Introducing the President’s Convergent Sciences Initiative for WSU faculty
A letter from President-elect Jay Golden, Provost Rick Muma and VP for Research and Economic Development John Tomblin
Monday’s announcement of NetApp’s intention to move onto Innovation Campus signals continued interest by major companies to be part of the excitement we are generating through our emphasis on research and applied learning to grow the Kansas economy. This announcement provides a great opportunity for Wichita State University to expand into new and emerging fields of research and inquiry.
Our society is being reshaped by factors including an aging population, growth of our urban regions, globalization, increased utilization of big data, and environmental and political stressors. At the same time, technology is rapidly advancing in exciting ways we can incorporate in our research and teaching. This includes the emergence of artificial intelligence, the digital transformation, novel health care delivery and development of new modes of mobility, to name a few. As Kansas’ only urban public research university, WSU is uniquely positioned to address many of these issues because of our location and partnerships with industry.
We want WSU to move to the forefront in developing a new generation of researchers and scholars to address the complex challenges and opportunities changing Kansas and the world. Gaining mastery of this knowledge will help make Kansas a leader in this new economy.
It will entail integrating knowledge, methods and expertise from different disciplines and forming novel frameworks to catalyze scientific discovery and innovation and, in the end, will provide unique opportunities for the economic prosperity of our state and career pathways for students.
Today we are asking the deans and faculty to undertake a new initiative: The President’s Convergent Sciences Initiative.
Andrew Hippisley, dean of Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will be the convener, but every dean and interested faculty member has a role to play in expanding university research and impact.
Through this initiative, we aim to empower our faculty to explore opportunities to bring together colleagues who span the disciplines -- transdisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity -- and form convergent science research clusters to address some of our most pressing and opportunistic challenges.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) describes this approach eloquently by stating:
“The convergence paradigm intentionally brings together intellectually diverse researchers to develop effective ways of communicating across disciplines by adopting common frameworks and a new scientific language, which may, in turn, afford solving the problem that engendered the collaboration, developing novel ways of framing research questions and opening new research vistas.”
Multiple open forums will be scheduled with faculty, staff, students and industry to solicit input in developing a WSU-specific initiative. We have broadly provided the following general themes. It is our intent that this will lead to an official call for proposals in the spring of 2020. The deans, with faculty input, will propose a general framework for the proposals.
Initial Themes
The following themes are intentionally broad to allow our faculty the freedom to define the need, approach and impact.
- Health Disparities and Health Delivery
- Digital Transformation
- Open – For faculty to self-identify
A limited number of proposals will be selected and announced no later than early fall 2020. At a minimum, we will initially seed one cluster in each of the three themes. These initiatives will be in addition to the data science and Latinx clusters we are currently working on.
The President’s Convergent Sciences Initiative will provide each cluster with annual seed funding and will prioritize new faculty hires over a span of multiple years to supplement the research cluster. The resources of the university will also be leveraged and provided to the clusters in an effort to recruit external partners to provide guidance and financial /operational support, as well as our marketing teams to help promote the clusters.
President Golden will work with political, industry and community leaders to discuss how investments in these projects can lead to new jobs and industry growth. We’ll also work with the WSU Foundation to develop external individual, corporate and foundation partners to support this research vision and provide student support in the form of convergent sciences scholarships.
As a long-term goal, we will explore the possibility of co-locating cluster faculty and students to work with industry on the Innovation Campus in a Convergent Sciences building that the faculty, students and industry will help design.
This new effort in Convergent Sciences is intended to further expand the participation of our faculty, staff and students from all disciplines in research and applied learning. We are confident that the results will provide even greater benefits to our university, region and state. Your input and leadership will be essential in realizing this goal.
Thank you for all you do to advance research at WSU.
Joint senate meeting today (Tuesday, Nov. 19)
Join the USS and UP Senates at 3 p.m. today (Tuesday, Nov. 19), in 208 Hubbard Hall, for their joint meeting. All meetings are open to the campus community.
Blackboard and Accessibility Lab will answer your questions
Do you have questions about Blackboard? Is accessibility causing you stress? Bring your problems to Instructional Design and Access's come-and-go lab times in the C-space at the Ablah Library. We are there every Tuesday and Wednesday from 1-3 p.m., and you can come see us at your convenience during that time. As a bonus, we will make sure you get fresh dry erase markers, an eraser, or some high-contrast chalk.
If we can't help you during lab time, we will make an appointment with you so you can sit down with an instructional designer and get your problems solved.
Instructional Design and Access Labs[BROKEN LINK]
RSVP for the University Holiday Reception by Wednesday, Dec. 4
Join the President's Executive Team during the University Holiday Reception to thank Interim President Andy Tompkins, and celebrate the accomplishments and milestones of 2019 on Friday, Dec. 6.
The University Holiday Reception will be held from 3-5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, in Shirley Beggs Ballroom, third floor, Rhatigan Student Center. Remarks are at 3:15 p.m. Enjoy refreshments and engage with colleagues in various games and activities.
