ThinkEnergy Fellowship Student Profile: Evan Haug

Our 2020-2021 ThinkEnergy fellows are outstanding students who are working diligently to advance innovation in the Energy field. This year we have 15 students from various majors and schools working on three amazing entrepreneurial projects. We hope these student profiles will help you to get to know more about these students, their passions, and their amazing work. See all the profiles here.

Evan Haug, a fourth-year from Elmhurst, Illinois majoring in Electrical Engineering and Systems and Control Engineering with a minor in Business Management:

1- What is your favorite thing to do at CWRU outside of the classroom?

Play Ultimate Frisbee on the Case Western Men's Ultimate Frisbee team.

2- What is your most treasured memory at CWRU?

My most treasured memory at CWRU was my very first day of class. At first, I was, of course, nervous but by the end of the day, I knew I was where I belonged.

3- How did you hear about the ThinkEnergy Fellowship and why did you apply?

I heard about it during an informational announcement before my thermodynamics class and knew it was for me.

4- What energy problem is your entrepreneurial team working to solve with a product?

The LEAF team is working on streamlining and simplifying the solar design/engineering process by creating an AutoCAD plug-in that automates most of the manual tasks commonly associated with a design.

5- What is your role(s) on your entrepreneurial team?

My role on LEAF is the subject matter expert. I applied to GLEI with this idea in mind having had worked in the solar industry and had grievances about how time-consuming it was to design a solar array in AutoCAD and now lead the charge in automating these tedious tasks.

6- What is your favorite part of the program so far this year?

I have thoroughly enjoyed the weekly speakers that come in and present on relevant subjects in the green energy field. Sometimes the topics are not aligned with my particular interests, but I can always afford to learn something new and each week is something brand new.

7- What is one thing you find challenging in the program so far?

In-class projects, problems are very clearly defined, and the expectations are usually outlined in a rubric of sorts. However, when you are innovating and working with an independent team like we at in LEAF, it can be difficult to create realistic goals and quantify our progress which can make it difficult to coordinate our group efforts.

8- What is one thing you hope to get out of the experience?

Being a part of GLEI has given me so much valuable experience in everything from project management, organization, communication, and how to keep a forward-thinking mindset."