Feeling lucky in Vegas

For the 12th consecutive year, Case Western Reserve sent innovation teams to Las Vegas in January for CES, a.k.a. the Consumer Electronics Show. After experiencing the giant trade show, many returned to campus buoyed by attention and momentum.

Lexi Knight, PhD ’25, used the opportunity to promote her campus startup, Solar Sprout, which aims to boost the use of solar energy in agriculture. She’s developing a semi-translucent solar panel that is based on her thesis research. It would filter out UV rays harmful to plants and allow farmers to grow crops beneath a solar array. Ideally, small farms can combine both agriculture and energy generation on the same plot of land, Knight explained.

Knight, who launched her company as a ThinkEnergy Fellow with the Great Lakes Energy Institute, was thrilled with the wider exposure.

“I’ve been pitching around Ohio for two years,” she said. “CES was the first time we were able to take Solar Sprout out of Ohio, which was really cool. We were talking to people from around the world.”

The annual Case trek to CES began with Bob Sopko, former director of CWRU Launch- Net and a catalyst in the region’s entrepreneurial community. Sopko introduced college innovation teams to CES and made it part of the training for Case’s aspiring entrepreneurs. He died in December at age 64.

Mindy Baierl, senior director of the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship at CWRU, carried on in Sopko’s memory. She rallied 13 student, faculty, and alumni startup teams and helped them to display their ideas to potential customers, funders, and partners.

Knight is now looking at a busy future. Having attained her doctorate in chemistry this spring, she’s applying to become a research analyst with the U.S. Navy. She also intends to continue to build Solar Sprout with her GLEI colleague, Ryan Seymour, a recent graduate of the Weatherhead School of Management.

“Ryan and I are dedicated to keeping it going,” she said.