Category: Events and Recreation

Wichita State students, faculty, staff and the general public are invited to attend events celebrating Constitution Week 2022, Sept. 19-21. The week’s events are sponsored by the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Department of Political Science and student research supported by the Battin-Lester Corporate Responsibility Fellowship. This year’s theme is “Representation and Citizen Dialogue.”

One of the events for the week includes the Battin-Lester Keynote Panel: Student Research on Wichita City Council Redistricting, which will feature two student presentations 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sep. 20 via Zoom.

Other panels during the week will discuss the history of congressional redistricting in Kansas, the One Small Step courageous conversations program and the WSU Washington D.C./Topeka internship program. 

For more information visit WSU’s Department of Political Science Facebook or contact Neal Allen, chair of Political Science at 316-978-7133 or neal.allen@wichita.edu.

The Graduate School will host the fifth Annual Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition Nov. 11 at the Rhatigan Student Center. The 3MT is an academic competition that challenges doctoral and master’s students to description their research within three minutes to a general audience.

Registration is required and closes at 11:59 p.m. Oct. 21. For more information, competition rules and to register, vist Wichita State’s 3MT at WSU webpage. www.wichita.edu/3MT

Wichita State’s annual Study Abroad Fair will take place 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 4 on the first floor of the Rhatigan Student Center. Please encourage your students to attend in order to learn more about study abroad programs and scholarships.

The event will include more than 20 informational tables set up with students available to share their experiences. Students who attend can be entered to win prizes, including study abroad scholarships.

For more information, please contact studyabroad@wichita.edu

Check out Wichita State’s Study Abroad Fair 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 4 on the first floor of the Rhatigan Student Center. The event will include more than informational 20 tables featuring students who have studied abroad and want to share about their experiences. Participants will also be entered to win prizes, including to study abroad scholarships. For more information, contact us at studyabroad@wichita.edu.

Join Shocker Career Accelerator (SCA) for an open house at its office from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 162 John Bardo Center. This is a come-and-go event is for students, faculty and staff to view the SCA office and learn about the services the staff provides. Light refreshments and the SCA team will be available for meet and greets during the event.

The next KMUW Literary Feast will take place 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21 at KMUW. Dinner will be provided by Public. Literary Feast is KMUW’s monthly book club, featuring selections made by KMUW staff. For September, the staff has selected “The Last White Man” by Mohsin Hamid.

KVersity, a  campus K-pop and hip-hop dance group. will host a workshop 4-6 pm Thursday, Sept. 15 at 141 Heskett Center. KVersity director Ameera Robinson will be teaching “Nanana” by GOT7. All student are welcome to attend, regardless of past dance experience.

Join Women of Wichita State University (WWSU) for a social event beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, at Social Tap. Current, new, and prospective members are welcome. WWSU is an organization that serves the interests of the university by providing scholarships to WSU students and fostering a sense of community through the spirit of friendliness and support.

Find WWSU on Facebook by using @womenofwsu or visit www.wichita.edu/wwsu.

Students from the Wichita State Doctor of Physical Therapy program are requesting volunteers for a research study on how ball and balloon exercise variations affect chronic low back pain in adults 18-40 years of age. Participation in this study may help the field of physical therapy to be more effective at understanding and treating chronic low back pain in a simpler, cost-effective way using at-home therapeutic exercises. 

If chosen to participate in our study, volunteers will be asked to complete an eight-week, step-by-step home exercise program that will be monitored via electronic communication in the form of e-mail. The exercise program will not require any external resistance (weights, resistance bands, etc.). It will require a small rubber ball and balloons, which will be provided to the volunteer.

Volunteers will also be asked to fill out two questionnaires before starting the program and two questionnaires at the end of the eight-week program. Volunteers may be chosen to be in a control group, in which case their only responsibility will be to fill out two questionnaires at the beginning and end of the eight weeks. Further instructions will be provided during the study.

To participate volunteers must complete a 10 to 15-minute survey located below. Upon completing the survey, volunteers will receive email with further information. 

Participation is graciously appreciated, voluntary, and all volunteers’ responses will remain confidential. For more information, contact Blanca DeLaTorre at  bpdelatorre@shockers.wichita.edu. 

Interdisciplinary Research Projects leaders will present their highlights beginning at 10 a.m. Sept. 16 at the John Bardo Center lobby.

“These projects intentionally assembled expertise from a range of disciplines to solve problems that are highly challenging, extremely interesting, and whose solution is high impact,” said Andrew Hippisley, dean of the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “These are the very problems that a single discipline is not equipped to solve. It will be exciting to hear the highlights and results to date from each of the projects.”

During the vent, lead researchers for Wichita State’s Interdisciplinary Research Projects will provide updates on their efforts to address pressing societal issues with a goal to improve the growth and diversity of Kansas’s economy.

“What has been most rewarding about this initiative was the opportunity for so many researchers from different disciplines across campus to discuss their research and find common interests,” said Coleen Pugh, dean of the graduate school and vice provost for research. “That alone was a success.”

Each project was initially funded in 2020 by a $300,000 grant from the university, distributed over three years. Project groups also have applied for additional external funding.

The projects include:

• The Smart Fusion Material Research Institute has a goal to develop novel computational, material and digital manufacturing approaches to unlock the complex interactions among material, microstructure, processing and mechanical properties involved in additive manufacturing. Lead researcher and presenter will be Gisuk Hwang, associate professor of mechanical engineering.
• The Disaster Resilience Analytics Center has a goal to leverage the university’s expertise in artificial intelligence, deep learning and multiple modes of big data to better predict natural and human- made disasters, and to improve preparedness by creating a new generation of digital platforms and support services. Lead researcher and presenter will be Atri Dutta, associate professor of aerospace engineering.
• The Institute for Health Disparities has a goal to generate new methods to reduce obesity among vulnerable populations and improve health literacy as a mechanism among health care providers for behavior change. Lead researcher and presenter will be Twyla Hill, professor of sociology.
• The Center for Educational Technologies to Assist Refugee Learners has a goal to design innovative solutions to meet the educational needs of the children of the more than 70 million forcibly displaced refugees worldwide. As a result, it will also create innovative pathways and software for educational access to those in our state and nation. Lead researcher and presenter will be Mythili Menon, assistant professor of linguistics.