Confirm attendance by Wednesday, Dec. 4, at Wichita.edu/holidayreception.
Everyone is invited to bring a hygiene or baby product donation for the Shocker Support Locker. A list of suggested items is included below.
Hygiene products
Shampoo / conditioner
Soap / body wash
Face wash
Hand soap
Toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss
Deodorant (men’s and women’s)
Razors, shaving cream
Tampons, pads, menstrual cups
Tissues
Toilet paper
Combs / hairbrushes
Make-up / moist wipes
Hand sanitizer
Band-Aids
Basic over-the counter medication (i.e. ibuprofen, Tylenol, Tums, Midol, Excedrin, Imodium, etc.)
Eyeglass cleaner / contact solution
Condoms
Baby Products
Diapers of all sizes
Baby food (vegetable and fruit)
Pouches of squeezable baby food
Baby wipes
Burp cloths
Baby clothes
Picture books
Shampoo / baby wash
Baby lotion
Diaper cream
Baby formula
Baby bottles / sippy cups
Pacifiers
New OU Campus Webpage and Document Accessibility Open Labs
Jeremy Webster, website manager in the Media Resources Center, will hold the first of several first-come, first-served, no reservations Webpage and Document Accessibility open labs from 1-3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in 124 Jabara Hall. Bring your accessibility questions and issues related to documents and webpages in OU Campus. Can’t make it to Thursday’s lab? Additional lab times are scheduled for Dec. 5 and 12.
WSU-RIA Colloquium and faculty networking event
The WSU Regional Institute on Aging (RIA) is hosting a colloquium and networking event in conjunction with its recently released rfp. This opportunity is aimed at facilitating the formation of interdisciplinary teams of researchers interested in similar issues.
The event will be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, in the RSC Lancelot Room.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Joseph Schlesinger, Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University presenting "The alarmscape in the OR and ICU - Considerations for the aging clinician and patient.”
Next Physics Seminar is tomorrow (Wednesday, Nov. 20)
Ricardo Rodriguez
Our next Physics Seminar will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, Nov. 20) in 128 Jabara Hall, featuring Professor Ricardo Rodriguez from McPherson College. The title of his talk will be "Quantum Computing in the Investment Age." Please join us!
HVAC Systems Standards and personal space heaters information
Facilities Services staff continue their work to ensure our campus is in compliance with Policy 11.27/HVAC Systems Standards, which went into effect on Dec. 10, 2018. Please review this policy carefully here.
An important component of the HVAC Systems Standards policy states that space heaters are not allowed on campus due to their excessive energy consumption, the safety hazards they can create, and their negative impact on the efficiency of HVAC systems. We ask that faculty and staff remove personal space heaters from our campus.
If you believe a learning or working space on our campus is too hot or cold, please submit a work order request via this link. Upon receipt of the work order request, Facilities Services staff will respond in a timely manner.
Please work with Facilities Services staff to ensure campuswide compliance with Policy 11.27/HVAC Systems Standards. This new policy is an important part of WSU’s sustainability efforts and will help reduce our energy consumption, lower our utility costs, and reduce our carbon footprint.
Audiology doctoral students need participants for their research projects
WSU graduate students in the Doctor of Audiology program need participants for their research projects. They are studying clinical techniques in audiology for evaluating function of the ear.
Participants must be between the ages of 18 and 35, have normal hearing, have not had an ear infection in the past three months, nor had symptoms of cold, flu, or nasal allergy in the past two weeks.
Participants will receive a free comprehensive hearing evaluation and ear examination prior to testing. The testing will take about one hour. If you are interested in volunteering, contact Brigid Derby at brderby@shockers.wichita.edu or 816-405-4969, or Professor Xiao-Ming Sun at Xiao-Ming.Sun@wichita.edu.
Help us reduce WSU’s carbon footprint; we need your help!
As part of the effort in Sustainability Plan at WSU, we are currently researching the amount of CO2 we are emitting on Wichita State University. However, we need to obtain data from everyone on campus. It will only take about five-to-10 minutes to fill out the survey.
If you have question, contact Dakota Blair at drblair@shockers.wichita.edu), or Ikram Ahmed at ikram.ahmed@wichita.edu.
The survey response is anonymous. If you have taken the survey before, we would like to express our gratitude. You don't have to fill out the survey again. Help us by filling out the survey here.
The Center for Management Development forms Advisory Board
The mission of the newly-formed Center for Management Development Advisory board is to periodically review CMD practices and programming and offer ideas for improvement.
- 21 professionals attended a luncheon on Nov. 7 and working session, and offered suggestions for improving CMD branding and programming
- 25 companies and organizations represented on the advisory board
CMD by the numbers:
- 52 years of CMD programming (founded by Fran Jabara in FY 1968)
- 262 workshop sessions last year
- 4,667 participants attended CMD workshops last year
- 311 different companies and nonprofit organizations sent participants to workshops last year
- 15 states—the locations of CMD workshops
- 18 professionals (WSU faculty and others) contracted by the CMD to present workshops
annually
Companies and nonprofits represented on the CMD Advisory Board.
