WSU News - All Stories

April 1, 2022 — What do you picture when you think of lasers? Laser pointers? Perhaps laser eye surgery or barcode scanners? Turns out there’s more to lasers than most people realize, and a Wichita State University chemistry team recently discovered a new series of laser material with potential commercial use.

March 29, 2022 — 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 once again was ranked in the top 100 engineering graduate programs in the country and the only institution in Kansas to make it in the top 100.

March 28, 2022 — Grammy-nominated rap star, actor and advocate Wale will perform in concert at Wichita State University at 8 p.m. Friday, April 15, in Charles Koch Arena.

March 25, 2022 — Wichita State University’s College of Engineering has named the latest group of high school seniors to join the Wallace Scholar program. Ten Wallace Scholarship recipients will receive $28,500 each to attend Wichita State for four years. In addition, two students receiving other major university scholarships will be designated as Wallace Scholars.

March 24, 2022 — Around 12-15 Wichita State students are volunteering for the practices and events surrounding the NCAA women's basketball Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games. Their responsibilities range from organizing practice schedules to decorating locker rooms with NCAA and school logos to working with media members on credentialing and seating. Some will run statistics. For those planning on a career in athletics, the applied learning experience adds to their resume and gives them experience working a nationally recognized event with large crowds and a television audience.

March 23, 2022 — Robert M. Gates, U.S. secretary of defense from 2006-2011 and former director of the CIA, will kick off Wichita State University’s inaugural Craig W. Barton Speaker Series this spring.

March 10, 2022 — Wichita State University President Rick Muma has launched a new podcast, called “Forward Together,” where the president speaks with guests from throughout Shocker Nation to highlight the people and priorities that guide WSU. The podcast drops monthly, with the March edition releasing March 9. Some of the guests so far include Hollywood director Dean Hargrove, WSU basketball coach Isaac Brown and WSU research vice president Coleen Pugh.

On March 9, 2022, the B-1 System Program Office (SPO), Tinker AFB, OK awarded a six-year, $100 million follow-on contract to Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) to continue the B-1’s Digital Engineering (DE) transformation. The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) helped form the strategic partnership and created a flexible contract structure, which allows NIAR and the B-1 SPO to adapt requirements real-time to meet critical warfighter needs.

March 8, 2022 — Ever wonder what other people are looking at during Zoom or WebEx meetings? Dr. Akmal Mirsadikov, who specializes in deception detection and eye tracking at Wichita State University’s W. Frank Barton School of Business, recently ran an exploratory study about how people interact on Zoom.

March 7, 2022 - Wichita State alums Matt and Stephanie Clark taught English to students from fifth grade to high school in Ukraine from 2006-08 as Peace Corps members. Their friends and their warm memories are in turmoil as the Russian invasion wears on in their adopted country. They rely on social media to hear from former students, host families and friends, as they try to sort good information from bad and bring attention to the crisis.

Feb. 22, 2022 — The Wichita Litter Study was borne from community concern about the number of single-use plastic bags floating throughout the city. The study focused on 12 small sites within Wichita municipal parks — two parks within each city council district; and the data, while concerning, was not altogether a surprise for the research team.

Feb. 11, 2022 — As a young boy growing up in Oklahoma City Nicolas Reyes loved to hear the hum of the fighter jets from the nearby Tinker Air Force Base. Nicolas Reyes — a junior studying electrical engineering in Wichita State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering — has always wanted to work in the aviation industry. He finally got his chance this past summer when he completed a virtual internship with Lockheed Martin. While there, Nicolas worked on the F-35 Lightning II for their location in Fort Worth.

Jan. 24, 2022 — Further expanding its presence as a diverse creative workspace at WSU, GoCreate recently began offering free memberships to Wichita State students.

Jan. 24, 2022 — Six Wichita State University teams were selected as semi-finalists in the university’s sixth annual Koch Innovation Challenge Angel Round on December 3. Those six teams of Wichita State students advance to the Grand Champion competition in May.

Jan. 20, 2022 — The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded a grant of $243,922 to a Wichita State University researcher for his work on an app that will allow people who are visually impaired to read comic books, graphic novels and other digitized graphic materials on their devices.