The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce an investment in strategic initiatives to help build on CWRU’s strengths at the intersection of humanity & technology; diversify the CWRU campus and support surrounding neighborhoods; and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Strategic investments are comprised of two parts:
- Campus-based competitions for funding (Seed and RFP proposals); and
- Provost's Priority Funding to align with needs of the deans and academic-support units.
The investment type is noted in the descriptions below.
Investments in Humanity & Technology
The plan invests the majority of dollars in two areas: 1) Faculty hires in the foundational disciplines that fuel CWRU’S human/technology work; and 2) investments in the future of learning through the campus-based Think Big RFP competition. These investments will position CWRU to push boundaries, merge liberal arts and technological approaches, and to prepare students to be ethical and empathetic learners who will go out into the world and lead in this new reality.
Description: RFP Investment
The project will introduce HoloLens into lectures as a part of three classes taught in three different departments in two different schools which will build the framework for future expansion of this new pedagogical technique as a new frontier in human-technology interface in education.
Lead Contact
Alp Sehirlioglu, Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Case School of Engineering, alp.sehirlioglu@case.edu
Description: RFP Investment
The RFP will create the first ever HoloLens image of the Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical and calendrical calculating device dating from the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE. The end goal will be to have this HoloLens image become part of the educational programming at both CWRU and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, perhaps as a permanent interactive educational display at the CMNH, or at any museum/planetarium that supports HoloLens technology.
Lead Contact
Paul Iversen, Associate Professor & Chair, Department of Classics, College of Arts and Sciences, paul.iversen@cwru.edu
Description: RFP Investment
A new NeuroDesign fellowship between Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, modeled after the Stanford BioDesign Program.
Lead Contact
Stephen Fening, PhD, Director, Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership and Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Case School of Engineering, steve.fening@case.edu
Description: RFP Investment
This program will provide training for senior PhD students and post-docs in translational research and entrepreneurship.
Lead Contact
Cheryl Thompson, PhD, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean, School of Medicine, clw8@case.edu
Description: RFP Investment
In this project mixed-reality with avatars team training modules using the Microsoft HoloLens will be designed and piloted, and the modules will include well-established tools for teamwork, such as the TeamSTEPPS curriculum.
Lead Contact
Tyler Reimschisel, Associate Provost for Interprofessional Education, Research and Collaborative Practice, tyler.reimschisel@case.edu
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
Funding is intended to support faculty hires in the School of Medicine as well as the Case School of Engineering to help the university advance its goal to define the next level of understanding and knowledge creation at the intersection of humanity and technology.
Contact
Lisa Camp, Chief of Staff, Office of the Provost, lisa.camp@case.edu.
Description: RFP Investment
Short for “humanities lab,” H.lab Embedded will develop CWRU’s capacity for interdisciplinary human-tech collaboration by designing, building, and testing a shared vocabulary and framework for embeddable, team-based ethical engagement with and critical reflection on new research in data science, AI, and other emerging technologies.
Lead Contact
Timothy Beal, Florence Harkness Professor of Religion, College of Arts and Sciences, timothy.beal@case.edu
Description: RFP Investment
Establish CWRU as the leader in holographic higher education and research.
Lead Contact
Erin Henninger, Executive Director, Interactive Commons, exh191@case.edu
Description: RFP Investment
The goal of this project is to implement and validate a pilot online learning class for the teaching of human anatomy to nursing students using Microsoft HoloLens.
Lead Contact
Mark Griswold, Professor, Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, mag46@case.edu
Investments in Diversity & Inclusion
Pathway 3 and Pathway 4 support efforts to help move CWRU to the next stage of awakening and truly embrace what it means to be an equitable community that has a positive impact on its neighbors in Cleveland and East Cleveland. The plan invests in a wide range of activities, including eight campus-based “Seed” ideas that will help at the grassroots level take on pockets of change that need to happen. Funds have also been directed to support both graduate student and faculty diversity initiatives on campus, including the recent program and campus review conducted by STEM Diversity experts.
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
This one-time support will fund underrepresented minority students recruited into the re-launched Bioethics & Medical Humanities PhD program.
Lead Contact
Stan Gerson, Dean, School of Medicine, slg5@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
This Seed will harmonize and scale climate action at CWRU by building connections and collaborations across campus and with our neighboring communities, bringing together faculty, staff, students, and neighbors to take meaningful individual and collective action.
