Author: Leah Lamunyon

The College of Engineering invites all to save the date for its annual Engineering Open House from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, May 9 at Charles Koch Arena.

Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., senior engineering and computing students will present prototype solutions throughout the concourse. From the end of student presentations until 7 p.m., there will be refreshments served, as well as an awards ceremony.

Wichita State is hosting the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Region 5 Green Technologies Conference, which began Wednesday, March 26. The technical program will continue through Friday, March 28, and student competitions will be Saturday, March 29. The conference is being held on the second and third floors of the Rhatigan Student Center.

Two faculty members from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, Dr. Davi Soares, assistant professor, and Dr. Arun Manoharan, assistant teaching professor, are presenting a workshop Thursday afternoon, “Battery Basics and Large-Scale Applications.” Several college faculty members are serving on the event committee. Dr. John Watkins, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is serving as the general chair; Dr. Visvakumar Aravinthan, chair and professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is serving as the technical program committee chair; and Dr. Shruti Kshirsagar, assistant professor in the School of Computing, is serving as the awards manager.

WSU students are encouraged to attend keynote presentations during the event, including options on Thursday morning and afternoon and Friday morning. Visit the conference website to view the keynote topics and full schedule. The student competitions, including robotics, circuits, presentation, cyber and ethics, on Saturday are open to the public. Visit the Student Competitions webpage to learn more.

The College of Engineering is seeking an experienced computer numerical control (CNC) machinist to work as a machining and manufacturing coordinator in our labs. The individual will oversee the setup, operation and maintenance of CNC machining, fabrication and inspection tools to support teaching, research and applied learning initiatives. They will work as part of a professional team, fabricating high-precision components, conducting quality assurance, training faculty and teaching assistants, and ensuring compliance with safety regulations. The individual will develop training materials, assist with equipment acquisition, supervise student employees, and analyze utilization data to optimize processes and improve efficiency.

The position is open to both internal and external candidates. Applicants should have a high school diploma or equivalent and at least three years of experience as a CNC machinist.

The College of Engineering and Department of Aerospace Engineering are hosting Dr. Melkior Ornik, an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, from 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 25 in 209 Wallace Hall. Dr. Ornik will present “Guaranteed Resilience of Uncertain Autonomous Systems” to students, staff, faculty and industry partners.

The College of Engineering hosted a public 5k run/walk from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22 on the WSU campus. More than 130 people registered for the event, and despite the cold temperatures, 106 people ultimately participated. Through registration fees, about $3,600 was raised, which will benefit the College of Engineering Need-Based Scholarship Fund.

Following the 5k, awards were presented to the overall fastest participant, as well as the top three fastest male and female participants in the student category, staff/faculty category, alumni category and community member category. Winners were as follows:

• Overall fastest: Max Lazzo (alum)
• Top three male students: Cooper Zimmer, Adan Silerio and Cole Albert
• Top three female students: Lizabeth Mueting, Olivia O’Reilly and Isabella Porter
• Top two male staff/faculty: Christopher Leonard and Kobe Ford
• Top three female staff/faculty: Monica Bergkamp, Tracee Friess and Julie Scott
• Top three male alumni: Max Lazzo, Clark Pint and PJ Phan
• Top three female alumni: Carina Perez, Samatha Ringer and Natalie Castillo
• Top three male community members: Samual Scott, Seth Bergman and Ryan Nance
• Top three community members: Sana Christmann, Erika Pint and Daisy Marquez

Two undergraduate student teams from the Department of Biomedical Engineering within the College of Engineering placed during the national Medical Device Make-A-Thon (MDM) competition. The event was Feb. 28 through March 2 at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Twenty-seven teams from across the country participated in the competition, including teams from the University of Illinois and the University of Texas at Austin.

The design competition, which ran from Friday evening to Sunday morning, tasked teams with developing innovative solutions in the field of physical rehabilitation, focusing on areas such as prosthetics, orthopedics, and physical therapy. Teams were given the prompt at 8 p.m. on Friday and had until 3:30 p.m. on Saturday to present their initial design ideas.

The ShockCure Engineers team, consisting of Stephanie Brock, Sophiya Dahal, Caitlyn Joseph and Taylor Spinelli, presented a solution, “ElectroStride,” for asymmetrical pressure distribution in athletes. The team advanced to the second round of the competition and ultimately secured fifth place. The WuShock team, consisting of Benjamin Anderson, Cynthia Chidziwo, Jamie Claeys, Cleopatra Nyevera and Abby Otten, presented a device, “Internal Hypermobility Splint,” for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Their team placed in the top 12.

Two student teams and an individual graduate student from the Department of Industrial, Systems and Manufacturing Engineering within the College of Engineering placed in competitions during the Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) South Central Regional Conference. The event was the weekend of Feb. 22 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and the students were accompanied by Dr. Cindi Mason, associate teaching professor in the department.

Saurabh Sanjay Singh, a graduate student, won first place in the poster competition. His poster was titled, “Energy Conscious Job Shop Scheduling Integrating Optimization and Actor-Critic Architectures,” and Dr. Deepak Gupta, department chair, was his faculty advisor. Undergraduate students Jasmine Carlucci, Jacob Mayne and Paula Nguyen won first place in the technical paper competition. Undergraduate students Hayden Henderson, Bo Miller and Colton Pound won third place in the technical paper competition.

The Carlucci, Mayne and Nguyen student team will compete in the IISE National Conference in May in Atlanta.

To conclude National Engineers Week, the College of Engineering is hosting a public 5k run/walk that is open to students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22. Due to the 5k route, some parking lot and road closures are expected Saturday between about 8:30 and 11 a.m.

Several events organized by the College of Engineering to celebrate National Engineers Week this week have been impacted by the weather:

• The Vision Boards event for students that was scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 18 has been cancelled.
• An event later in the evening for students, staff and faculty, “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” has been postponed
• Additionally, an event for area high school students, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (IGED), that was scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20, has been postponed.

Further information will be provided once postponed events have been rescheduled.

On Thursday, Feb. 20, the College of Engineering will host about 200 high school students for the Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (IGED) event, commonly known as Girl Day. The event will be from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the majority of the event will be in 305/306 Rhatigan Student Center (RSC), Beggs Ballroom. The second floor of the RSC will also be utilized from about 11 a.m. to noon. Although a private event, WSU students, staff and faculty are encouraged to have positive interactions with high school students, educators and event volunteers when in common areas.

According to the College of Engineering, IGED is a national event that takes place during National Engineers Week. IGED events inspire and encourage young students to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields through mentorship with professional and collegiate role models.