Case Western Reserve University’s Tesla Orchestra is known for its innovative projects. Take, for example, its entire existence: It’s a musical group that uses tesla coils to convert music into lightning—the only university-based traveling group of its kind.

Now, the brains behind Tesla Orchestra are launching Open Spark Project, in which musicians around the world, especially here at Case Western Reserve, can submit their songs and get them turned into lightning. One act already signed on to the project? Former Case Western Reserve student Gregg Gillis, aka mashup master Girl Talk.

So how, exactly, does this work? Members of Tesla Orchestra—a group that has comprised about 80 members in its short history—built musical tesla coils, devices that shoot out giant bolts of electricity tuned to reproduce all the notes on a keyboard, explained alumnus and project manager Ian Charnas (CWR ’05). The end result is that it looks like lightning and sounds like music, and it’s something better seen than explained; check out a video of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” here.

For the Open Spark Project, musicians are encouraged to submit their videos online from now until May 2, and on May 14, Tesla Orchestra will stream live video of all the songs on the project’s site. Then, on June 11, they’ll select the top songs to perform in a live show in the Masonic Auditorium here in Cleveland, with proceeds going toward funding for Tesla Orchestra (tickets are available at ingenuitycleveland.com).

About a dozen students, plus a handful of alumni, faculty and staff members, are involved in making Open Spark Project work. Most students are electrical and mechanical engineers, but Charnas said the interdisciplinary project includes students at Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Institute of Music and Lorain County Community College.

Charnas said they’d love to receive submissions from the university community. “This project is a rare opportunity for musicians to see their music turned into lightning,” Charnas said. “I know we have a lot of people on campus who make music as a passion or a career, and when will you ever get a chance like this? It’s very rare.”

The project is made possible through various departments at Case Western Reserve University as well as alumnus Paul Buchheit (CWR ’98).

To learn more about Open Spark Project or submit your music, go online.

Case Western Reserve University alumnus Thomas W. Seitz and his wife, Nancy, have endowed a new chair at the Case School of Engineering. The Thomas W. and Nancy P. Seitz Professorship in Advanced Materials and Energy is the second endowed chair supporting the efforts of the Great Lakes Energy Institute (GLEI).

The professorship represents the first philanthropic investment in the Engineering Strategic Hiring Initiative, which aims to attract outstanding scientists in the school’s priority areas of advanced materials, energy and human health. Launched last spring, the effort targets professors committed to collaboration on interdisciplinary work. It also focuses on enhancing diversity of the engineering school’s faculty.

“This generous gift will help accelerate our efforts to recruit individuals eager to work across boundaries to address some of the world’s greatest scientific challenges,” President Barbara R. Snyder said. “We are profoundly grateful to the Seitz family for recognizing the significance of this initiative.”

The university created the energy institute in 2008 with seed funding that included a $3.6 million start-up grant from The Cleveland Foundation. The GLEI's mission is to enable the transition to advanced sustainable energy generation, storage, distribution and utilization, through coordinated research, development and education. The first endowed chair in energy —The Milton and Tamar Maltz Chair in Energy Innovation—was announced in 2008.

This gift will also support the Institute for Advanced Materials, which was launched in the spring of 2010. Case Western Reserve has significant strengths in advanced materials with close to 100 faculty members across the University, including Medicine, Dental, Arts & Sciences, and Engineering.

“This generous gift allows the School of Engineering to simultaneously build our faculty expertise in advanced materials and energy—two key areas in our interdisciplinary approach to research and programs,” said Norman C. Tien, dean and Nord Professor of Engineering, Case School of Engineering.

Thomas Seitz, who is senior vice president for Strategic Excellence Initiatives at The Sherwin-Williams Co., said the strategic focus on the hiring initiative and the university’s regional economic impact were both factors in the couple’s commitment, as was the concept of giving back to his alma mater.

“The superb technical education I received at Case was only part of the story. Learning how to learn and developing problem solving skills made me a lifelong student,” Seitz said. “Those combined abilities have served me well throughout my business career.”

Thomas W. Seitz joined Sherwin-Williams in June of 1970, as a formulator in the A. W. Steudel Technical Center in Chicago.  Since then he has performed in a variety of positions in technical, engineering, manufacturing, logistics, and general management roles for the company. 

