think[box] Radio Case Alumni Association

YouTube personality and NASA engineer Alex Schepelmann ’09, MS ’10, would like nothing better than to show you how to Super Make Something!



Launched by a pair of mechanical engineering degrees from Case, Alex is the new robotics expert at the NASA Glenn Research Center, where he’ll be helping design the Mars’ rover. But he’s better known as the creator of Super Make Something, a high-energy YouTube show that teaches makers and hobbyist how to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to their projects. Some 40,000 people subscribe to his show. After listening to our conversation, we think you’ll see why.

Episode Links: Super Make Something: https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperMakeSomething

As Covid-19 spread, Professors Yanfang “Fanny” Ye and Ken Loparo, PhD ’77, knew we still needed to live a semblance of normal life. They used data science to help people identify the grocery stores, parks and neighborhoods offering the least chance of infection. Thanks to AI—and rapid-response funding from the National Science Foundation—their Alpha Satellite is only getting better. Listen in and learn how best to use it—now and next time.

Link to use Alpha Satellite: https://covid-19.yes-lab.org/

Biomedical engineer Dustin Tyler, PhD ’99, is at the cutting edge of neural engineering—what some call “human fusion”—bringing new hope and sensations to people with paralysis.

Dustin Tyler not only foresees a day when paraplegics will be able to get up and walk, he expects to help make that happen. Tyler and his colleagues in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Case School of Engineering are bringing new sensations and capabilities to people with paralysis. They do it by designing brain-computer connections they call “human fusion.” Their life-changing research inspired the recent documentary, I Am Human. Tyler, director of the new Human Fusion Institute at CWRU, envisions an encore. He’s just getting started.

Propelled by a physics degree and a childhood dream, alumnus Don Thomas, PhD, succeeded at becoming a NASA astronaut. He conducted scientific experiments on four Space Shuttle missions and gained a new perspective on the beauty and fragility of planet Earth. Now he works to attract a new generation, the “Mars generation,” into STEM fields so that they might power the next great age of space flight. His only regret is that he cannot join them.

Episode Links:
E-Week Photos: http://bit.ly/eweek2020pics
Don Thomas, NASA astronaut: https://don-thomas-dasg.squarespace.com/

At CES 2020, Ricky Graham, PhD, was looking for music fans and found plenty. To beckon people toward his startup, Delta Sound Labs, he had set up a motion-capture simulator. Moving bodies made the colors shift and swirl on an imposing display screen, and reshaped the electronic music firing from a tabletop speaker.

Graham, the program director at Sears think[box], was promoting his music production software, a plug-in he calls “Stream.” But with his doctorate degree in music technology, he’s conversant in the array of hi-tech tools available to musicians and music producers. Listen as he explains why “immersive sound” is the future.

Episode Links:
CES Photos: bit.ly/CESPhotos
Delta Sound Labs: http://deltasoundlabs.com
Sears think[box]: https://engineering.case.edu/sears-thinkbox

You soon might feel better about bellying up to the buffet. Bingying “Judy” Feng ’16 and her company, AntX Technologies, is developing a "smart scale" that can weigh the nutritional value of your meal.

In addition to the weight and price of food, its scale is designed to calculate calories and nutritional values. They tested it at a university in China and found that people were piling less on their plates and choosing more wisely. Now the young company is marketing its product in America to school cafeterias, company dining halls, and anyone else who wants to help their diners eat better and smarter.

Listen and learn why her’s was one of the most popular exhibits in the Case display area at CES 2020.

Episode Links:
CES Photos: http://bit.ly/CESPhotos
AntX Technologies: https://www.ant-x.com/