Category: Featured Stories

More than 2,200 Shockers are eligible for graduation in spring 2023. They hail from 29 states, 48 countries and six continents. As they leave the Wichita State University campus, they will share the story of Shocker Nation through their work as engineers, artists, teachers, scientists and leaders. Here’s what some of our graduates have to say about their time at Wichita State and their futures.

When Rob Gerlach joined the Office of Tech Transfer and Commercialization at Wichita State in 2018, he noticed a gaping hole in the community: For a city that prides itself on its entrepreneurial spirit, Wichita was severely lacking in people to protect and manage its innovations.

In fact, a quick database search revealed that there were only a handful of patent practitioners in Wichita.

So Gerlach created the Gateway to IP program “with the purpose being to increase Wichita’s IP IQ.” Through the program, Gerlach and his team in the TTC office mentor students and introduce them to the pathway to becoming a patent agent.

In the most recent graduate school rankings from U.S. News and World Report, Wichita State University’s College of Engineering continued its steady ascent, landing in the 47th spot for the 2023-24 academic year. Additionally, the College of Health Profession’s physician associate program is debuting in the rankings, at No. 65.

In both lists, Wichita State is the highest ranked university in Kansas and the only one in the top 100.

In the past four years, WSU’s College of Engineering’s graduate program has consistently climbed the charts from No. 94 to 77 to 59 in 2022, and now this year at No. 47 — the highest yet.

Only two students were selected for the 2023 summer Yale University Press manuscript editorial internship — one was secured by a Yale University student and the other was Wichita State’s own Hannah Holliday.

Holliday, a junior studying creative writing and communication in WSU’s Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will continue to live in Wichita while working remotely at her internship, which will be done over nine weeks starting June 5 and ending Aug. 5.

As night falls, an unsuspecting gray mouse chitters under a tree while nibbling on a seed she scavenged in the grass. Then — swoosh! — in less than an instant, the space where she stood is empty, and an owl swoops soundlessly away with the mouse in her talons.

That level of silent stealth is something a group of Wichita State students is attempting to replicate as part of a project to use owl-feather technology to create silent drones for NASA’s University Student Research Challenge.

Kansas NASA EPSCoR Program has named Wichita State’s College of Innovation and Design faculty member Maggie Schoonover as a recipient of its 2023 Partnership Development Grant for her proposal, “Familiarization Training Game for Extended Reality Spacesuit User Interface.”

Schoonover’s Open XR Lab offers hands-on tech development with collaborative design and integration of non-STEM majors into STEM activities to enhance team effectiveness and employability. Her area of research focuses on product management processes in emerging technologies.

While a new basketball coach is a statement about the future of a team, Terry Nooner emphasized the importance of the present on Thursday at Charles Koch Arena.

During his public introduction as Wichita State University’s women’s basketball coach, he spoke to the current Shockers seated in the front row. That group, he said, is part of what comes next.

“I’m your head coach, and you guys are my team,” he said. “You’re my players now. We’re about to be in for a great ride.”

Putting a live sports event on camera is an experience like no other for students thinking about a career in video. Sports are unpredictable and create imagery that tells the story through action and emotion.

Rowing produces all that against the backdrop of the river and the weather.

That is the story Coach Calvin Cupp wants to tell about his Wichita State team and the Plains Regional Regatta. It takes place Sunday on the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita over a mile-and-a-half of water between the Lincoln Street and First Street bridges.

The Media Resources Center (MRC) will livestream the regatta for the third year, using MRC staff and students for all aspects of the production.

Wichita State’s bowling teams are in Las Vegas this week for the United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Singles and Team Championships at South Point Bowling Plaza. Team play begins Thursday with the singles and team finals on Saturday. The taped televised finals will air at 6 p.m. on April 25, May 2, 9 and 16 on CBS Sports Network.

The Shockers finished second in both the men’s and women’s competition in 2022 after winning both titles in 2021. 

Wichita State University’s Environmental Finance Center is one of 17 locations selected to establish an Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (EJ TCTAC). This new center will promote environmental and energy justice in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and adjoining Indigenous nations.

Each of the EJ TCTACs will receive at least $10 million over the next five years from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy.