After a week of events, the engineering department of Case Western Reserve University completed Engineers Week last Friday after the E-Week banquet, which was held at the Marriott Key Bank Center in downtown Cleveland. The event had a record-breaking attendance with over 600 students, faculty members, alumni, and event sponsors.
The theme of this year’s E-Week celebration was Past, Present & Future, emphasizing the changes for the engineering profession over time and commemorating the 130th anniversary of the civil engineering department.
Elizabeth Lehman, the senior chemical engineering major that took the lead in orchestrating the events, commented, “E-Week isn’t a week-long engineering panel discussion. We had peer advising for freshmen, events for high school students, a trivia night, an interdepartmental “minute to win it” style competition, and the banquet. It really is more of a celebratory recognition of the cool things and people found in engineering.” Other events that occurred over the week included a networking event with Alcoa, an Engineering Challenges Carnival, and the Departmental Decathlon.
According to the civil engineering department, the main goal of E-Week is to celebrate achievements made by of those in the profession and to emphasize the positive impacts that engineering has on society. Assistant professor of civil engineering, Michael Pollino, commented, “I believe it is an exciting time for the civil engineering profession as the U.S. faces major challenges to maintain and enhance the infrastructure that serves society.”
Sponsors for the event included consulting firm Accenture, national paint company Sherwin Williams, and power management company Eaton, who all sent representatives to the banquet.
Two alumni were presented with the Lifetime Service Award at the event, an award presented yearly to engineering alumni during E-Week. This year, Fran Gerace, who served on the Richard ’39 and Opal Vanderhoof Infrastructure Research and Education Facility committee, and Phillip W. Gutmann, the former president of the Case Alumni Association, were presented the award.
Professor and chair of the civil engineering department, David Zeng, talked about future opportunities for E-Week by saying, “We can get more high school students on campus to show them that engineering is a cool career to get into.” Pollino also added that, “[E-Week] provides opportunities to engage CWRU students outside of the classroom and Cleveland area schools to learn about engineering.”