The Spring 2021 semester is now underway with a number of events and activities planned to keep us busy.

Throughout February, the university is celebrating Black History Month. The Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at Case Western Reserve University includes a variety of events and programs aiming to remember Dr. King's mission and inspire all members of our community to keep his dream alive. A full calendar of events is available online.

On Feb. 11, we joined Dean Joy Ward and the College of Arts and Sciences in celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This day of recognition was first established in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly as a way of introducing more female students to STEM-related fields of study. It also provides an opportunity to recognize the invaluable contributions women have made in the sciences and to encourage the next generation of women to consider a career in STEM. I’d like to thank all of our faculty and alumnae who so graciously provided video messages of support for our current students pursuing studies in STEM-related fields.

February is also the time for our annual E-Week celebration, taking place Feb. 19–27. This year’s event features the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering while highlighting the social and technological impacts that can be made through STEM under the theme, "A single action can cause a chain reaction."

Like most events over the past year, many of our traditional E-Week activities have gone virtual. However, as with all of the challenges our students faced over the past year due to the pandemic, they more than rose to the occasion, reengineering their events and coming up with new ones that are sure to continue in the years to come. If there is any silver lining to the necessary transition to virtual events, it would be that it opens the door to alumni participation in a few of our activities.

Among these new events is The Engineering Game—a trivia-based competition featuring student, alumni and faculty teams competing against each other to show who has superior knowledge of engineering and CWRU-based trivia. I hope you will join us to cheer on your fellow alumni, though I warn you that the faculty team will be tough to beat! If you can’t join the event, you can still participate by filling out a CWRU-based survey that will be used as part of the game.

In addition to the game, alumni are invited to join the Society of Women Engineers’ Annual Luncheon, featuring keynote speaker Hang Loi (CIT ‘88), a chemical engineering alumna and 3M engineer. Also, the Engineering Challenges Carnival, geared toward younger students ranging from elementary to high school, features 16 different events taking place via Zoom between Feb. 20–27 and is open to the public.

As always, 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.