WSU Today: Feb. 13, 2020

Need help with HealthQuest?

It’s the start of a new plan year, which means a fresh start for HealthQuest points. Employees enrolled in 2020 coverage through the State Employee Health Plan can earn a premium discount worth $480 annually and HSA/HRA rewards dollars up to $500 per year for each employee and covered spouse, just by participating and logging healthy activities throughout the year.

You may have noticed that the HealthQuest portal has been completely redesigned for 2020, and all employees and spouses must re-register. Click here for registration instructions.

HR Total Rewards is holding one more HealthQuest lab in February to help employees get registered, tour the HealthQuest site and get started on activities. Sign up through myTraining.

• 9-10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19 in 124 Jabara Hall

Any questions, please reach out to HR Total Rewards at TotalRewards@wichita.edu.

Institute of Innovation to host professional workshop

The Institute of Innovation is hosting a professional workshop April 16-17 that consists of two days of interactive and hands-on Design Thinking training. You will learn to how discover insights that can lead to new product or service opportunities, align teams around user’s needs, and ideate to solve defined problems. Plus, you will learn how to bring this process direct to your department or team.

The cost of admission is $550. Early-bird pricing ends Thursday, Feb. 27.

Find more information about this workshop, go to Wichita.edu/designthinking.

Faculty nominations sought for president’s distinguished service award by Friday, Feb. 28

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, Feb. 28. 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.

Faculty Awards

Best President of WSU Debate

Come nominate your choice for the WSU President (who served at least 30 years ago) who made the biggest positive impact on students, Wichita, and the world, or just listen to the debate. Anyone can attend, and there will a vote at the end.

The debate will be held from 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, in 200 Ahlberg Hall, and is sponsored by the Department of Political Science.

Contact Neal Allen, chair of Political Science, with any questions at neal.allen@wichita.edu or 978-7133.

High Performance Computing at WSU users meeting

The first high-performance computing at WSU meeting will be held from 2-3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, in 256 RSC. As this is a kick-off meeting, anybody who wants to contribute to the success of HPC at WSU is welcome. Bring your ideas and creativity, along with your laptops.

Wichita State has a new high-performance computing (HPC) cluster. This will help researchers, instructors and staff who have compute-intensive jobs to process. This environment replaces what used to be called HiPeCC at WSU. The new HPC cluster is named “BeoShock” after “Beowulf” cluster and Shockers. Beowulf is a type of computing cluster. The new cluster has two large GPU units (Graphics Processing Units) and nearly 600 CPU (Central Processing Unit) “cores.” As a comparison, most end-user computing devices have one CPU having between one and eight total “cores.”

Tilford Symposium welcomes Robert Babcock from OneGas as one of its keynote speakers

The Tilford Symposium is excited to have Robert Babcock from OneGas as one of its keynote speakers. Babcock is scheduled for a presentation from 12:45-1:45 p.m. Thursday, Feb 27, in the Shirley Beggs Ballroom, RSC.

Babcock has a passion for inclusion. “Everyone has a place at life’s table,” and he works hard to make sure each person’s contribution is valued, respected and purposeful.

“In this diverse world of ours, it is important to recognize and value our differences and maintain balance. Then we can create a world of synergy which fuels our greatest potential through inclusion,” he said.

Sign up now for Chrome River Invoice training

If you have any involvement with paying invoices (including but not limited to Office Managers, Admin. Assistants, Budget Officers, Business Managers etc.), we strongly encourage you to attend Chrome River Invoice Training. Topics will include transition to Chrome River Invoice, creating invoices, tracking payments, training resources, approvals and live demonstrations in the system. For hands-on experience and step-by-step instructions, sign up now to attend a Chrome River Invoice training, which began Thursday, Feb. 6.

Attendees are encouraged to bring examples of completed ICDs in electronic format to enter into the Chrome River test environment. Sample invoices will also be available for those without invoices to enter.

These trainings are free and available to all WSU employees (faculty and staff). Seating is limited, so sign up early! Log in to myWSU and register through myTraining. For questions, contact myTraining@wichita.edu.

Managers can add Co-Planners in myPerformance

What is a Co-Planner? A Co-Planner is one who has managed a portion of the employee’s work assignment during the performance evaluation period. If there is a dual reporting relationship, both leaders need to have input into the myPerformance employee evaluation. The employee’s manager can use the co-planner input when they are evaluating the employee’s performance and assigning ratings. Co-planners can also perform reviews as though they were the manager who was assigned the performance review task. These are key factors for complete performance evaluations and for employee development.

