Campus Connection: May 21, 2019

All public university requests were shared last Wednesday, May 15 with the Kansas Board of Regents, which will make the final decision in mid-June. Increases approved by the Regents will go into effect for fall semester.

Among the Kansas research universities, the comparable fee increase requests were 3.1% ($145 more a semester) by Kansas State University and 1% ($50 more a semester) by the University of Kansas.

This year’s 1% WSU tuition increase request compares to a 2.5% percent increase for 2019, 2.5% for 2018, 5% for 2017 and 3.6% for 2016.

Student fees proposal

Seventeen key fees remained unchanged in WSU’s proposal. These include fees charged by colleges and special programs, those involving laboratory fees and the fee to support student health and wellness programs.

There are only four increased fees recommended, for student services, intercollegiate athletics, online courses and the Honors College.

A detailed list of tuition and fee increase requests is available on the Kansas Board of Regents website.

Featured entrepreneurs:

Coming Together for a Cure

Hearsay

James Wesley Furniture

M.A.D. Ad Labs

Vrume

Wichita Limelight

Partnering with the CCDC Aviation & Missile Center’s Systems Simulation, Software & Integration Directorate (S3I), the goal of the workshops was to gather bright minds to discuss safety-critical applications.

“Identifying and mitigating numerous risk elements associated with the introduction of (multi-core processors) into Army aviation systems is a significant challenge,” said Josh McNeil, software airworthiness division chief for S3I.

“The MCP solutions workshop was a success as it brought together stakeholders from industry, academia, the Army and other DoD organizations from across the country to discuss the risk areas and solutions to the challenge. An emerging outcome of this workshop is the formation of a new community of interest focused on certification requirements, standards development, and implementation guidance for MCPs used in safety-critical applications.”

“FirePoint is pleased to partner with the CCDC Aviation & Missile Center on bringing together a community of interest to work on this important issue,” said Peter Perna, FirePoint executive director. “Airworthiness qualification of multi-core processors is a challenge shared not just by our military, but by general and commercial aviation as well. We’re looking forward to continuing our work to support the center’s leadership in this area.”

FirePoint was established in September 2017 through a partnership with CCDC Aviation & Missile Center headquartered at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The partnership is part of a broader commitment by Wichita State to help the new Army Futures Command address its modernization priorities, including future vertical lift, long-range precision fires, air and missile defense, and next generation tactical ground vehicle.

About FirePoint

FirePoint Innovations Center at Wichita State University is a partner of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Aviation and Missile Center. National in scope, FirePoint investigates, collaborates and produces courses of action to solve technology development and transition challenges faced by the Army. FirePoint accelerates the delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter through partnerships and engagement with small and large business, universities, and other government organizations. 

About the Army CCDC Aviation & Missile Center

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Aviation & Missile Center, formerly known as the Aviation & Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), conducts research, development and life cycle engineering to deliver the aviation and missile capabilities the Army depends on to ensure victory on and off the battlefield today and tomorrow. Through collaboration across the command's core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of a broad range of technology-based capabilities. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.

Shocker New Venture Competition / Koch Innovation Challenge

We’d like to recognize the recent winners of the Shocker New Venture Competition and Koch Innovation Challenge, who applied their classroom knowledge to solve real-world problems while gaining valuable business skills along the way.

Hosted by WSU's Center for Entrepreneurship, the Shocker New Venture Competition serves as an opportunity for college students from across the state, and from a variety of majors, to take key steps in developing and launching a new business venture.

This year’s winner is Boosted Ideas Lab, a team of four WSU students, who received $8,500 and a $1,500 membership to GoCreate for their product, Boost Hoop, which is a device to improve basketball players’ shooting skills.

The Koch Innovation Challenge is a competition emphasizing teamwork and entrepreneurship. In addition to developing a technically feasible and potentially profitable prototype, competing cross-disciplinary teams submit a basic business plan or opportunity statement to determine market size, profitability and potential for commercialization for their product.

