Deloitte and Wichita State University join forces to launch new Smart Factory
Deloitte and Wichita State University today announced the launch of The Smart Factory @ Wichita, a groundbreaking and immersive experiential learning environment that will accelerate the future of manufacturing as innovation and new technologies continue to reshape operations and the modern enterprise.
Deloitte and Wichita State are constructing the brand-new facility on Wichita State’s Innovation Campus, which will include a full-scale production line, dedicated space for select ecosystem sponsors and experiential labs exploring smart factory capabilities. A smart factory is a highly digitized and connected production facility that uses technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and robotics to manufacture products. Working alongside humans, smart factories can self-adapt and autonomously optimize manufacturing operations. The Smart Factory @ Wichita will make digital transformations real by demonstrating how to merge existing technologies with new innovations, sparking a dialogue about how companies can accelerate their journey towards scalable and sustainable capabilities.
Updated Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form
Wichita State has updated its policies and procedures regarding disclosures of conflicts of interest. Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 15, all employees will be required to submit an updated Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form. Please note: employees must submit an updated disclosure form even if they have a current disclosure on file.
Information about the updated process and disclosure form can be found here. For questions, please email COI@wichita.edu.
Join today's virtual Academic Convocation
Academic Convocation is an exciting event that blends our Common Read program with other student learning and engagement opportunities. Winners of the 2020 University Faculty Awards will be recognized, and the event will feature presentations from SGA Vice President Mackenzie Haas and a special keynote address.
This year's guest speaker is Mark E. McCormick, author of "Some Were Paupers, Some Were Kings."
Please join us virtually as we celebrate Wichita State’s 125-year history at Academic Convocation at 9:30 a.m. today (Thursday Sept. 10)!
You can find out more and watch the event live on the link at www.wichita.edu/convocation.
The advantage of using the Logic Model
An Assessment Symposium for fall 2020 - Logic Model – will be held from 2-3 p.m. tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 11).
This presentation will be held via zoom. All those registered will be sent the zoom link prior to the date. Should you have any questions, contact Lydia Santiago.
The presenter will be Vanessa Souriya-Mnirajd, director, TRIO-Disability Support Services Program.
Souriya-Mnirajd will describe the advantage of using the Logic Model as an approach to provide a road map describing the sequence of related events that can contribute to achieving the program’s intended goals and objectives. She will briefly discuss the implementation of a basic logic model that is currently being used in TRIO-Disability Support Services Program.
Constitution Day activities addresses elements of First Amendment of US Constitution, Wichita State Constitution
Sessions on the rights to petition and to peaceably assemble, plus a keynote on free speech, are just a few of the aspects of Wichita State’s annual observance of Constitution Day Wednesday, Sept. 16, and Thursday, Sept. 17.
All events are free and open to the public and will be available via Zoom. For a complete listing of events and Zoom meeting information, please visit the Wichita State Constitution Day website.
The African American Faculty Staff Association kicks of the year with a Black Town Hall
The African American Faculty & Staff Association (AAFSA) started the year off strong with a Black Town Hall. While we are navigating in different times, AAFSA understands the importance of being a visible network for the campus. Black students, faculty, and staff came together via zoom to connect, listen, and support each other during the first two weeks of school.
The meeting included updates on the AAFSA scholarship, Student Government Association's Black Student Experience Task Force, data on black students’ graduation rates, and a high point in the meeting where we discussed the upward trending GPA of black students at Wichita State.
AAFSA meetings are the second Tuesday of each month at 12:30 p.m. on Zoom. AAFSA seeks to achieve a visible commitment of inclusion and valuing of African American staff, faculty, students, and alumni at Wichita State University and community.
Learn more about AAFSA and how to become a member at wichita.edu/aafsa.
Wichita State takes suicide-prevention campaign national
As a way to promote suicide prevention, Wichita State University is expanding the #WeSupportU Suspenders4Hope campaign throughout the country in hopes of creating positive change in communities regarding mental health and suicide prevention.
In 2015, Wichita State started the #Suspenders4Hope mental health awareness campaign, after receiving a SAMHSA Campus Suicide Prevention grant. In 2018, the #WeSupport Preventing Suicide Training was developed as a way to sustain the grant efforts, and just recently, the #WeSupportU Mental Wellness in the Classroom cards have been released to help instructors tend to their students’ mental health needs.
Now the program is available to others through the launch of a new website and on-demand version of the training.
The program was inspired by a beloved WSU therapist who was well known around campus as Dr. Suspenders, says Dr. Jessica Provines, assistant vice president of Wellness at Wichita State and a two-time therapist suicide loss survivor. Provines’ team decided to play off that theme.
Join this week's ISME Colloquium for a presentation on ‘Industrial Systems Engineers as Enterprise Architects’
John Huffman
An Industrial, Systems, and Manufacturing Engineering ISME Colloquium presentation with John Huffman, Ph.D., P.E., Senior Technical Fellow with Spirit AeroSystems Inc., will be held from 11 a.m.-noon tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 11), via Zoom.