Managers can add a Co-Planner by following these INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Select the employee’s evaluation in myPerformance
2. On the drop-down Options Menu, select Add Co-Planners
3. Enter the name of the co-planner to search for options, select the co-planner from the list, then select Save

Visit the Wichita State University myPerformance web page at www.wichita.edu/myPerformance for more information.

Third Annual Constructed Language Undergraduate Student Panel

Are you interested in knowing more about how to create a language like Game of Thrones 'Dothraki', or 'Klingon from Star Trek? Attend the 'Third Annual Constructed Language Undergraduate Student Panel' at 3 p.m. today (Thursday, Feb. 13) in 211 Hubbard Hall. The panel will feature four constructed languages created by undergraduate students.

The presenters will talk about world building, creating a phonetic inventory, using morphology to create words, and sentences. You will have the opportunity to ask the presenters any questions you may have about constructed languages and creating one. This event is free and open to the public.

ISME Colloquium on industrial automation by Brian Brown

Brian Brown

Brian Brown, director of NIAR Robotics and Automation Lab, will present “Analyzing and evaluating automation for use in a production environment” at the ISME Colloquium from 11 a.m.-noon tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 14) in 211 Engineering Building.

It is every automation engineer’s intent to design the perfect system that will go into production and save the company millions. That is the whole intention of an automation system; increase productivity, increase quality, run continuously 24x7. However, all too frequently automation systems fail to provide the reliability and quality needed. This discussion will discuss the need for engineers to understand the environment that their systems will operate in and take those conditions into account with their designs.

Bio: Mr. Brown is the director of NIAR’s Robotics and Automation Lab at Wichita State University. Brown has worked for Wichita State since 1997, and has started, grown, and led many different laboratories from CAD/CAM technologies, Additive Manufacturing, Reverse Engineering, and Information Technology.

Fraternity and Sorority Life seeking awards judges

Fraternity and Sorority Life is currently seeking staff and/or faculty members to serve as interview judges for our Annual Greek Awards. We are seeking one additional judge for 1-5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14.

We are seeking two judges for 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, and two judges for 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16.

Email Rani Somers at rani.somers@wichita.edu if you are interested.

Call for presentations for Gender & Sexuality in Kansas Conference

Save the date and help spread the news that the call for presentations for the 7th Annual Gender & Sexuality in Kansas Conference on Friday, March 13. Find more information and the CFP link at https://www.wichita.edu/genderconference.

We invite submissions of original research and scholarship from any discipline.

Submit a 200-300-word summary of your proposed presentation including topic and/or research questions, methodology and a summary of findings or main themes to be addressed in the presentation.

Presentation formats include traditional presentations are oral with a length of 15-20 minutes, and include a visual aid of some sort (power point, video, poster). Workshops may be longer and usually include an interactive component. Presenters may be individuals or groups.

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, Feb. 16.

This year’s keynote will be Sarah Deer, citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, professor at KU in the School of Public Affairs and Administration and 2019 National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee.

We hope that you will consider submitting a proposal and share information about the conference with your fellow students, colleagues and others across campus or the Wichita community who may be interested.

Contact Shocker Sociology at 978-3280 or email Jodie Hertzog at jodie.hertzog@wichita.edu with any questions.

Call for presentation proposals from students, faculty and community members

Diverse Women’s Summit call for presentations:

Individual students, groups and community members are invited to submit abstracts / proposals to present papers, posters, art works, dialogues, skits, and other projects at the summit. The proposal should be 100-200 words describing the presentation (type, subject, theme and purpose). Presentations that focus on the following topics will be given priority:

• Research on issues of special populations
• Citizenship before and after the suffrage.
• Gender-based violence
• Celebration

Submit your proposal to chinyere.okafor@wichita.edu. We are accepting abstracts until Thursday, Feb. 20.

For more information, go to the Women’s Studies’ website or click here.

For questions, call the departmental office at 978-3358 or Cathy Doughty at 978-7165.

Women of WSU luncheon Feb. 19 featuring female WSU Deans panel

The Women of WSU luncheon is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the Marcus Welcome Center. We will have a panel of WSU female deans and a BBQ cookout.

The luncheon will include smoked pulled chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, condiments, and peach cobbler for only $13.

Please join us. RSVPs are due Friday, Feb. 14.

Women of WSU

Volunteers needed for a research study

Research Topic / Purpose of the study: Biometric-based Person Identification using Face and Eye identifiers. The purpose of this research is to reduce the error rates of the existing biometric systems based on scanning face and eye regions.

