The holiday season gives me an opportunity to reflect on all that I have to be grateful for in our community at Case School of Engineering. Since March, our faculty, staff and students have come together stronger than ever—showing a degree of flexibility, ingenuity and grace under pressure that I could not have imagined possible at this time last year. Because of their effort and determination, we were able to continue teaching, learning and pursuing groundbreaking research. 

This month, I’d like to share some of our top stories from the past year. I’m immensely proud to share that this is just a snapshot of the many research wins and community successes that occurred this year despite unexpectedly challenging circumstances.

• Case School of Engineering: CSE Mobilizes Pandemic Solutions
• Biomedical Engineering: Using AI to improve heart transplant outcomes
• Computer and Data Sciences: Protecting genomic privacy
• Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Assistant professor Christine Duval receives Early Career Research Grant from Department of Energy
• Civil and Environmental Engineering: CWRU joins consortium of universities to form National Transportation Research Center
• Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering: Performing robotic medical procedures inside an MRI
• Macromolecular Science and Engineering: U.S. Army commits up to $11 million for polymer research
• Materials Science and Engineering: Major Research Instrumentation grant will enable new, interdisciplinary research
• Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: Taking the next step in biorobotics

None of this would be possible without the incredible dedication of our faculty, research assistants and associates, graduate students, lab managers and staff specialists whose work on these and many other projects is, in a word, astounding.

Best wishes to you all for a happy and safe new year, and thank you for your continued support of the Case School of Engineering. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions or feedback at CSEUpdates@case.edu.

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