Research News

Chirag Kharangate, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was awarded the 2024 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Electronic & Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD) Early Career Engineer Award at this year’s ASME InterPACK Conference.

With a new $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, researchers at Case Western Reserve University will lead a project to improve the lifecycle of photovoltaic solar energy systems—from fabrication and electricity production through their end of service. The Case Western Reserve-led project is headed by Roger French, the Kyocera Professor in Materials Science at Case School of Engineering and director of the university’s Solar Durability and Lifetime Extension Research Center.

In basketball, to shoot the perfect free throw, train your eye on the rim. In baseball, for the perfect pitch, look at the catcher’s mitt. So says the “quiet eye” technique, which calls on a period of extended visual attention to improve coordination and performance. A research-backed approach for moments of high stress that require precise motor skills, the technique has been studied not just in athletics, but in operating rooms—places where a surgeon’s “quiet eye” can aid in robot-assisted, minimally invasive surgery.

With a new five-year, $2.78 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, researchers at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals will use artificial intelligence (AI) to better treat rectal cancer patients. By using AI, the researchers intend to gain specific metrics on magnetic resonance imaging scans to better understand how rectal tumors are responding to therapy.

Svetlana Morozova, assistant professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, has been selected as a 2024 American Chemical Society (ACS), Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Early Investigator.

In March, the Department of Defense announced $221 million in awards for basic defense-related research projects as part of the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. This year, two Case School of Engineering researchers will participate on two separate projects. 

Hatsuo Ishida has spent nearly 50 years as a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University. In that time, he’s built a reputation as a global leader in the field of polymer science, having pioneered two groundbreaking discoveries that made monumental impacts on the study of polymer-based materials.

Earlier this year, the Veale Center swimming pool was a testing site for Kathryn ‘Kati’ Daltorio’s Crab Lab thanks to a collaboration with the Motley Scuba Diving Club. Supported by the Department of Defense, researchers in the Crab Lab, including PhD students Mingyu Pan and Yifeng Gong, are creating a waterproof crab robot that is capable of searching for and removing underwater unexploded ordnance (UXO) in shallow water. 

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a team of researchers led by Case Western Reserve University a four-year, $2.75 million grant to explore new technology to generate and stabilize a protein called fibrin that is essential to maintain protective blood clots in an injured body. Anirban Sen Gupta, the Wallace R. Persons Endowed Professor of Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering, is leading the project with two researchers from other institutions.

Issued in two phases—$20.4 million in the first and, if certain milestones are met, $27.3 million in the second—this work, which is backed by an award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), has the potential to change lives. 500 million people globally suffer from the degenerative joint disease osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis. The usual treatments target pain relief, often with prescription opioids or prosthetic surgery. Now, a research team led by the Case School of Engineering will begin work on engineering, growing and commercializing “live” replacement joints to treat this painfully debilitating disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the medical community’s use of remote healthcare as an alternative to conventional medicine—and wireless biomedical devices are a huge part of that shift.

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named seven Case Western Reserve University researchers to its 2024 class of senior members, an honor that recognizes their “remarkable innovation-producing technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society.” This year’s class of NAI senior members is the largest to date and hails from 60 NAI-member institutions nationally. The Daily sat down to learn more about the seven honorees from CWRU.

When Brandon Prestwood took walks with his wife after losing part of his arm in an industrial accident in 2012, she favored holding his prosthetic hand—even though he couldn’t feel her touch. But the North Carolina man’s desire to restore the physical sensation of holding her hand was why he volunteered to join groundbreaking research at Case Western Reserve University. Dustin Tyler, the Kent H. Smith II Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case School of Engineering, said Prestwood is his personal inspiration for co-founding Afference.

In the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, postdoctoral student Saudagar Dongare has one main focus: effectively capturing CO2. He’s working alongside Burcu Gurkan’s team in the Energy Lab at Case Western Reserve University to develop functional sorbents—such as ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents—for high CO2 capture capacity.

Umut Gurkan, Wilbert J. Austin Professor of Engineering, has been re-elected for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine program. Gurkan, one of five members from the previous cohort who is extending his service by one year, will join the 2024 cohort.

