Category: Featured Stories

With the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, Wichita State’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory will soon be expanding its focus to become a full microbiology laboratory.

The lab’s evolution will give students more opportunities for applied learning, boost research capabilities and help fill a gap for medical testing across the state.

Wichita State senior Alyssa Pfeifer took an elective film class in high school as a break from academics she considered more stressful. It didn’t take long for film to become her passion. She made short films, entered competitions, and experimented with cameras and lighting on music videos.

Now at WSU’s Shocker Studios, students like Pfeifer have even more opportunities to hone their skills with a state-of-the-art, 700-square-foot editing suite for their video projects. The studio features theater lighting and seating, a 4K digital cinema compliant projector and a 200-inch screen. Students work on PCs and Mac Studios. It is equipped with DaVinci Resolve Color Panels, and keyboards are hot-keyed for Adobe Premiere Pro and/or DaVinci Resolve.

A user experience (UX) Austin research firm has discovered a secret ingredient in its recipe for success: Wichita State students.

Human Interfaces is a boutique firm that specializes in user UX research and has an impressive client list that includes Fitbit, Amazon, HP and Dell, to name a few.

The partnership between Wichita State and Human Interfaces began about a decade ago when the founder of the company, Dr. Greg Liddell, was working with Dr. Barb Chaparro, former Wichita State professor of human factors and director of the Software Usability Research Lab.

The Great Plains has often been overlooked in the history books of North America, but recent discoveries made by a team of Wichita State University archaeologists are rewriting the history of where the beating heart of North American actually was in the pre-historic era before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.

According to research findings by Dr. Don Blakeslee, professor of anthropology and archaeologist at Wichita State, it turns out that the Great Plains was much bigger and much more politically and economically influential in North America than previously thought.

Los Angeles-based indie pop band SAINT MOTEL will perform in concert at Wichita State at 8 p.m. Friday, April 14 in Charles Koch Arena. 

Ticket prices are $10 for WSU students, $25 for WSU faculty/staff and $35 for general public. This concert is for those 18 and older. Tickets can be purchased online. 

Formed while attending film school in Southern California, SAINT MOTEL’s kaleidoscopic sound and inventive live performances have earned the band a loyal fanbase that flock to its headlining shows and standout sets at festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.  

Wichita State University’s chapter for Society of Professional Engineers will host Noche de Ciencias for Wichita Public School students and their families, from 4:30 to 6:45 p.m. Thursday, March 30 at Wichita North High School, 1437 N. Rochester St.

This is a free event to introduce Hispanic students to STEM education and career opportunities.

Paul Mills walked on the court at Charles Koch Arena as head coach of the Shockers for the first time on Thursday. He is well acquainted with the building, however, and how Wichita State fans can fill seats and affect games.

“Having been here a few times, I understand the decibel levels that it gets,” he said. “Because I was on the wrong side of those levels, and the people here, the passionate fanbase, the rich history, the winning tradition made this a no-brainer for my family.”

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director Steven Dettelbach and Senator Jerry Moran recently visited Wichita State University to announce plans for a unique new National Forensic Laboratory at WSU.

The forensic laboratory is a new $75 million facility that will complement the Gun Crime Intelligence Center of Excellence (GCIC) and National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) Correlation and Training Center (NNCTC II), which were announced last summer.

Ayshea Banes took a passion for astronomy and ran with it, taking any opportunity to immerse herself in her newly chosen field. One of those opportunities occurred this past January, when Banes was chosen to present at the American Astronomical Society’s annual meeting in Seattle.

Banes’ presentation focused on neutrinos, which are particles that rarely interact with any other matter in the universe — specifically her research on the neutrinos coming from the galactic core of the Milky Way galaxy.

Kyan Caudillo is a biology major at Wichita State University and minoring in chemistry. His experience working at WSU’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory will help him as he studies and prepares to work in the medical field.

More than 5,000 Shockers each year take what they’ve learned in the classroom and transfer that knowledge into real-world environments. Applied learning — which is required for every Wichita State student — happens in offices, factories, laboratories, nonprofits, industries and companies across the globe. Students work side-by-side with seasoned professionals to ensure that they’re fully prepared to make meaningful contributions to their employers and their communities when they graduate.