Procedures: Participants will be asked to provide their face and eye region data for research study in the field of biometrics for person identification.

Time: Participation is expected to last about 1 hour. The data will be collected in two visits 2-4 weeks apart.

Inclusion / Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants must be age 18 - 65

Location: Wichita State University 325 lab in Wallace Hall

Contact: If you are interested in participating in this study, contact PI Dr. Ajita Rattani at ajita.rattani@wichita.edu.

Live Lock Love this Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day, take your heart off your sleeve and put it on a lock, during our Live, Lock Love event from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 14) at the WSU Food Truck Plaza. Put your initials, a heart or other special phrase on one of our mini-locks. This event is free and open to the public.

You can place it on WSU's Lock Pod or keep it for yourself.

Let us know if you'll be there on our Facebook event and invite your friends.

*Limited availability: first 50 will receive a free lock

Live Lock Love event

Higher Education / Student Affairs assistantships at WSU

Interested in graduate assistantships in higher education? Grad Weekend at Wichita State University on March 13-14, is a weekend-long chance to find your perfect assistantship match. Those who attend will have the opportunity to explore WSU’s beautiful campus, meet and interview with Student Affairs staff (and potential employers), ask current graduate assistants about their experiences, and learn more about the graduate assistantships that will be available for the 2020-21 academic year.

Registration is due by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 8.

For more information, go to wichita.edu/studentaffairs.

Grad Weekend

SLI Squad Leader applications sought

Are you interested in leadership development of yourself and your students? We are calling for five cluster facilitators at the 2020 Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) this year. The five-day event will take place May 18-22.

We will host a few meetings leading up to the event to discuss logistics and preparations for the week. This week is time spent developing yourself as well as mentoring our students through their leadership journey. You’ll be part of community building and leadership exploration both during the institute and when we return to campus.

If you are interested, please fill out the application online.

For any questions, contact Kennedy Rogers at kennedy.rogers@wichita.edu or 978-7402.

Shockers After Dark - It's Shockertine's Day!

Student Affairs invites students, faculty and staff to a new event, Shockers After Dark. Come by the Rhatigan Student Center (RSC) for two hours of fabulous free fun from 8-10 p.m. tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 14) on the first floor, RSC.

Activities include wax hands, cookie decorating, gaming, caricature artist, blackjack tournament and karaoke. There will also be free food, giveaways and prizes.

For more information, contact Student Affairs at 978-3021 or go to wichita.edu/studentaffairs.

Register for this year's POWER Conference

You are invited to the 17th annual POWER Conference at Wichita State University! We are excited to invite people from all disciplines to attend this event. This year’s theme centers on the 12 Grand Challenges of Social Work – a national initiative that serves as a call to action for social workers and other helping professionals to harness our science and knowledge base, collaborate with people from all fields and disciplines and to work together to tackle some of our toughest social problems. Our world faces serious, interrelated and large-scale challenges, and it takes all of us working together to craft solutions.

The Grand Challenges include these areas of focus:

1. Ensure healthy development for all youth

2. Close the health gap

3. Stop family violence

4. Advance long and productive lives

5. Eradicate social isolation

6. End homelessness

7. Create social responses to a changing environment

8. Harness technology for social good

9. Promote smart decarceration

10. Reduce extreme economic inequality

11. Build financial capability for all

12. Achieve equal opportunity and justice

Attendees have the opportunity to engage in up to six hours of pre-conference sessions focused on safety, eating disorders/diagnosis and ethics, as well as the full main conference day. POWER gives us the opportunity to connect together, grow together and change the world together. This conference can help us be inspired by the innovation of others, rejuvenated as practitioners, invigorated by new knowledge and challenged with fresh perspectives.

Register for POWER

Join Counseling and Prevention Services and Disability Services for the Autism Spectrum Support Group

For students who self-identify with the autism community or who may be questioning if they fall on the spectrum, join Counseling and Prevention Services and Disability Services for the Autism Spectrum Support Group. In this group you can connect with other students on the spectrum, build a social group, make friends and learn skills to support your social and academic success.

Call 978-4SWC (4792) for more information.

Counseling and Prevention Services

Craft Corner: DIY face masks

Artista or nah? No worries, we’ll show you how it’s done! Stop by between classes and be creative with SAC between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, on the first floor, RSC. The first Tuesday of every month, we will have hands on DIY crafts projects for you to make and take to decorate your space, de-stress and just have fun all for free!

Come be crafty and hang out with Student Activities Council. For more information about SAC-sponsored events, go to wichita.edu/sac or contact us at sac@wichita.edu.