A Case Western Reserve University engineering researcher was awarded $2 million in federal funding to develop a worm-inspired construction tool that can install underground powerlines. The funding is part of $34 million the U.S. Department of Energy is investing in 12 projects nationally to strengthen and modernize America’s aging power grid through the development of cost-effective, high-speed and safe undergrounding technologies.

Last spring, CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley led viewers of the popular 60 Minutes program to a place where biomedical engineering pioneers are expanding the possibilities of human movement and touch: Case Western Reserve University. The roughly 13-minute segment featured A. Bolu Ajiboye, among other university researchers, who explained how his team is using neuroprosthetics to restore movement and a renewed sense of touch to people with paralysis. Of the millions of viewers who watched, one family was especially inspired—and put that inspiration to action.

For the 11th-straight year, leading innovators, engineers and developers from Case Western Reserve University will demonstrate their startup companies and other creations Jan. 9-12 at CES, one of the world’s largest technology shows. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association, CES features every aspect of the tech sector, from startups to global brands. Case Western Reserve has 18 exhibitors this year, including 10 student/alumni ventures, two CWRU startup companies and five faculty innovations—the most ever from the university.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University are developing ways to convert waste into fuels and other products, using processes that are energy efficient and powered by renewable sources. 

Diagnosing cancer today involves using chemical “contrast agents” to improve the accuracy of medical imaging processes such as X-rays as well as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. But those agents can be expensive, take more time to use and pose potential health concerns. With a new four-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), researchers at Case Western Reserve University hope to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) alternative that generates virtual contrast-enhanced images without chemical agents.

Chirag Kharangate isn’t a stranger to improvement. In fact, with the help of the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) 2024 Young Investigator Award, he’s tackling what could be a serious improvement for naval aircraft systems—developing new ways to make them more powerful. 

Robert Savinell will join a prestigious group of researchers and innovators from Case Western Reserve University as one of the newest elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The honor highlights the overall career and impact individual inventors have had in society and their respective fields. Savinell, a Distinguished University Professor and the George S. Dively Professor of Engineering, is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of electrochemistry and a foundational leader for CWRU’s electrochemical community. His 40-year career includes groundbreaking work in energy conversion and storage.

Receiving the highest honor among the global biomaterials community, Anirban Sen Gupta is now one of less than 500 individuals to become a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE).

With a $3.99 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, biomedical engineers from Case Western Reserve University and the University of Chicago will begin testing an implantable device that restores the sense of touch to breast cancer patients after reconstructive surgery.

When the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) opens in 2026, the Case Western Reserve community will discover a bright and vibrant space designed to create an atmosphere of new ideas, possibilities and partnerships—both planned and serendipitous.

Xiong "Bill" Yu, PhD, is applying artificial intelligence (AI) and mixed-reality visualization tools to better understand—and someday possibly fix—the legacy problems of leaky municipal water systems and crumbling highway bridges.

Satish Viswanath, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Case School of Engineering, traveled to Malaysia in August as part of the Fulbright Specialist Program. During his two-week placement at Multimedia University in Cyberjaya, Viswanath’s work centered on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital pathology—two topics that closely align with his work at Case Western Reserve.

A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University is part of a national effort to “reimagine” steel production, developing an innovative and low-cost process that could replace blast furnaces for ironmaking. If successful, officials at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) believe the effort could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in steelmaking by as much 85%.

Miguel Zubizarreta (CWR ‘90) likes to be part of projects from the beginning. In the early 1990s he collaborated with the founder of a small startup to create a new software solution that launched Hyland Software’s journey to becoming a thriving global enterprise. Now Zubizarreta and his family are among the first to support another promising effort: Case Western Reserve University's Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building.

With a new five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a Case Western Reserve University researcher is leading a project to expand and accelerate the evolution of personalized medicine in treating diseases.

