-response funding from the National Science Foundation—their Alpha Satellite is only getting better. Listen in and...

Biomedical engineer Dustin Tyler, PhD ’99, is at the cutting edge of neural engineering—what some call “human fusion”—bringing new hope and sensations to people with paralysis. Dustin Tyler not only foresees a day when paraplegics will be able to get up and walk, he expects to help make that happen. Tyler and his colleagues in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Case School of Engineer...

Propelled by a physics degree and a childhood dream, alumnus Don Thomas, PhD, succeeded at becoming a NASA astronaut. He conducted scientific experiments on four Space Shuttle missions and gained a new perspective on the beauty and fragility of planet Earth. Now he works to attract a new generation, the “Mars generation,” into STEM fields so that they might power the next great age of space flight...

At CES 2020, Ricky Graham, PhD, was looking for music fans and found plenty. To beckon people toward his startup, Delta Sound Labs, he had set up a motion-capture simulator. Moving bodies made the colors shift and swirl on an imposing display screen, and reshaped the electronic music firing from a tabletop speaker. Graham, the program director at Sears think[box], was promoting his music productio...

You soon might feel better about bellying up to the buffet. Bingying “Judy” Feng ’16 and her company, AntX Technologies, is developing a "smart scale" that can weigh the nutritional value of your meal. In addition to the weight and price of food, its scale is designed to calculate calories and nutritional values. They tested it at a university in China and found that people were piling less on the...

Everykey may have the solution to the problem virtually everyone has today: How do we remember all those changing passwords? The company’s nifty little device, which can hook to your key ring, unlocks your password-protected computers, phones, websites—even your car—whenever you’re standing in Bluetooth range. It’s a universal smart key that’s used five million times a day. The young company just...

You’ve heard of getting social with media. How about with robots? Kiju Lee sees that day coming—fast. She’s the Nord Distinguished Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Case School of Engineering. Cooler than that, she’s a robotics expert who is expanding the state of the art. Kiju imbues robots with remarkable capabilities—like flexibility, artificial intelligence, ev...

Not long ago, the robotics team at the Case School of Engineering was a modest club struggling to compete. Suddenly, it’s a national high achiever and one of the largest student groups on campus. What happened? Leadership helps. So does winning at exciting competitions. Robotics enthusiasm has swept the country and robotics clubs are booming at many high schools and colleges. But the robotics team...

Some of us are old enough to remember the rap on the screen door, the gruff voice announcing “Gas man!” and how readily mom told him to come on in. He was already halfway down the basement stairs, flashlight in hand, heading for the gas meter. Just as quickly, he was back out the door and on to the next house. It was a painfully inefficient means of calculating gas and water usage by thousands of...

Not many people discover a comet, let alone a galaxy. For stargazer Chris Carr, it’s one of the rewards of a childhood passion he’s been able to nurture at CWRU. He’s hoping to encourage more students to see what he sees. Carr, a senior with a double major in physics and astronomy, has been fascinated with the stars since childhood. At Case, he gained access to tools that allow him to peer far bey...

CWRU at CES 2019. What happens in Vegas doesn’t stay there. So why do we trek to Las Vegas every January to set up exhibits and display our innovations in the basement of a crowded convention hall at one of the world’s largest trade shows? Bob Sopko knows. As director of CWRU LaunchNet, he’s the pied piper of startup founders at Case Western Reserve. Recently, he led a dozen teams of students, sta...

Mr. Startup Prince Ghosh represents a new kind of student and a new generation--the startup generation. Midway through his 4th year at the Case School of Engineering, Prince Ghosh has already packed more into college than some people do in a career. He invented promising wind technology, launched a company, applied for patents and represented his university at prestigious startup competitions. All...