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Karaline Scott

June 26, 2025 — Electrical engineering major Karaline Scott is getting an early start on her career path. The Wichita State sophomore is spending her summer at Professional Engineering Consultants, where she’s getting paid to work alongside industry professionals and experiencing how engineering concepts translate to real-world impact.

VISION machine

June 12, 2025 — Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) has received a patent for VISION, an AI-powered composite inspection robot designed to detect and repair damage on aircraft parts autonomously. Developed at NIAR’s Automation Research Center and recently installed at a U.S. Army facility, the system uses machine learning to analyze inspection images and speed up aircraft maintenance.

Vamsidhar Patlolla

June 9, 2025 — Shocker Composites, founded by Wichita State alum Vamsidhar Patlolla, transforms carbon fiber waste into high-performance, sustainable materials using a recycling method he developed during his graduate research. With support from Wichita State’s NIAR and Innovation Campus, the company is scaling up its impact and demonstrating how university-backed startups can drive real-world innovation and sustainability.

Ridge Estes

May 29, 2025 - Ridge Estes, from Bucklin, used his study time and his athletic time wisely during his Wichita State University career. He majored in exercise science with minors in health science and entrepreneurship and graduated earlier this month with a 3.473 grade-point average.

Campus

May 27, 2025 High schoolers don’t often get to see what real science is being done every day by researchers. Worst case scenario is that they are dealing with abstract numbers that don’t have any real-world parallels. But with the help of Dr. Thomas Luhring, assistant professor of biological sciences at Wichita State University, students will not only get to work with active data acquired by a real scientist, but the data also will have implications in their neighborhoods.

Jacob Greenwald and his fiancee, Catherine Kellerman

May 9, 2025 - Jacob Greenwald came to Wichita State from Lenexa. He used the applied learning opportunities at WSU to land a job as a software engineer at the National Institute for Aviation Research.

Brian Triliegi

May 8, 2025 — After earning his GED at 16, Brian Triliegi returned to college decades later and is now graduating with a Bachelor of Applied Science in organizational leadership from Wichita State.

Natasha Seneviratne with Wu and her dad

May 8, 2025 — Natasha Seneviratne found her place at Wichita State through family ties, supportive scholarships and hands-on experiences that helped her grow into a confident engineer.

Yumi Kikuchi in her graduation regalia

May 8, 2025 Yumi Kikuchi first came to Wichita State University as part of an exchange program and decided she wanted to pursue her graduate studies at the College of Innovation and Design. Her advice to other students? “Take chances. Life is an experiment, and college is the perfect time to explore, get involved and discover what truly excites you.”

Kelly Bielefeld, Monica Lounsbery, Sheree Utash and Josephine Garcia

May 8, 2025 Wichita State University, WSU Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech) and Wichita Public Schools (WPS) have announced a new partnership designed to strengthen the region’s teacher workforce through the launch of the Future Teacher Academy and a 2+2 pathway program.

Braden Webb

May 7, 2025 Braden Webb, a Gore Scholar, capitalized on Wichita State’s strong engineering program and his passion for transportation issues. He worked at NIAR WERX, studied in London and interned for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in Washington, D.C.

Ella Anciaux

May 5, 2025 - Ella Anciaux stayed home to play basketball for the Shockers and major in exercise science. While compiling a cumulative grade-point average of 3.85, she earned American Athletic Conference Academic All-Conference honors twice and a spot on the 2024-25 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team.

Lauren Lucas

May 2, 2025 - Wichita State University outfielder Lauren Lucas started college planning to work on the business side of professional sports. Five years later, she plans to coach softball in college. She changed course in part due to a shoulder injury that took her off the field and into the dugout as a coach.

Madelyn Stilwell

April 30, 2025 — Madelyn Stilwell has built an impressive foundation in research and leadership through hands-on experiences at Wichita State and beyond, including co-authoring a scientific publication and presenting her work at national conferences. She’ll intern at Likarda this summer before continuing her studies in WSU’s biomedical engineering master’s program.

Ashlyn Riggs works with students at the Child Development Center

April 29, 2025 Ashlyn Riggs came to Wichita State University thanks to its proximity to home and she already had a connection to campus through her mother, who is an active employee. While at WSU, she had the opportunity to work at the Child Development Center as a lead sub teacher all while getting her degree in education.