For WSU News and WSU Today content older than July 2018, search the WSU News Archive.

WSU News Archive   Return to WSU News Home

Ashley Purdum in personal protective equipment

June 11, 2020 -- Ashley Purdum, an associate clinical professor at Wichita State University, works as an acute care speech-language pathologist at Wesley Medical Center. Because of the ongoing pandemic, her work life has changed quite a bit.

Data science graduate certificate

June 4, 2020 — Responding to industry demand for workers with specialized skills, Wichita State is now offering a graduate certificate in computational data science.

Nurse with stethoscope

June 2, 2020 - In March when Ascension Via Christi needed stethoscopes, its usual supply chains had dried up. Wichita State University engineers, working as part of the newly formed Ad Astra Coalition, quickly established a new supply chain to address the urgent need.

NSF I-corps lab

June 2, 2020 -- A Kansas City biotechnology startup company is getting a boost thanks to Wichita State University’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Shocker Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program.

Minecraft world created by Will Parcell

June 1, 2020- Will Parcell, a Wichita State University professor, created a virtual version of geology field camp. The camp will use Minecraft so students can map the terrain. The Terrain will be based on actual locations in Montana and Wyoming.

Lou Heldman

May 28, 2020 - Lou Heldman, 71, came to Wichita State in 2007, a time when the university’s vision expanded. He fit in with a group, most prominently former president John Bardo and current president Jay Golden, that want the university and community to think and act boldly. He retires in June.

Black Hawk

May 19, 2020 -- The Army is turning to “digital-twin” technology from Wichita State University to resolve challenges and boost efficiencies for its enduring fleet of Black Hawk helicopters.

Archaeology researchers digging underground

May 19, 2020 — You can tell a lot about people based upon what they eat – culture, preferences, geography and overall health. Food is not only nourishment, but it’s a message to anthropologists, like Wichita State University’s Dr. Crystal Dozier, to help understand the past.

Claudia Rojo

May 13, 2020 - Claudia Rojo graduates this spring and will begin a graduate research assistantship at the National Institute for Aviation Research while finishing her final season of outdoor track eligibility in 2021. Rojo, like all seniors in spring sports, was granted the option to extend their eligibility after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled spring sports. In 2019, she finished second in the heptathlon in the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships.

From left to right: Morgan Cusick, Quinn Rhodes, Maya (the garden mascot), Madi Laughlin, Ryne Carballo.

May 13, 2020 - Madi Laughlin, president of the Green Group, serves as the supervisor for the community garden. The community garden is a plot of land located northeast of Ahlberg Hall.

Engineering instructor and student

May 13, 2020 -- In the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings of universities offering a Ph.D. in engineering, the College of Engineering at Wichita State University is again ranked in the top 100 engineering graduate programs, the only institution from the state of Kansas to make it in the top 100.

Abel Barraza

March 12, 2020 — Abel Barraza hasn’t shied away from challenges during his time at Wichita State University. The first-generation college student from Dodge City not only undertook a rigorous curriculum that included fluid mechanics and calculus, but he also served as president of his fraternity during his demanding senior year.

Team Wire Pullers advanced to the national competition for the Koch Innovation Challenge.

May 12, 2020 — Wichita State's Team Wire Pullers has advanced to the national competition in the Koch Innovation Challenge. The team — comprised of Braden Botkin, a sophomore in engineering technology; Adam Brown, a freshman in engineering; and Nicholas Ridpath, a freshman in applied computing — created a magnetic device to make pulling wires through walls easier.

A Girl Scout does an activity on a computer.

May 11, 2020 -- Students in the Service in Learning Engineering class have found a way to help Kansas Girl Scouts earn their STEM badges from home.

Wichita State campus

May 7, 2020 -- As our state begins to implement Ad Astra: A Plan to Reopen Kansas, we too are beginning to develop and implement plans for the university’s short- and long-term future. This plan – Shockers United – is a culmination of seven working groups across campus, each comprised of students, faculty and staff, and each tasked with examining a different facet of university operations that must now be modified to a new normal as we seek to coexist with and thrive in spite of this virus.