Faculty nominations sought for a presidential award by Friday, March 1
Consider nominating a faculty member for a presidential award who has provided outstanding service to the university community. Please consider nominating someone who exemplifies one or more of the following characteristics:
- Distinguished service to the university
- Distinguished service to the community
- Notable outreach efforts and/or forging of connections between WSU and the community.
- Long-term commitment to WSU through extensive committee service
Think about those around you who fit this description and consider nominating them to leeann.birdwell@wichita.edu by Friday, March 1. Complete a nomination form and attach a CV that includes the nominee’s service activities. Previous recipients of this award are not eligible for nomination. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee will review the nominations and then submit their recommendations to the president.
Severe weather preparedness drill scheduled for Tuesday, March 5
This year, as we have done in the past, WSU will participate in the annual statewide severe weather preparedness drill.
The annual drill this year is Tuesday, March 5. If the weather is clear that day, all of the severe weather sirens in Sedgwick County will go off at 10 a.m. When the severe weather sirens sound, proceed to your designated severe weather shelter area.
Emergency Building Coordinators in each building will ensure that all building occupants safely make their way to the designated severe weather shelter area.
Departments should use this opportunity to ensure that all faculty, staff and students know where to go to protect themselves in a severe weather event.
Read the February edition of the Forward, Together faculty / staff newsletter
The latest edition of the Forward, Together faculty/staff newsletter is now available. Forward, Together is about people and programs making a difference in the lives of our students and community.
Read Forward, Together.
University Libraries to host advanced webinars on Scopus
The University Libraries is hosting a series of basic and advanced vendor webinars on Scopus, a newly acquired database, from March 1-7, in 217 Ablah Library.
The webinars are open to all faculty, staff, and students. For more information and to sign up for a basic and / or advanced webinar, go to Scopus webinar.
Scopus is considered the largest citation and abstract database of peer-reviewed literature covering a wide range of disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Learn all about searching the database for journal articles, books, conference proceedings, and patents and using the metrics available in Scopus to assess the impact of published research. Those metrics include CiteScore, an alternative to journal impact factor.
With the recent cancellation of Web of Science, Scopus is now a key database for peer-reviewed interdisciplinary research as well as citation searching and metrics.
Electrical engineering professor wins national teaching award
Ward Jewell
Ward Jewell, a Wichita State professor of electrical engineering and computer science, has won the 2018 IEEE-HKN C. Holmes MacDonald Outstanding Teaching Award, a national award presented by the New York-based Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers’ honor society, Eta Kappa Nu. The award was established in 1972 to recognize the central role faculty play in training and motivating future electrical and computer engineers.
Jewell is the second awardee from Wichita State in three years. Preethika Kumar, associate professor in electrical engineering and computer science, received the same award in 2015. Only seven universities have had two or more recipients in the award’s history.
“We are extremely proud of having outstanding educators who understand how to reach students and keep them motivated to learn and retain knowledge,” said Dr. Gergely Zaruba, chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “In the quickly changing landscape of education we need to be able to adapt to the needs of our constituents; awards like these acknowledge the good work we are doing towards maintaining and improving the quality of higher education.”
Jewell, who has taught at Wichita State since 1987, said he was honored that the WSU Eta Kappa Nu chapter nominated him. “They put a lot of time and effort into it and I am really humbled that they did that for me,” he said. The award cites “his dedication to student success and his caring, knowledgeable approach to teaching and mentoring at all levels in his specialization of power and energy systems.”
Asked to summarize his teaching philosophy, Jewell said, “Never forget what it was like to be a student. Most of all, BE NICE!”
Miaolei Shao, now a senior principal engineer with the GE Global Research Center, was a Ph.D. student under Jewell from 2004-2008. In a recommendation letter extolling Jewell as a teacher, Shao wrote: “Dr. Jewell is busy – he is an IEEE fellow, advisor of many master’s and Ph.D. students, and the site director of Power System Engineering Research Centers (PSERC). But Dr. Jewell never let his busy schedule overshadow his teaching responsibility.”
Shao cited as an example, Jewell’s willingness to teach a freshman-level Circuits I course and testing the lab equipment beforehand, duties that might normally fall to a graduate student. Shao asked why he would do this himself. He recalls Jewell’s response: “Circuits I is a very important course, and I want make sure the students will learn what they supposed to learn. Making sure the lab equipment is working properly is step one for a successful class.”
Concert Chorale and A Cappella Choir present winter concert tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 26)
Join the WSU Concert Chorale and A Cappella Choir as they present their winter concert
at 7:30 p.m. today (Tuesday, Feb. 26) in Wiedemann Hall. Admission is free for students
with WSU ID. For tickets, go to Fine Arts Box Office or call 978-3233.
Concert Chorale will perform David Lang's “The Little Match Girl Passion,” a heart-wrenching, minimalist setting of the Hans Christian Anderson story that is modeled after J.S. Bach's “St. Matthew Passion.”
In a tribute to Valentine's Day, A Cappella Choir will perform a set love songs.
Volunteers needed for research study
Research Topic / Purpose of the study: The purpose of this research study is to explore the higher educational experience of Returning Adult Students and Traditional Students; looking at whether they prefer online learning or traditional classroom experiences.
Procedures: Participants will respond to an online survey that should only take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous (no personal or identifying information is collected.)
Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria:
Participants must be over the age of 18 and have participated or be currently participating in an online course.
To participate, click on the link and complete the survey.
