Category: Events and Recreation

Wichita State’s Office of Research will host a virtual W.M. Keck Foundation workshop at 10 a.m. Oct. 29. During the workshop, Dr. Coleen Pugh, vice provost for Research and dean of the Graduate School, will present on the topic of applying to the W.M. Keck Foundation.

The W.M. Keck Foundation research program seeks to benefit humanity by supporting projects in two specific areas: Medical research and science and engineering. The medical research and science and engineering projects must be distinctive and novel in their approach. They must also question the prevailing paradigm, or have the potential to break open new territory in their field. 

Faculty interested in attending can sign up via myTraining or email proposals@wichita.edu.

The Lecture Series in the Mathematical Sciences presents Dr. Souparno Ghosh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Please join us for a public lecture by Ghosh, titled “Deep learning with multi-type data: representation of features as images with neighborhood dependencies” at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5 at Jabara Hall (Room 372). Refreshments will be available at 2:30pm in Room 353.

In honor of the 2021 National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Bring Oct. 23, the campus community is invited to drop off their unused and expired prescriptions and over-the-counter medications 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 18-22 at the Student Wellness Center located in the campus YMCA The University Police Department later dispose of these items.

The campus community is invited to join the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for the induction ceremony of its hall of fame honorees 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22 at Wiedemann Auditorium. Induction into the Fairmount College Hall of Fame is the highest recognition of outstanding alumni who have had a significant impact on the region, nation and world.

The inductees are:

• Quincalee Brown, 1961, BA-English; BA-speech. Brown served the Water Environment Federation as its executive director and was a founding member of the Water Environment Research Foundation. She also worked as an independent water quality and association management consultant. Prior to her work with water quality, Brown held several positions in organizations that served the needs of women in the Washington, D.C., area. She is also the former Wichita State debate coach.
• Vincent L. Gott, 1951, BS-biological sciences. Over the course of his career, Gott assisted in developing the earliest pacemaker and artificial heart valves. During his time at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he performed the first heart transplant operation, and perfected operational procedures for correcting congenital heart defects in patients with Marfan syndrome. He also trained and mentored more than 50 thoracic surgery residents and fellows. Gott will be inducted posthumously.
• Alfonso Lenhardt, 1976, MS-administration of justice. The former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, Lenhardt has also served the U.S. Senate as Sergeant at Arms, as U.S. representative to the East African Community, and in high leadership positions for the U.S. Agency of International Development. Before holding these government positions, he had a long career with the U.S. Army, retiring as Major General.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is excited to partner with the Tallgrass Film Festival and present the Gordon Parks Double Feature Gala Oct. 23 at the Orpheum Theatre (200 N. Broadway #102). The double-feature screening includes the following:

• 5:30 p.m. Oct. 23 “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks” (Directed and produced by John Maggio)
• 8 p.m. Oct. 23 “Shaft” (Directed by Gordon Parks and produced Joel Freeman)

The double-feature will include a conversation with Gordon Parks’ son, David Parks, which will take place between the two films. 

University Libraries Savvy Scholar Workshop series continues with a Discovering Search Engine Bias webinar noon-1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22 via Zoom. This no-cost webinar will explore how algorithmic biases influence search results and provide strategies for minimizing biased results.

Health professionals are invited to attend the Live Well with Diabetes Day of Discovery 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5 at the Wichita State Metropolitan complex. The event is hosted by Wichita’s Great Plains Diabetes, with support from Health ICT—Kansas Business, the KU School of Pharmacy, Dillons and the Wichita State University Physician Assistant Department.

This course is a one-day, interactive, case-based workshop that provides health professionals with up-to-date, evidence-based information to enhance a health professional’s ability to provide diabetes care and prevention for all ages.

For more information, call (316) 440-2802 or go to Great Plains Diabetes website.

If you are an innovator, researcher, or small business, apply by Nov. 1 to take advantage of this virtual event which brings the United States Air Force and the small business community together to connect and collaborate. This enables the opportunity for small business innovation to quickly deliver advanced technologies to the Air Force. The event also offers participants the following:

• An opportunity to connect innovators with potential Air Force customers.
• An opportunity for potential direct contracted purchases or Small Business Innovation Research.

Selected companies will be invited to pitch their technology to Air Force representatives from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas; Altus AFB, Oklahoma, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, Whiteman AFB, Missouri, Offutt AFB, Vance AFB, Oklahoma, and Scott AFB, Illinois, in December 2021. 

For more information, contact Wichita State Strategic Initiatives at 316-978-5363 or strategicinitiatives@wichita.edu.

The Writing Now, Reading Now series returns this Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Ulrich Museum. For this edition, award-winning poet and member of the Wichita State Creative Writing Faculty Sam Taylor will read from his latest book “The Book of Fools: An Essay in Memoir and Verse.”

The program begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception followed by the poetry reading at 6:00 p.m. The event is free to the campus community. Taylor has requested that guests wear masks.

“The Book of Fools” is a sweeping elegy about Earth—and our plastic-choked oceans. Visually arresting and formally innovative, it marries global, ecological themes of loss, centered around the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre, to personal, confessional ones, surrounding a mother’s early death to cancer.

Writing Now, Reading Now is a series curated by the Wichita State Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program that brings celebrated poets and writers from around the country to read in the Ulrich Museum. Recent readings have been given by such noteworthy writers as Jericho Brown, Ilya Kaminsky, Samantha and Lee Chang. Writing Now, Reading Now is sponsored by the Department of English and the Ulrich Museum.

Wichita State’s Department of Human Performance Studies will host another HPSeries-Mental Health and Human Performance at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20 at Lindquist Hall (Room 100) or via Zoom (Meeting ID: 95722177028 Passcode: 072032).

Featured guests include Dr. Briana Ward, WSU Athlete Mental Health coordinator, Dr. Jessica Grossnicklaus, WSU Outreach coordinator, and Raquel Rios-Reed, 3x Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier and co-owner of First Gear Running Company.