Author: Leah Lamunyon

A technical paper authored by a group of Wichita State students, “Economic and Reliability Impacts of Combined Solar and Battery Energy Storage as a Non-Wire Alternative,” was recently recognized as the best paper in the 55th Annual North American Power Symposium. The paper was authored by two undergraduate students in the electrical and computer engineering program at WSU, Mary Peterson and Olivia O’Reilly, along with Esther Liu, who was a student at East High School at the time of authorship.

Peterson, O’Reilly and Liu were mentored by two then-doctoral students, Arun Kaarthick Manoharan and Sarangan Rajendran, faculty advisor Dr. Visvakumar Aravinthan, and two industry advisors, Al Tamimi and Charles Yokley, both from Sunflower Electric Power Corporation. The symposium was hosted Oct. 15-17 by Western Carolina University in Asheville, North Carolina.

In addition to receiving recognition for authorship of the paper, Peterson was also recently awarded the IEEE PES Scholarship for the second year. The scholarship is a merit scholarship awarded to undergraduate students in electrical engineering who are pursuing careers in electrical power systems.

The College of Engineering is hiring an academic advisor for its School of Computing. The selected individual will advise students concerning their academic plans, progress, and academic and career goals in order to assist them in making personal education decisions and meeting graduation requirements. The individual will also interpret student needs and provide individualized service and assistance while maintaining confidentiality.

The position is open to both internal and external candidates. Applicants should have a bachelor’s degree in a related field and at least one year of experience working in student services or a related field.

Jeremy Fielding, a YouTube personality, recently toured the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) and has started a series of engineering-focused videos all featuring Wichita State and NIAR.

Fielding spoke with members of the Shocker Racing team about the engineering work they do as part of the team. He’s also produced an introduction to robotics video, with insight from members of NIAR during his visit. Fielding’s visit to WSU and the Shocker Racing team was also detailed on the Solidworks Education Blog, which is managed by Dassault Systemes, an Innovation Campus partner. More videos from his visit to NIAR are coming soon.

Fielding creates content specifically related to engineering and was originally contracted by Dassault Systemes to showcase how WSU and NIAR utilize the company’s CAD software.

Matt Crow, a Wichita State alumnus and multimedia coordinator in the Office of Admissions, directed and produced a video that will be featured at the Tallgrass Film Festival at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6 in the Orpheum Theatre. The video features GoBabyGo, a program sponsored by the College of Engineering, that modifies off-the-shelf ride-on toy cars for children with disabilities. As part of the program, engineering students collaborate with physical therapy students to customize cars and deliver them at no cost to the families.

The video, called a Shock Doc, was created as part of an initiative of the Office of Admissions to create an ongoing digital series featuring students, alumni and faculty. Crow submitted the video to the Tallgrass Film Festival for consideration in the “Kansas Filmmaker” category.

In September, teams from 16 high schools and two-year colleges competed in the inaugural Capture The Wu event, a two-day virtual contest in which teams solve cybersecurity challenges. Wichita State students from the Wichita State Linux User Group (WULUG) and Joe Jabara, the director of the cybersecurity program in the School of Computing, organized and ran the contest.

Winning teams in the high school division were from Shawnee Mission West High School in Overland Park, Eisenhower High School in Goddard and Tuscaloosa Academy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while Garden City Community College won the two-year college division.

Utilizing the Innovation Hub in the John Bardo Center, College of Engineering students created approximately 70 plaques for the Memorial ’70 ceremony held Oct. 2 at the memorial site on campus. The annual ceremony of remembrance occurs every year to honor WSU football players, administrators and supporters who died in the plane crash Oct. 2, 1970.

At this year’s ceremony, attendees such as survivors and loved ones of the former football players, were gifted with the plaques. The plaques are composed of salvaged aluminum seating from the east side of Cessna Stadium, the same stadium where the WSU football team practiced and played from the 1940s until the 1980s, as well as stained oak wood. Within a few days, the students participated in prototyping, testing and producing 140 parts and laser etching approximately 70 aluminum plaques.

Leanne Caret — former president of Boeing Defense, Space & Security and the 2023 engineer in residence for the College of Engineering — is visiting Wichita State again from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5 and Friday, Oct. 6 in 209 Hubbard Hall.

Caret will participate in two interviews, have a private lunch with engineering students and be featured at a speaking event that students, staff, faculty, alumni and industry partners are invited to attend.

The speaking event, “Getting Real About Leadership,” will be a 30-minute presentation followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Light refreshments will be served.

The College of Engineering is continuing its prioritization of applied learning with the creation of a new position and the promotion of two faculty and staff members. The new position, applied learning facilities director, has been assumed by Nathan Smith, who is also an assistant educator in the Applied Engineering Department. Richard Sack has been promoted to the position of Innovation Hub manager, a position previously held by Smith that is dedicated to managing the Innovation Hub in the John Bardo Center on the Innovation Campus.

Within the new applied learning facilities director role, Smith will focus on expanding the college’s ability to support research and industry-focused project work. Recent projects include students creating handrails for the Charles Koch Arena at WSU and students completing 3D scans to create molds to aid in the renovation process of the Wilner Auditorium at WSU. He also hopes to eventually coordinate projects with the National Institute of Aviation Research (NIAR). As a faculty member, Smith will continue offering project-based courses, now shifting his focus toward incorporating generative AI into teaching and the design process.

Within his role as the new Innovation Hub manager, Sack will focus on the future growth of the hands-on prototyping laboratory and applied learning initiatives. He has extensive experience in the research and development of new products and processes, experience Sack will apply toward growing the college’s research support capabilities. He is skilled in his ability to engage students in teaching and research activities, and the college looks forward to working with Sack to develop new initiatives and collaborations across the campus and the community.

The College of Engineering will host Joshua Saxe, a Wichita-based computer scientist who works as a senior staff artificial intelligence (AI) scientist for Meta, from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18 in 110B (Auditorium 2) Woolsey Hall. Saxe will present “The Promise and Peril of Intelligent, Creative Machines” to WSU students, staff and faculty, and refreshments will be served.

The presentation will encompass the origins of AI, the foundational mechanisms driving it, its present societal impacts including both risks and benefits, and projections of its future evolution. The program will be structured into two segments: a 45-minute presentation featuring prepared remarks and accompanying PowerPoint slides, followed by a 45-minute moderated interview and question and answer session to address questions from the audience.

Within his role at Meta, the company that owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, Saxe works at the intersection of generative AI, online safety and cybersecurity. He is the author of “Malware Data Science: Attack Detection and Attribution” and many peer-reviewed scientific publications. Saxe also holds more than 20 patents. 

The Department of Mechanical Engineering within the College of Engineering is hosting Dr. Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Carroll McArthur Endowed Chair Professor from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Technological University.

Hu will present “Advanced Materials for Sustainable Energy and Environment” to students, staff, faculty and industry partners from 3 to 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 in 211 Engineering Building.