Category: Events and Recreation

The W. Frank Barton School of Business is hosting a keynote speaking event featuring Sunil Srivastava, senior vice president (SVP) of core technology at Pandora11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. April 27 via Zoom. Sunil, a Wichita State alumnus, will speak from Pandora’s headquarters located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sunil will discuss the “Digital Transformation in Retail.” The event is open to the public.

“It’s been more than 20 years since my last engagement with the university and I’m so excited to be back,” Srivastava said. “Thank you to the Barton School for giving me the opportunity to discuss such an important topic with students, faculty and the Wichita community.”

Pandora is a Danish jewelry manufacturer and retailer that was originally founded as a family-run shop in 1982. It is known for its customizable charm bracelets, designer rings, earrings, and necklaces. Today, Pandora has a presence in more than 100 countries on six continents, 26,000 employees worldwide and a market cap of $9.5 billion. As the SVP of Core Technology, Srivastava leads Pandora’s engineering and technology culture to support its growth ambitions and deliver on digital transformation.

“Sunil has a wealth of knowledge about the retail world and the constant digital evolution it’s undergone,” said Dr. Larisa Genin, dean of the Barton School of Business. “His keynote will be a powerful and eye-opening conversation for all attendees.”

After graduating from WSU, Sunil received a Master of Engineering in Computer Science from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Washington. He has also worked for other prominent retailers, including Nordstrom where he serves as its senior director of customer technology.

“Our alumni are doing some amazing, game-changing things in their fields all around the world,” said Dr. Shirley Lefever, WSU interim executive vice president and provost. “I look forward to Sunil’s return as he shares his wisdom and inspires the next generation of Shockers.”

For more information or to attend the “Digital Transformation in Retail” event, contact jenn.lopez@wichita.edu.

The Michael Tilford Conference on Diversity and Multiculturalism Oct. 6-7 at Washburn University.This year’s conference theme is “After Brown vs. Board, No Turning Back: The Future of Diversity and Multiculturalism.”

The conference is sponsored by Kansas Board of Regents University’s and Washburn University.  Conference attendance is free for Wichita State students, faculty and staff.

The Kansas Community Health Community Worker Symposium will take place 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 9 at the Rhatigan Student Center (third floor). The keynote speaker will be Dr. Edward P. Ehlinger, Master of Science in Public health, former Minnesota commissioner of health, and past president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

For more information, please contact JaNeshia Wilson at JaNeshia.Wilson@wichita.edu.

Students, faculty and staff are invited to bring their children and adults ages 4-18 to try tennis with Wichita State’s Men’s Tennis Personnel and USTA Missouri Valley members at noon April 16 at the Sheldon Coleman Tennis Complex. 

Walk-ins are welcome for this event, but RSVPS are encouraged. For more information, or to register, contact Jaren Glaser at 913-967-9929 or glaser@movally.usta.com.

Campus Media Services will host a provide a preview and feedback session for the new Master Classroom User Interface 1:30-3:30 p.m. April 22 at the Heskett Center (Room 105). This interface will launch during summer 2022 and will be available for all Master Classrooms on campus.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion will host the next edition of Diversity Lecture Series at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 14 via Facebook Live. The Diversity Lecture Series features distinguished leaders and experts to help inspire campus dialogue, community engagement and learning about the national narrative on diversity and inclusion. Leah Thomas is an environmentalist with a love for writing and creativity. Thomas is passionate about advocating for and exploring the relationship between social justice and environmentalism.

Wichita State’s Staff Senate is hosting a historical walking tour of main campus beginning at 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 29 at the Millie the Millipede sculpture. The group will be led by Dr. Jay Price Department of History professor and chair, and Jessica Cerri, University Libraries Special Collections curator and university archivist. The tour will focus on notable changes to the campus that have enhanced accessibility to the institution over time. The tour will end at the the Food Truck Plaza.

As part of her master’s graduate project, anthropology and museum studies student, Gracie Tolley implemented a QR code-based solution for low vision visitors at the Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology. Tolley will be presenting a poster version of her research from 2 to 5 p.m. on April 26 on the first floor of Neff Hall.

The loss or alteration of vision is one of the most common disabilities globally. It can impact anyone, regardless of their age or health status. In the museum field, these vision limitations must be addressed in the way information is presented to the public.

This event is part of the Holmes Museum’s spring open house, which will feature new exhibitions developed by museum studies certificate students.

Please join us for a public lecture by Dr. Megan Kerr at 3 p.m. April 15 in 372 Jabara hall. Kerr, who is a professor of mathematics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, will present “Submanifolds of Noncompact Homogeneous Spaces with Special Curvature Properties.” Refreshments will be available at 2:30 pm in 353 Jabara Hall.

The next Econ Bites on the Go will take place at noon on April 15 via Zoom (meeting ID 952 4019 5674, passcode 200). The episode will feature economist Dr. Ying Yang discussing how feedback design motivates the next generation of salespeople.

Yang is motivated by her own working experience in sales and is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Iowa. She studies sales force compensation and marketing strategies. Her research combines theoretical game theory and behavioral economics, aiming to understand the motivation of the sales force and derive optimal strategy recommendations. She has published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and Marketing Letters.

Econ Bites on the Go was created by Wichita State’s Department of Economics and the Institute for the Study of Economic Growth to provide students and faculty members an opportunity to interact with top-tier economists.

Each talk lasts one hour. For the first 20 minutes, Siyu Wang, assistant professor of economics at Wichita State, asks students questions that provoke the guest speakers into a deeper examination of their work and how they see the world. The guest speaker then has 20 minutes to summarize his or her life-long research. The last 20 minutes is a question and answer session, with students and professors interacting with the guest speaker and asking any questions they have in mind.