Click here for the Zoom link - Meeting ID: 988 9885 1927; Password: 638536
The practice of Enterprise Architecture (EA) has emerged as a systematic, layered approach for aligning the processes, applications, information, infrastructure and technology of an organization. Enterprise Architects possess the skills to construct, implement, and continuously refine an enterprise architecture. The skills required of Enterprise Architects can be gained through curricula usually associated with Information Technology, Industrial Engineering, and Systems Engineering programs. While the demand for this cross-functional specialization is high and increasing, it is a rare individual who is formally trained in all these disciplines. Instead, industry is increasingly turning to Industrial Systems Engineers to take on the role of Enterprise Architects.
Speaker Biography
Dr. John Huffman is Senior Technical Fellow for Data Sciences and Enterprise Architecture at Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Industrial, Systems, and Manufacturing Engineering at Wichita State University.
John hired with The Boeing Company at Wichita in July 1981, working in the Structural Engineering group. In 1986, he joined Boeing’s Military Operations Analysis team where he led military simulation modeling and artificial intelligence applications (AI) efforts. In 1990, he moved to Boeing Commercial as a Lead Engineer for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems. In this capacity, John specialized in the use of optimization, statistics, and computation intelligence methods for Agile Manufacturing. At Spirit, John serves the Enterprise-Architecture/Technology-Innovation functions in a variety of Data Sciences and System Engineering capacities and is a consultant for Digital Transformation efforts.
John has a B.S. in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in Structural Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, a M.S. in Engineering Management Science (IE) with an Operations Research specialization from Wichita State University, and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering with doctoral research in Artificial Intelligence for Manufacturing Systems from Wichita State University. He also holds a certificate from the WSU Business School in Leadership and Management studies. He is an Adjunct Professor of Industrial, Systems & Manufacturing Engineering at WSU.
John is a Kansas licensed Professional Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), and a Senior Member of the Institute For Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS). He serves as Emeritus President of the Wichita Chapter of IISE. He served as a Reviewer for the National Science Foundation. He represents Spirit on several local and national Industrial Advisory Boards, including the AIA Business Interoperability Technology Committee. He has an extensive record of technical publication and presentations.
2020-21 Service-Learning Scholars announced
The Wichita State University Service-Learning team is an essential component in the university’s efforts to accomplish its strategic plan. Service-Learning contributes to the student experience and empowers students to create a campus culture to improve and change the world around them.
The Service-Learning Faculty Scholars program has been designed to empower committed service-learning faculty to cultivate and support interest in service-learning in their fellow faculty members and through their classes and college. Our goal is to infuse the campus and community with a spirit of service-based academic engagement that ties the classroom experience to applied learning and experiential knowledge.
We are happy to announce the 2020-2021 Service-Learning Scholars:
Samantha Gregus, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Cindi Mason, College of Engineering
Lori Santos, College of Fine Arts
Rachel Showstack, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Free webinar series for Kansas faculty on Open Educational Resources
Join us for the free Open Educational Resources Webinar Series this semester brought to you by the KBOR OER Steering Committee.
OER Jargon and Free vs. Digital vs. Open – 3:30 p.m. today (Thursday, Sept. 10)
Outlining Problems: Cost and Pedagogy – 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1
Creative Commons Introduction – 3:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26
Repositories & Platforms – 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2
Zoom links to register and descriptions of the sessions are available on the KBOR OER conference website.
Behind the scenes in the CAPS Office!
Want a behind-the-scenes look of the CAPS office? Watch our latest video and follow us at @ShockersCAPS for more mental health tips, live mindfulness and meditation sessions, and campus updates! We're all excited to be back in the office, practicing physical distancing to keep one another healthy.
Make your teletherapy appointment with a CAPS counselor by calling 316-978-4792, or by visiting wichita.edu/CAPS.
#WSUWeSupportU #WSUNow
Your vote makes all the difference in the world! Be sure you are registered to vote. Get started today by visiting wichita.turbovote.org to register here in Kansas or back in your hometown.
Sign up today to receive election reminders, get registered to vote, and apply for your absentee ballot. Let's show them that #shockersvote.
Questions? Contact gabriel.fonseca@wichita.edu for more information.
Wichita State University Opera Theater concert postponed to Sunday
Because of the weather forecast for today (Thursday, Sept. 10), the WSU Opera Theater concert has been postponed to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, in the amphitheater behind Duerksen Fine Arts Center.
Admission is free. The concert, open to the community, invites attendees to bring lawn chairs or blankets and be comfortably socially distanced on a beautiful Kansas evening.
The concert will feature highlights from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's masterpiece, "Cosi fan Tutte," as well as other great opera arias.
WSU Opera Theater is under the direction of College of Fine Arts Professor Alan Held. The pianist for the evening will be WSU alumna and accompanist Bridget Hille.
Hear from Mark McCormick today, the next ODI Diversity Lecture Series speaker
The Diversity Lecture Series presents Mark McCormick at 6:30 p.m. today (Thursday, Sept. 10). He will present, “Some Were Paupers, Some Were Kings: Dispatches From Kansas.”
This digital event will be available via Livestream.
