Category: Featured Stories

The office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Logistics and Product Support has sponsored a contract through the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) to award Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) a five-year $100 million cooperative agreement for digital engineering and technologies to support sustainment of legacy U.S. Air Force platforms.

This cooperative agreement provides for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services during a fixed period of time. Initially, it will be used to develop digital engineering solutions to support the sustainment and modifications of the B-52 Stratofortress and the C-130 Hercules aircraft; as well as complete the development of the F-16 Fighting Falcon and B-1 Lancer digital twins.

The Wichita City Council approved a plan today that will move forward a project between Wichita State University and the University of Kansas to build a 471,000-square-foot health sciences center in the heart of downtown Wichita. 

Council members agreed to sell or lease two tracts of land – at 214 S. Topeka (where the Wichita Transit Center, set to move to Delano, is currently located) and a parking lot at the southeast corner of Broadway and William.

Wichita State junior Adam Key is certain that leadership can be taught. The best way is by example and application in real-world settings.

Key is one of eight students representing six WSU colleges who recently participated in the Lead for Tomorrow Leadership Academy in the Cohen Honors College. Five faculty members led the interdisciplinary course presenting content from their field focused on the theme “Connected Leadership: Creating a Community of Leaders.” Students then were tasked to apply course content to challenges presented by local community partners.

As Wichita State’s Innovation Campus approaches its 10th anniversary, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities is recognizing the Innovation Campus’ role in cultivating research and innovation. 

The APLU named Wichita State as one of five finalists for its 11th annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) University Awards. 

The College of Engineering has updated one of its programs to create a more strategic career pathway for its graduates and meet the needs of business and industry. Effective fall 2023, the new applied engineering program — formerly engineering technology — has been adapted based on feedback from employers and alumni.  

Applied engineering will be classified by the accreditation authority, ABET, in the general engineering category and move to the new 14.0103 Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code, making graduates eligible to pursue their Professional Engineer (PE) licenses in Kansas and elsewhere.

The Accessible Design course concerned Wichita State University junior Reagan Kelley at first. She wasn’t an engineering major and wasn’t sure what she could contribute. 

Conversations with Samantha Corcoran, associate engineering coordinator in the College of Engineering, answered her questions. The payoff at the end of the project made it worthwhile. Kelley, an exercise science major, and three other students modified an all-terrain wheelchair for Sutton, a 9-year-old boy who outgrew the chair’s previous dimensions. 

A new Jersey Mike’s Subs is set to open Wednesday, July 12 in Wichita State University’s Braeburn Square on the Innovation Campus. 

Wichita’s newest Jersey Mike’s franchise location is one of seven dining establishments in the lakeside retail plaza, including Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Sesame Mediterranean Kitchen, Social Tap, Sungrano Pizza, Wheatly’s Burgers and Two Hands Corn Dogs (opening later this summer).  

The sub shop offers a variety of hot and cold sandwiches, kids’ meals and catering services. The Wichita State franchise location is owned by Annette Hennes and will feature a patio and garage door — a design Hennes says aims to create a comfortable and welcoming space for patrons.

A new Wichita State University initiative is aimed at addressing the critical shortage of educators in special education and elementary classrooms.

The initiative, called Teacher Education Pathways, recently received $97,000 from the Kansas Board of Regents.

The new program — which will start in fall 2023 — will provide smoother pathways for students pursuing Kansas licensure in elementary education and early childhood. WSU will collaborate closely with Butler Community College and WSU Tech to establish a new scholarship and pathway for undergraduates seeking initial teacher licensure.

A group of graduate students from Wichita State University’s Department of History is chronicling the history of the LGBTQ community in Wichita.

The project is the next in a series of photo history books that Dr. Jay Price, chair of history in WSU’s Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has created through Arcadia Publishing. Previous topics of the region’s history include Wichita’s legacy of flight, El Dorado’s oil boom, the Cherokee Strip Land Run, the Lebanese community located in the city and the Mexican Americans of Wichita’s North End.

President Rick Muma and Diane Tinker-Hurst, project manager for Industry and Defense Programs, discussed how Wichita State drives innovation and economic prosperity in an article with the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities.

They shared how WSU’s vision, mission and values help shape the university’s goal to nurture talented students in a variety of fields; fostering innovation through our initiatives of digital transformation and the development of the MRO program and Molecular Diagnostics Lab; and how the university leads the way with our Innovation Campus.