This year’s grand champion is team Water Level Sensor Buddy, who created a tool for the visually impaired to accurately gauge water levels for a wide range of applications, such as filling up a water bottle. This fall, the team will travel to Florida to compete in a national pitch competition.

We congratulate the winners—as well as every competitor—and look forward to seeing what each of these innovators accomplish in the future.

 

NASA 2019 Space Launch Competition

A team of four WSU aerospace engineering seniors just returned from Huntsville Alabama where they successfully competed in the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Student Launch Initiative—where participants design, build and launch a rocket to complete a simulated inter-planetary mission.

The team’s 37-pound, 10-foot-tall reusable rocket carried an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that autonomously oriented itself for takeoff and delivered a simulated navigation beacon to a designated location.

Since last August, the team has completed three challenging NASA design reviews, conducted seven launches and reached almost 300 3rd-12th grade students via educational outreach events.

Like the two previously mentioned competitions, this is another prime example of the applied learning opportunities that benefit our students, and we applaud our aerospace engineering team for their accomplishments.

 

APLU

With the success of every Shocker paramount to our vision and mission, we’re proud to announce that the university has recently been recognized by the Association of Public Land Grant Universities, or APLU, for its best practices in financial aid strategies and proactive advising.

In particular, APLU has recognized our Office of Student Money Management, which helps students with skills such as financial planning and budgeting, understanding loan repayment, tax completion and more.

They also recognized our centralized advising and “push” enrollment for traditional freshman, which provides them with first-year advisors and custom schedules.

This recognition comes through our participation in the APLU’s Powered by Publics: Scaling Student Success Initiative—a collaboration between 130 APLU universities to tackle different pieces of the student success puzzle. We’re proud to be a part of this collaboration and will continue working to develop strategies and tools to make sure even more students have all they need to succeed in college and beyond.

 

WSU Tech 

On May 9, WSU Tech held its graduation ceremony at Charles Koch Arena, awarding its first graduating class, 1,000 degrees and certificates—the largest number of awards conferred by the institution in its history. We applaud the hard work and dedication of every WSU Tech graduate, and the faculty and staff who supported them. Their success is just one of the positive outcomes that happen when two higher-learning institutions, like WSU and WSU Tech, join forces for the benefit of our city, state and region.

The most important information includes:

1. Rehearsals begin on Monday, June 3 in room C-107 Duerksen Fine Arts Center
2. Rehearsals are Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-6:50 p.m.
3. The concert date is Tuesday, June 25 at Wichita State University.
4. Teachers may enroll for college graduate credit, but it is not required for participation.
5. Registration is $50 with discounts: $25 for Students, $35 for WSU faculty and staff.

Pre-register here.

6. There are no auditions. Come and sing!

      See you in June!

Included with this eight-week course:

Class: Chapter presentations, Quizzes, Homework’s

Materials: Personal Training Manual, Essentials of Exercise textbook, Study Guide ($200 value)

Exams: Practice Exam, Certification Exam ($399 value)

First Aid Certification ($40)

All for only $525. Registration closes Friday, May 31.

We are seeking more than 100 participants as each sculpture requires eight-to-12 handlers. Participants are referred to as "dark matter".... do you want to be Dark Matter for an amazing, otherworldly evening experience on the beautiful, rolling Flint Hills? Of course you do!

• One full dress rehearsal on Friday, June 14, with the rest of the sculptures. (On-site in the Flint Hills. Details TBA.)
• Live performance - Two 20-30-minute sessions of processing with the sculptures after dark on Saturday, June 15th. (Rain date, Sunday, June 16)

The sculptures are very lightweight illuminated constructions, so not heavy to lift, but are basically a big paper bag we are taking to Tornado Town, so there may be some wind to deal with, in addition to gravity. We've been told the wind dies down after dark, so are counting on that!

Register as a volunteer and click Become Dark Matter. See you on the prairie.