Contact: If you have any questions regarding this survey, contact Amy Belden at amy.belden@wichita.edu or Jaehwan Byun at jaehwan.byun@wichita.edu.
Your participation in this research study is appreciated.
Jump!Star call for entries: Tell a ‘star story’
As part of the Creative Concourse of the Diverse Women's Summit, Jump!Star artist George Ferrandi invites members of the WSU community to submit their own "star stories" inspired by Jump!Star's 12 star characters.
Presentations could be stories, images, poems, monologues, videos, songs or performances. All presentations must be seven minutes or less, relate to the attributes of the Jump!Star characters, and meet the submission deadline of Wednesday, March 6.
Physics Seminar Series continues tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 27)
Kapildeb Ambal from the University of Maryland will present “Imaging, Spectroscopy and Applications of Solid-state Spins,” from 2-3 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 27) in 128 Jabara Hall. The seminar series is supported by the Eddy and April Lucas Fund.
Chemistry Colloquium to feature presentation by John Markley
The next Chemistry Colloquium will feature a lecture by John Markley from the University of Wisconsin at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 27) in 224 McKinley Hall. Markley’s talk will be “Mechanism of Iron-Sulfur Cluster Assembly in Mitochondria.”
‘How to Fly a Spacecraft’ lecture to be presented Thursday, Feb. 28
Join the Wichita Space Initiative's Space Exploration Lecture Series as we welcome WSU Aerospace Engineering Assistant Professor Atri Dutta, who will give a talk entitled "How to Fly a Spacecraft." Dutta's presentation at 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, in 264 RSC, will provide a brief overview of the history of astrodynamics, techniques for spacecraft trajectory optimization, as well as WSU's CORE Laboratory's cutting edge work on astrodynamics and its application to different space missions. The lecture is free and open to the public.
For more information about the Wichita Space Initiative and the Space Exploration Lecture Series, go to wichita.edu/space.
Writing Now / Reading Now this Thursday at the Ulrich Museum of Art
Margaret Malone is WSU’s spring 2019 visiting emerging writer, and the author of People Like You, a 2016 Pen Hemingway finalist. Malone will present a fiction reading at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, at the Ulrich Museum of Art. A reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. prior to the reading.
Her mesmerizing and luminous sentences open up the lives of ordinary characters with ordinary hopes—that parents will get back together; that a veggie burrito with extra sour cream will help against loneliness.
Malone’s stories, Cheryl Strayed observed, “shimmer and burn with beauty and sorrow, generosity and wit.” Writing Now / Reading Now is cosponsored by the WSU Department of English, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Watermark Books & Café, and the Ulrich Museum of Art.
Clarinetist Katsuya Yuasa to present recital on March 7
The Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation and Wichita Mu Phi Epsilon Alumni Chapter present clarinetist Katsuya Yuasa, 2017 Mu Phi Epsilon Concert Artist at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, in Wiedemann Hall. Yuasa will be accompanied by Bridget Hille. Admission is free, but a $10 donation is suggested. A reception will follow the recital.
Yuasa has performed widely in the U.S. as a soloist and chamber musician. He is a founding member of Cosmos New Music, which will make its Carnegie Hall debut this summer. In addition to performing and giving master classes, Katsuya maintains an active schedule as a teacher at Florida A&M University and at Florida State University.
Yuasa will present free masterclass at 11 a.m. earlier that day in C116 Duerksen Fine Arts Center.
Service-Learning Showcase registration open
The Service-Learning Showcase will be held from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, in 233 RSC. It is a unique opportunity for students who participate in service-learning through applied learning opportunities to showcase their experience through a research or reflective poster about the application of their course work to current community issues.
The showcase is an open forum for students to interact with faculty, staff, community partners and other students to engage in conversation about WSU’s commitment to the public good. Awards are presented in the following categories: Overall Service-Learning, Community Impact, Innovation and Creativity (i.e., problem solving), and Collaboration/Leadership.
Registration is available here.
Diversity and Inclusion schedules LGBTQ Movie Night
Join the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for LGBTQ Movie Night at 6 p.m. tomorrow
(Wednesday, Feb. 27) in 266 RSC. Join us every last Wednesday of each month as we
enjoy fantastic queer cinema! Popcorn and snacks will be provided.
Cadman Art Gallery will be making fall 2019 selections
Showcase your art, on your own or with a group of friends / classmates. Exhibits are not limited by media or style. Past artists have exhibited digital media, graphic design collections, paintings, sculpture, photography and more. Applications must be submitted by Thursday, April 11. Students applying will be asked to give a 15-minute presentation on why they wish to exhibit and what they wish the viewer to experience.
The Cadman Art Gallery is located on the first floor of the Rhatigan Student Center and serves as a student-centered space focused on education and exposing the WSU community to the arts. For rules and regulation forms, visit Cadman Art Gallery.
Baseball, softball single game tickets on sale now
Wichita State baseball and softball single game tickets are on sale now to the public.
Fans may purchase single game tickets in person at the Shocker Ticket Office (located
at the South Entrance to Charles Koch Arena), by phone (978-FANS) or online (goshockers.com/tickets).
Large groups interested in attending a game this season are encouraged to call the
Ticket Office. If you are still interested in season tickets or flex plans, visit
Ticket Information.
BBQ Chicken Pizza at Pizza Hut
From now to Friday, March 1, you can enjoy BBQ Chicken Pizza at Pizza Hut in the RSC for $5.59!