Lead Contact
Ina Martin, Operations director of the Materials for Opto/electronics Research and Education (MORE) Center, Case School of Engineering, ixm98@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
The goal of this project is to provide a mechanism by which six academic units at CWRU collaborate to broadly increase the number of invited seminar speakers from underrepresented backgrounds and/or diversity champions who have proven track-records of working to improve inclusion of marginalized groups in academia.
Lead Contact
Emmitt Jolly, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, ecj20@case.edu
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
This program seeks to provide support for a variety of activities related to faculty and graduate student diversity efforts.
Lead Contact
Lisa Camp, Chief of Staff, Office of the Provost, lisa.camp@case.edu
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
This program seeks to provide grant training support for early career faculty.
Lead Contact
Mitch Drumm, Interim Vice President, Office of Research and Technology Management, mitchell.drumm@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
The purpose of this project is to generate excitement and interest in our work to implement The Steve Fund framework to promote equity in student health and wellness.
Lead Contact
Sara Lee, Executive Director, University Health and Counseling Services Division of Student Affairs, sjh12@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
We are developing an advisory committee comprised of local neighborhood leaders, community stakeholders, University Circle and CWRU institution representatives that will provide guidance, recommendations and feedback on the Universities interactions and engagement with the communities in Cleveland and East Cleveland.
Lead Contact
Julian Rogers, Executive Director, Local Government and Community Relations, jxr178@case.edu
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
This funding is intended to increase support for newly recruited underrepresented minority students in high performing graduate programs.
Lead Contact
Joy Ward, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, swr@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
Expanding upon relationships forged over the past seven years through the Provost Scholars Program, we propose to improve the parents’/guardians’ capacity to provide support for the scholars by improving their health status and parenting skills.
Lead Contact
Faye Gary, The Medical Mutual of Ohio Kent W. Clapp Chair & Professor of Nursing, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and Professor, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, fgary@case.edu
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
This funding seeks to expand the impact of the PREP program, which is focused on increasing the percentage of postbaccalaureate minority students seeking PhDs. Learn more about the program.
Lead Contact
Stan Gerson, Dean, School of Medicine, slg5@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
Our interdisciplinary team will design and begin to implement a curriculum to prepare undergraduate students for their global transition (graduate school, professional school, industry).
Lead Contact
Sheila Pedigo, Director of SOURCE, sdp5@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
To enhance the CWRU undergraduate Latinx experience by combining student support and cultural awareness with the intent to address institutional gaps and increase retention, persistence, and completion.
Lead Contact
Gina Maldonado-Powers, Assistant Director of Student Advancement, Student Success, gxm300@case.edu
Description: Seed Investment
Partnering with the Mayor’s office to make Euclid Ave a two-way street to knowledge, this project uses art as the lingua franca to co-create a series of experiential STEAMM [Science Technology Engineering Arts Math Medicine] community engagement activities with residents of East Cleveland to demonstrate proof of concept for a dynamic reciprocal interchange model of CWRU-with-community learning relationships allowing students, staff, faculty and alumni a rare opportunity for co-curricular learning from our dynamic though under-served neighboring community and to connect with people of many ages and backgrounds around STEM topics often not easily accessible to folks in neighborhoods that, while physically near campus, may feel a world away.
Lead Contact
David B. Miller, Associate Professor, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, dbm5@case.edu
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
The Systems Biology & Informatics First Year Fellowships will support first year PhD scholarships for the Systems Biology & Informatics program, with students shared between the Case School of Engineering and School of Medicine with funds targeted for underrepresented minority (URM) students.
Lead Contact
Stan Gerson, Dean, School of Medicine, slg5@case.edu
Description: Provost's Priority Funding
This program seeks to build an undergraduate research summer experience to be a pipeline to graduate programs at CWRU.
Lead Contact
Grover Gilmore, Dean, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, grover.gilmore@case.edu
Investments in COVID-19 Response
The COVID emergency has required that some of the strategic planning money be tapped to help the campus community. Thus, funds have been directed to meet the needs of the campus community in the area of childcare, course enhancements, and online learning to ensure that CWRU makes it through the pandemic whole.