Author: Tracee Friess

The university community is invited to attend a rountable with Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development (EDA) Alejandra Castillo at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at the John Bardo Center lobby.

The roundtable, hosted by Wichita STate Strategic Initiatives, will focus on South Kansas’s Driving Adoption: Smart Manufacturing program, which was awarded $51 million by the EDA last month. It will be comprised of program managers, industry participants and local government leaders.

The discussion will be an opportunity for the EDA to collect further information from coalition members and other regional stakeholders on the goals of the Smart Manufacturing projects, and to hear how regional industry and community members will be impacted by the EDA investment. The discussion will center around project needs, regional strengths in assets and coalition partners, equity in project implementation, anticipated impact of the project on the region and lessons learned in proposal development.

Participants must RSVP to attend. To RSVP, please contact smartmanufacturing@wichita.edu.

NASA’s International Space Apps hackathon is coming to Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) Oct. 1-2.

NASA invites coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists and technologists to come together in a global hackathon. Over two days, participants from around the world will create in-person and virtual teams to solve challenges using NASA’s open-source data.

Space Apps is for everyone, including those who have never hacked before. The competition is open to passionate problem solvers of all ages. While some of the challenges are technical, others require the use of artistic ability, business acumen, and historical imagination. In other words, you do not need to be a coder or data expert to be a part of Space Apps. In fact, the most diverse teams are often the most successful.

Teams consist of two to six participants. The hackathon will begin 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 1 and conclude on Sunday, Oct. 2. Upon registration, participants will receive details on the release of challenges and virtual boot camp videos, as well as the opening of chat and team formation.

The deadline to register for the Wichita event is Sunday Sept. 18.

The hackathon is hosted by the NIAR’s Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) and will take place in the ATLAS labs.

Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) is proud to announce the addition of Thomas Fischer as senior advisor to the executive director.

Fischer, a 35-year U.S. Air Force employee and member of the Senior Executive Service, recently retired from his position as director of engineering and technical management and chief engineer for the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

In this position, he led a 15,000-person national engineering organization and was responsible for the USAF’s transformation to digital engineering.

“Tom’s knowledge of the value of digital transformation for various units of the Air Force and other DoD branches will be critical for the development of new programs at Wichita State,” said John Tomblin, WSU senior vice president for Industry and Defense Programs and NIAR executive director. “These programs are focused on aviation and manufacturing innovation while ensuring the safety of the warfighter and extending the life of the military fleet,”

Fischer’s academic accolades include a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Valparaiso University, a master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton; an MBA from Wright State University; and a master’s in national resource strategy from the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.

A combined team of staff from the WSU Alumni Association and Industry and Defense Programs took first place and raised $3,025 in the first Pull-a-Plane event Oct. 16 at the B-29 Doc Hangar, Education and Visitors Center. The event was an educational fundraiser benefiting the WSU Tech Foundation and will finance student-focused initiatives and the B-29 Doc Hangar and educational exhibits.