Seitz also spent six years as co-owner of a retail and commercial building materials business.  He holds an MBA degree from the University of Chicago and a BS in engineering from Case Institute of Technology. He has served on the boards of Alsher Titania LLC and New Life Community Transitional Employment & Housing Program for homeless families. He is a key volunteer on a number of Case School of Engineering committees and is currently serving as the co-chair for the university-wide Corporate Visiting Committee.

A prolific researcher in optical materials and nanoscale assembly is the first faculty member appointed under a new strategic hiring initiative at the Case School of Engineering.

Roger French, a longtime scientist at DuPont, chose to leave industry for Case Western Reserve because of the rich opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration he sees on the campus.

“This is an opportunity to accomplish things that are bigger than just what I can accomplish myself,” French said.

This desire to work with others to achieve major research breakthroughs was one of the first qualities that moved leaders of the hiring effort to make French its first recruit. The initiative, a collaborative effort between the school and central university administration, seeks to enhance dramatically the school’s stature, diversity and research impact. 

“The new faculty will bring the current faculty–not only from the school of engineering but other schools–to clusters with common themes,” said Distinguished University Professor Hunter Peckham, the leader of the search effort. “In the clusters, they can all share their expertise in fields that are critical to the overall strategy of the university: human health, energy and advanced materials.”

French comes to the university after spending a quarter century at DuPont in positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as a Research Fellow. There he gained extensive experience commercializing discoveries. Since 1996, he also had served as an adjunct professor at University of Pennsylvania, where he’s mentored graduate and postdoctoral researchers.

He has been appointed the F. Alex Nason professor of materials science and engineering.

French said he came to Case Western Reserve to join the expanding interdisciplinary research teams focused on new materials and energy.

“During an informal visit earlier this year, I could see the interactive nature and the good collaborative environment and the low departmental barriers here,” he said. “And they were creating institutes, which further lowers the barriers.”

Under the hiring initiative, Case Western Reserve is seeking senior, mid-level and junior faculty who are proven leaders in interdisciplinary research.

The university also is making diversity a priority in this effort, to increase the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities among the engineering faculty.

An associate professor of biomedical engineering has received a $2.3 million New Innovator Award to further develop and broaden the uses of synthetic platelets and the technology that makes them work.

Erin Lavik uses nanotechnology to build platelets of biodegradable polymers, which link with natural platelets to stem bleeding faster.

She and fellow researchers initially pursued the technology after seeing the damage and death tolls among soldiers who suffered traumatic brain injuries in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The award, presented by the National Institutes of Health, is designed specifically to support unusually creative new investigators with highly innovative research ideas at an early stage of their career.

"It will provide a wonderful foundation for supporting my students as we pursue this research,” Lavik said.

Lavik’s lab will continue testing and fine-tuning the artificial platelets toward use in people suffering all kinds of traumatic injuries. She also plans to develop new modes of drug delivery based on the system the synthetic platelets use to home in and lock onto clotting natural platelets. 

"NIH is pleased to be supporting early-stage investigators from across the country who are taking considered risks in a wide range of areas in order to accelerate research," said Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes. “We look forward to the results of their work."

Three professors in the College of Arts and Sciences spent a year working on a plan aimed at improving the climate for faculty diversity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Daniela Calvetti, professor and chair of mathematics; Kathleen Kash, professor and chair of physics; and Daniel Scherson, Charles F. Mabery Professor of Research in Chemistry; were the inaugural members of the Institutions Developing Excellence in Academic Leadership (IDEAL) program. This week, they will hand over the reins to a new group of faculty leaders.

IDEAL is a three-year, nearly $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to seed gender and underrepresented minority equity and institutional transformation in the areas of science and engineering awarded to Lynn Singer, deputy provost and vice president for academic affairs. Case Western Reserve leads a partnership with five regional public universities: Bowling Green State University, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, University of Akron and the University of Toledo.

Diana Bilimoria, professor of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve, said each participant was selected for a reason. “They were chosen by their peers. The program specifically tries to develop emerging leaders and faculty who are respected in their discipline and in the campus community, and who are invested in improving the campus climate,” she said.

As far as the overall IDEAL project, IDEAL Project Director Amanda Shaffer said that it is “particularly innovative to have six universities trying to seed change simultaneously as part of a learning community.” All of the participants met with coaches and exchanged information on best practices across schools.

The Case Western Reserve IDEAL project will focus on a different academic area each year.  The next group of change leaders will represent the Case School of Engineering and the Weatherhead School of Management. The following year, faculty from the School of Medicine will be chosen.

