WSU News - All Stories

June 23, 2021 - In 1977, a Wichitan watched Star Wars at the Mall theater on East Harry. He returned again and again that summer to watch the lightsaber battles, Jedi Knights and X-wing starfighters. “I’m an original Star Wars guy,” Tim Fisher said. “I was just mesmerized. It sparked that ‘What is possible? What can we do?’” Decades later, Fisher is one of the people helping answer those questions for the United States and the entire world in space. He is chief engineer for NASA’s Gateway program, part of the agency’s quest to return to the Moon and explore Mars.

June 7, 2021 — The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center B-1 Division is sponsoring a research project with Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research to study the effects of flight operations on aircraft structures.

May 5, 2021 - Tara Nolen, a 2012 health services management and community development graduate of Wichita State, is community health manager at Hunter Health, which has three locations in Wichita. She oversees outreach programs and coordinates COVID-19 vaccines. “This is what we do in public health - when there’s a crisis we try to work to stop it,” she said.

April 30, 2021 – Twelve years following receiving her Master’s in Business Administration, Janet Federico moved from Washington, D.C. to Wichita to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Wichita State after rediscovering herself as an author, speaker and illustrator later her career.

April 14, 2021 — Wichita State University’s Dr. Nick Solomey, professor of physics, has been awarded a $2 million grant from NASA for his work on developing a neutrino detector to work in space and close to the sun. 

April 12, 2021 – After months of hard work from Wichita State faculty members Carrie Dickison and Maria Sclafani, the Open Alternative Textbook committee approved English 102 for Open/Alternative Textbook (OAT) course designation. Starting in fall 2021, Wichita State students will no longer have to buy textbooks for English 102.

April 1, 2021 - 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. Wichita State ranks No. 77 on the list, up from No. 94 a year ago.

March 26, 2021 — Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) announces the addition of two new technologies to its Automated Technologies Laboratory for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS): a fully integrated thermoplastic welding system and a prepreg tape slitting and tow-rewinding machine.

March 24, 2021 — Brittany Wojciechowski, a Wichita State University Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering, has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF), which is worth more than $120,000.

March 11, 2021 – Yuki To, senior at Wichita East High School, is the winner of the 2021 Lenora N. McGregor Endowed Scholarship at Wichita State University.

March 10, 2021 — Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research has received delivery of two Boeing 737 aircraft for modification. The aircraft are part of a year-long project with Virginia-based Dynamic Aviation to modify three 737 aircraft for a special-mission program.

March 5, 2021 – Students and faculty at the Wichita State Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic have teamed up with the College of Engineering to help a 9-year-old child communicate effectively.

Feb. 26, 2021 — Seven students in the College of Health Professions have been named Sherr Scholars.

February 23, 2021 — The purpose of the Wichita State Upward Bound Program is to improve participants’ academic performance, to assist with enrolling into a post-secondary institution and to ensure enrolled participants will graduate from their chosen program.

Feb. 18, 2021 -- The National Science Foundation has released its latest comparison of research and development expenditures among the nation’s universities, and Wichita State University has risen in all categories, increasing expenditures by $47 million.