Kansas Surgery & Recovery
Presbyterian Manors
Child Start
Kansas Heart Hospital
Koch Industries
Textron Aviation
Wichita Marriott
Cowley First
Integra Technologies
Johns Manville
Wichita Airport Authority
WSU – NIAR
Foley Equipment
BG Products
AgVantis
Flight Safety
Mid-Continent Instruments
Ametek
Bradbury Company
Kansas Law Enforcement
Solomon Corporation
Meritrust Credit Union
Star Lumber
Fagron Sterile Services
USD 259
Ensure all online video content is properly captioned
Captions help a wide variety of students learn. Thankfully, adding captions to your own videos is getting easier than ever before.
- WSU provides Panopto for video creation and hosting. This system has easy to use automatic captioning that is easy for professors to edit before deploying the video.
- You can also use the Automatic Speech Recognition captions in YouTube if you prefer, and it is equally easy to edit those.
- It is easiest to edit captions if you script your video ahead of time. Your script can be uploaded into either Panopto or YouTube and used to generate accurate captions.
Help stock the Shocker Support Locker
This is the final week to bring items for the Shocker Support Locker and have them count toward the faculty and staff challenge. Drop your items off at one of the donation boxes around campus or call Central Services at 978-3545 to pick them up before the end of the day Friday, Nov. 22.
To see a complete list of items needed and the drop off locations, click here.
WSU Fire & Safety will conduct annual fire alarm testing
Through November, WSU Fire & Safety will conduct annual fire alarm testing in campus facilities. There should be minimal disruptions to business or classes.
Arts and Crafts Fair at WSU this week in the RSC
The Rhatigan Student Center will be filled with home-made crafts and collectibles that you will fall in love with from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, and Thursday, Nov. 21, on the first floor, RSC! Stop by to browse unique vendors and items you can purchase to your heart's desire. Accepted forms of payment will vary with different vendors. For more information. go to wichita.edu/arts&craftsfair.
Women of WSU Holiday Luncheon coming Dec. 12
Let's celebrate the holidays with a luncheon at Olive Tree Banquet Hall, 29th & Rock Road beginning at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 12. We are having a turkey lunch with chantilly cake for dessert. The cost is $16.
We will also have a gift exchange game. If want to participate, purchase and wrap a nice gift with a value of $15 to $20.
F45 Playoffs Practice Clinic
Want to know what the F45 Playoffs are all about? Join us from noon-1 p.m. or 5-8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in 141 Heskett Center for the F45 Playoffs Practice Clinic.
We will go over all the moves and the proper way to execute them. The F45 Playoffs are on Friday, Nov. 22. There are slots available from 6 a.m.-8 p.m.
Form a team or compete individually and make your way through 10 F45 stations. Complete the most reps to be crowned the champion.
Registration is $10, this semester all female participants are free thanks to the sponsorship of a donor. Do you think you have what it takes to be crowned the champion? Register today at the Heskett Center Guest Services Desk.
World Aids Day free HIV testing
Know Your Status on World Aids Day! Free HIV testing will be available from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, on the RSC 3rd floor. Confidential testing with results in minutes is sponsored by Student Health Services, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Housing and Residence Life, KU Med of Wichita, and Positive Directions.
Beat stress with Beat Saber
Are finals making you stressed? Take a break from studying and play Beat Saber to refresh yourself. Beat Saber is a virtual reality rhythm game that features the player slicing blocks representing musical beats with a pair of red and blue light sabers, and takes place in a surrealistic neon-noir environment. This application is available on both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift at C-Space, Ablah Library.
For more information visit https://libraries.wichita.edu/creationspace or contact us at cspace.linbrary@wichita.edu.
Sale on professional wear at the Shocker Store
Looking to update your business or interview wardrobe? This week, take 20% off all men’s and women’s professional wear in the Shocker Store, Rhatigan Student Center location only.
Save on kids' apparel during Shocker Store Gameday Sale
For every home men’s basketball game, the Shocker Store at Braeburn Square will have a sale all day for Shocker fans! For the game against Gardner-Webb today (Tuesday, Nov. 19) take 20% off all kids’ apparel; Braeburn Square location only. Some exclusions apply. Not valid with other discounts or promotions.
Ugly sweater tees at the Shocker Store
Get in that festive, Shocker spirit with some Shocker ugly sweater tees from the Shocker Store! There is a different long-sleeve tee option at the RSC location and the Braeburn Square location. All options are available online at shockerstore.com. Sizes are small-3XL. Make sure you are decked out Shocker-style for the holidays!
Vegan Chili this week at the Shocker Sports Grill & Lanes
Soup is back at the Shocker Sports Grill & Lanes just in time for the cooler weather! A different soup will be featured each week, Monday-Friday. Grab a cup for $2.99 or a bowl for $3.99. For Nov. 18-22, the Soup of the Week is Vegan Chili.