Wichita's very own local author, Mark E. McCormick writes and shares from the heart about the lives of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people across the nation and in Wichita in the 2020-21 WSU Reads Book, “Some Were Paupers, Some Were Kings: Dispatches from Kansas.” He talks about social, political, and personal issues regarding history and current events.
You must register for the free event at wichita.edu/diversitylectureseries. This program is free and open to the public. For questions, contact the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at 316-978-3034, diversity@wichita.edu, or go to wichita.edu/odi.
Help those in need! Join us for a blood drive at the Heskett Center
Give the gift of life. Donate blood. Join us today (Thursday, Sept. 10) at the Heskett Center lobby to donate blood. The Heskett Center lobby will be closed during this time for the blood drive.
Shocker Volleyball set to take action in Black & Yellow Scrimmage free and open to the public
Shocker Volleyball will be back in action at Charles Koch Arena for the first time in 2020! An intrasquad scrimmage is scheduled at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 in Charles Koch Arena, and is open to the public. Admission is FREE for those that wish to attend.
Fans will be required to wear masks at all times in Charles Koch Arena and adhere to additional safety procedures in place. Come on out to support your Shockers!
Managers of USS and Non-Teaching UP employees - It’s mid-review time!
myPerformance evaluations for USS and Non-Teaching UP employees are still available to you for 2020-2021 mid-review. Managers should update expectations, competencies, and goals for the 2020-2021 review period, then meet with their employees to review. Don’t forget to provide them a hard copy of their evaluation for reference throughout the year! Mid-Review should be completed by September 30, 2020 at 11:59 PM.
For more information (including quick reference guides and other assistance) go to www.wichita.edu/myPerformance
Helpful Hints:
- Your direct reports will not be able to access their 2020-2021 myPerformance evaluation until the Employee Self-Evaluation step beginning January 16, 2021, which is why you should provide a hard copy of their 2020-2021 review and review it with them!
- Managers have access to update and edit their direct reports myPerformance evaluations as many times as they would like until Employee Self-Evaluation time beginning January 16, 2021!
- Save then SUBMIT! Make sure to SUBMIT after saving every time you update a myPerformance evaluation! Your direct reports will not be able to see the information and you will still have access to their evaluation until January 16, 2021 even after selecting SUBMIT.
- Need a copy of a past performance evaluation? Check the box that says, “Show completed and expired tasks”, then “Search”! Save it as a PDF or print as needed.
- myPerformance Training is available as an online module through myTraining and includes a condensed “myTraining for Managers” version.
CLES professor cited in ‘Counseling Today’
Dr. Edil Torres Rivera
Dr. Edil Torres Rivera brings awareness of the often unrecognized connection between climate change and mental health.
American Counseling Association member Edil Torres Rivera, a professor of Latinx studies and counseling at Wichita State, believes that climate change is still too frequently dismissed as a hoax.
“Climate change is something that is real and … has implications for mental health,” he says, “particularly for populations like poor people, indigenous people, and people of color.”
Enjoy lunch at the Food Truck Plaza today!
Stop by the plaza for lunch with Funky Monkey Munchies and dessert with Brown Box Bakery! Get your meal to go, or spread out on our socially distanced picnic tables or beautiful green space. Both trucks will be on site from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. today (Thursday, Sept. 10).
Game Night: Escape Room
Love to play games and want to get to know other Shockers on campus? Join SAC on the third Friday of every month for a virtual game night! Cards Against Humanity, Pictionary, Scattegories, and more: we’ll pick a new game every month!
At 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, we will feature a Virtual Escape Room: You’ll live chat with your fellow group, scour a virtual world, and examine the internet for clues, while racing against the clock. This is a high-stakes, all-or-nothing maximum speed adventure to save your partner and make the bad guys pay. Can you put the clues of this escape room together and finish before the time runs out? Buckle up, it’s going to be a fast ride! Space is limited, register early at wichita.edu/sac.
For more information about SAC-sponsored events, go to wichita.edu/SAC or contact us at SAC@wichita.edu.
Wanted: Volunteers to help with 2020 bicycle and pedestrian count event
Volunteers are needed to help manually count bicycle and pedestrian activity across 35 sites in the Wichita Metro area.
The annual event, sponsored by the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization will be held Sept. 24 and 26.
This important event relies heavily on the commitment of community volunteers to gather data about how our network of paths and lanes are being used.
According to Tricia Thomas, WAMPO Communication’s Manager:
“One of the greatest challenges facing the bicycle and pedestrian field is the lack of documentation on usage and demand. Without accurate and consistent demand and usage figures, it is difficult to measure the positive benefits of bicycle and pedestrian investments, especially when compared to the other transportation modes such as the private automobile.”
As such, this event is the only source for regional-scale bicycle and pedestrian data. The results of this data are then used to guide investments throughout the regional transportation system.
So please consider volunteering! This annual event is a real opportunity for local residents to become involved in a piece of the regional transportation planning process. As we know, bicycle and pedestrian investments stimulate the economy, public health, and the overall quality of life in a variety of ways. Communities that invest in these facilities inherently attract people and businesses so it’s good for everyone! Register to volunteer here!