Calvetti, Kash and Scherson’s project focused on faculty career development. They proposed examining institutional mechanisms to address the needs of pre-tenure and post-promotion faculty in several departments within the College of Arts and Sciences. Their proposal calls for reviewing best practices, hosting ongoing meetings, providing recommendations and preparing progress reports.

“The goals were provided in a broad sense but we had to decide what to focus on,” Scherson explained.

Singer said the group has made significant strides so far. “We were surprised at how much they learned and were able to do in such a short amount of time.”

Shaffer said the group is clearly committed to the project’s success. “They’ve spent an entire year investing in something they think will be impactful,” Shaffer said.

Although the current change leaders are all College of Arts and Sciences faculty, this was the first time they worked together on this type of project. Calvetti described the experience as “one of the most effective and rewarding aspects of IDEAL.”  

Calvetti, Kash and Scherson will report their recommendations during Friday’s IDEAL Plenary Conference. The meeting, which is being held at the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations, is an opportunity for all of the IDEAL universities to provide an update on their Year One projects. The meeting also is an opportunity to introduce the new change leaders. In addition to the faculty participants, university presidents, provosts and diversity officers are scheduled to attend.

Kash said the current change leaders are optimistic about the next phase of IDEAL. “Part of our charge is to share information with the new change leaders. We’re all curious to know how the policy will be implemented and if it will work,” she said.

Anne Hiltner, Case Western Reserve’s first female professor of engineering and an internationally recognized scientist and engineer, died Monday after a courageous battle with illness. She was 69.

“Our campus has lost a remarkable academic leader,” President Barbara R. Snyder said. “As a woman in the sciences and engineering, Professor Hiltner’s entire career served as an inspiration to others. As a researcher of extraordinary ingenuity and accomplishment, she transformed her field. Her impact on the university, and on students and colleagues worldwide, cannot be overstated. We will miss her.”

Professor Hiltner came to the university in 1967, after earning a doctorate in physical chemistry from Oregon State University. She served as a research associate for one year with chemistry professor Irvin M. Krieger, and then joined the laboratory of professor Eric Baer, who was chairman of the Department of Macromolecular Science at the time. The connection with professor Baer proved fortuitous, as the pair forged a powerful scientific collaboration that persisted to the present. They also discovered personal compatibility, marrying in 1999.

“The dream of every faculty member is to try harder, harder,” Baer said. “She always climbed mountains.”

From the very beginning, Baer recalled, his colleague was committed to excellence. Whether working in the laboratory, writing papers or advising graduate students, Hiltner remained laser-focused. “She was a projects person,” Baer said.

In 1974, Hiltner became the university’s first female member of the engineering faculty when she became an assistant professor of macromolecular engineering. Seven years later she founded the Center for Applied Polymer Research (CAPRI), an organization that encouraged collaboration across disciplines and ultimately laid the groundwork for the program that she considered her greatest achievement, the awarding of a 10-year, $40 million National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (STC), the Center for Layered Polymeric Systems (CLiPS).

The NSF received more than 160 applications for STC funding, and gave awards to six. CLiPS is the university’s first and only STC, and involves several other university partnerships nationwide as well as collaboration with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

“The STC made her feel she had reached to the top of Everest,” Baer said. “She really reached the pinnacle of her career.”

Over her career, Professor Hiltner published nearly 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and received multiple honors from professional scientific organizations. She was a Fellow of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymeric Materials, the American Institute for Medical Biological Engineering, and the High Polymer Physics Division of the American Physical Society.  

In 2001, Professor Hiltner was the recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering. In 2004, Case Western Reserve named her the Herbert Henry Dow Professor of Science and Engineering. That same year, the Society of Plastics Engineers’ Thermoplastic Materials and Foam Division presented Professor Hiltner its annual outstanding achievement award. In 2008, she received the American Chemical Society’s Award in Applied Polymer Science. In announcing the honor, the society cited Professor Hiltner’s “pioneering contributions in understanding the connections between hierarchical structure and properties of polymers, their blends and composites.”

Even with all of the recognition, Baer said, “her greatest joy was her involvement with the graduate students.  She loved the creative, productive side of her work.”

Hiltner did not want formal remembrances or donations made in her name, Baer said. The greatest tribute others can make to Hiltner, he explained, is to continue her creative mission through their academic work.