Category: Featured Stories

Wichita State University graduate student and high jumper Marissa Jensen loves staying busy, so she starts her days at 4 a.m.

She works as a coach at a cross-fit gym from 5 to 7 a.m. Then it is time for class and studies. Track and field practices takes up her afternoons.

Wichita State is one of 10 teams that advanced to the spring semester competition in the NASA SUITS (Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students) challenge. Teams are tasked to design and build an augmented reality heads-up display for astronauts on missions to Mars, as well as a web browser user interface for local mission control.

Yumi Kikuchi attended an information session in Devlin Hall for the NASA SUITS design challenge last fall. She considered passing on the opportunity.  

“I was like, ‘Wow, this sounds like a lot of work,’” she said. “I’m glad that didn’t discourage me.”  

Kikuchi, a graduate student in Wichita State University’s Master of Innovation Design (MID) program, is now co-leader of the nine-student group. She considers the experience an essential part of her time in the MID program. 

As Wichita State grad student Sai Karthik Garnepudi watched the Wichita State University Cricket Club grow in these past several years, the lack of a convenient place to play has limited its potential.

That has changed with the opening of a field at Dr. Glen Dey Park, located about two miles from campus, at 2801 N. Grove. The club held a groundbreaking in April and an opening ceremony May 17. Garnepudi, who is working on his doctoral degree in cybersecurity, said he hopes to hold matches starting this month.

Garnepudi started the project last fall with WSU Campus Recreation and Wichita Park & Recreation Director Troy Houtman. Campus Recreation paid for the concrete pad at the new field. Cricket is played on a circular area and requires a diameter of roughly 150 yards.

As humanity begins to return to the moon and farther beyond, new technologies will need to be invented to assist in sustainable, long-term human-helmed missions. To help develop this technology, NASA has awarded a $133,342 grant to Wichita State University to research a more cost-effective detector for harmful radiation from space.

The grant is part of a nearly $1.5 million program that is funding 24 projects across 21 organizations and institutions. Awardees will also work with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as part of the grant.

The military brought Morgan Campbell and her family to Wichita, and she decided to make it her home. She has earned a master’s degree in social work, and she plans “to promote safety, growth and opportunities” for families in her practice.

Sierra Marie Bonn struggled to balance her work and education, but with the help of scholarships from the Miss Kansas Organization, she was able to earn an undergraduate and graduate degree from Wichita State University. She graduates with her Master of Innovation Design and following graduation, she will compete in the 2024 Miss Kansas Competition and continue working on the non-profit organization she founded while she was a student, Let’s Go Full STEAM Ahead.

Christen Brouillette came to Wichita State University from Texas, which they found hard to transition to, but with the help of peers, faculty and the resources available at WSU, they were able to find success. They hope to work as a historian or archivist following graduation.

The military brought Morgan Campbell and her family to Wichita, and she decided to make it her home. She has earned a master’s degree in social work, and she plans “to promote safety, growth and opportunities” for families in her practice.

As a full-time employee of Wichita State University, Gabriel Fonseca struggled to balance work, classes and a personal life while he pursued his doctoral degree; but, ultimately, the support of the university community helped him persevere.

With two young children at home, U.S. Air Force Major Jade Driggs needed to learn to ask and accept help from others while she was working toward her Ph.D. in human factors psychology. She chose Wichita State University for its impressive human factors psychology program and the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.