Case Western Reserve, University of Cincinnati and Ohio Supercomputer Center partner on five-year, $5.1 million plan to bring experts to all Ohio institutions

Case Western Reserve, University of Cincinnati and Ohio Supercomputer Center partner on five-year, $5.1 million plan to bring experts to all Ohio institutions

As a longtime social impact and angel investor, Aarti Chandna knows well what she needs to see before committing to support a project. "The way I look at it—any successful company has to be a place where different disciplines can work together well," said Chandna, a Case Western Reserve alumnus and trustee. "No single discipline can exist on its own."

A private company’s effort to bring its portable point-of-care test for sickle cell disease (SCD) and other inherited blood diseases to the United States is supported by technology developed at Case Western Reserve University.

Case Western Reserve University electrochemical engineer Rohan Akolkar—whose pioneering research has applications in nano-material fabrication, energy storage, electrometallurgy and sensors—has been selected as the 2023 winner of an international award from The Electrochemical Society (ECS).

Case Western Reserve University chemical engineer Rohan Akolkar is leading a research team working to develop a new zero-carbon, electrochemical process to produce iron metal from ore. If successful, the project could be a first step toward eliminating harmful greenhouse gas emissions by eventually replacing century-old, blast-furnace ironmaking with a new electrolytic-iron production process.

Since he first stepped onto the Case Quad as an electrical engineering student in 1970, Larry Enterline (CIT ’74) has recognized the value of exploring fields beyond his specialty. Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, he’s held positions in engineering, manufacturing, marketing and sales—with each discipline enhancing and informing the next. Today, he is investing in the promise of such complementary work

History’s most successful broadcast newsmagazine is re-running a spring segment featuring Case Western Reserve University researchers at 7 p.m. this Sunday, July 16. The piece highlights advances by biomedical engineering professors Dustin Tyler and A. Bolu Ajiboye and their teams in restoring movement and the sense of touch for individuals who have become paralyzed or lost a limb.

200,000 square-foot structure represents largest-ever on Case Quad—and first to offer welcoming view to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

More than 500 undergraduate students at Case Western Reserve University took to the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center to present their research and creative projects at Intersections, a poster session hosted by the Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE) office.

Cleveland Clinic, IBM unveil world’s first healthcare-focused quantum computer; Case Western Reserve, others gain computing access, contribute student pipeline

Even as biomedical engineer Anirban Sen Gupta refines artificial platelets to stem traumatic bleeding, he and his colleagues are seeking new uses for their synthetic solution. The latest application to show promise involves providing synthetic platelets to treat a genetic condition that prevents blood from clotting, Von Willebrand disease (VWD). The most common of all bleeding disorders, VWD is found in up to 1% of the U.S. population (roughly 3 million people), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On March 26, the CBS News program 60 Minutes featured groundbreaking work led by Case Western Reserve University researchers Dustin Tyler and A. Bolu Ajiboye—biomedical engineering pioneers who are bringing a renewed sense of touch to amputees and people with paralysis, using neuroprosthetics.

Vishnu Ramasamy is well versed in working with 3D printers. He’s even worked on building one that is capable of 3D printing wind turbine blades. Now, he’s taking the next step, designing and building the Arc One, an open-source low-cost, modular machine that 3D prints metal using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM)—a production process used to 3D print or repair metal parts.

Eight researchers affiliated with Case Western Reserve University have been named senior members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI)—the largest class ever from the university—and from any member institution since the academy began the awards in 2018.

University of Maryland leads team of multiple universities and biotech companies; CWRU to evaluate and optimize synthetic blood products

Sometime next summer, on the second floor of a research building on the Case Western Reserve University campus, scientists hope to record something the world has never witnessed: The moment of impact when an 18-millimeter-diameter projectile hits a wall of water at 9,000 miles per hour. What will occur in that instant and in the subsequent milliseconds—expected to be captured in detail by high-speed cameras—is a tantalizing mix of “knowns, unknowns and what-if’s,” according to Bryan Schmidt, the project’s lead researcher.

Case Western Reserve University researchers Sanford “Sandy” Markowitz and Dustin Tyler have been elected fellows of The National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The honor highlights the overall career and impact individual inventors have had in their field and society.

From an early age, Bryan Schmidt was fascinated by things that went fast. Now an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering who is also an alumnus of the department, Schmidt has received two awards that will help bring those interests to life in his lab through hypersonic flight experiments.