Category: News

The Graduate Programs in Business at the Barton School of Business recently brought undergraduate and graduate students together for the Barton School’s Business Challenge. This event was an immersive, interdisciplinary case competition designed to strengthen collaboration, analytical thinking and real-world problem solving.

Open to all Barton School majors and minors, the competition drew 48 students across 12 teams. Participants were given one week to independently analyze and develop solutions to a complex business case without the support of faculty or outside advisors. The case, centered on a fictitious Riverfest scenario, was written by Barton School faculty member Justin Keeler.

Meet the teams that placed:

First place team:

• Julia Stark
• Don Philips
• Mikhail Lindsay
• Robert Lang

Second place team:

• Megana Paramal Viswanathan
• Takudzwa Nhamo
• Teseandre Hamilton

Third place team:

• Marysol Montiel
• Justin Van
• Ashira Kelly

More than 2,400 students are eligible to participate in Wichita State University’s 128th spring commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15 and Saturday, May 16 in Charles Koch Arena. There will be four ceremonies to celebrate the graduates:

Friday, May 15: Graduate ceremony

• All graduate degrees will be awarded at 7 p.m. Friday, May 15. The featured speaker will be Aishah Alhomsi, president of Wichita State’s Graduate Student Association.

Saturday, May 16: Undergraduate ceremonies

• 9 a.m. — Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Fine Arts and the Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College. The featured speaker will be Sarah Kephart, a leader in inclusive arts education and an accessibility advocate.
• 1 p.m. — The College of Applied Studies and the College of Health Professions with featured speaker Marc Farha, co-CEO of CAA ICON.
• 5 p.m. — The W. Frank Barton School of Business and the College of Engineering with featured speaker Richard Dinkel, executive vice president CFO of Koch Inc.

The 22nd annual Graduate Research and Scholarly Project (GRASP) Symposium was on April 24 in Woolsey Hall. 90 graduate students presented their research to faculty and staff in conjunction with URCAF. Congratulations to all GRASP presenters and thank you to all judges, volunteers and faculty mentors.

This year’s awardees were as follows:

Oral presentations:

Winner: Marawan Rohayem, mechanical engineering master’s student advised by Dr. Ramazan Asmatulu, for the presentation entitled “Low-Speed Impact Damage Sensing in Aircraft Radomes via Gold Nanofilm-Integrated Nomex Honeycomb Core Sandwich Composites”

People’s Choice winner: Rahmat Safdar, biomedical engineering doctoral student advised by Dr. Nils Hakansson, for the presentation entitled “Developing A Novel Contact Modeling Framework for Dynamic Human Rolling Simulations”

Poster presentations:

• First place: Brooks Hartsock, doctoral student in applied mathematics – physics track, advised by Dr. Nick Solomey, for the poster entitled “Determining Simulation Correction Factors for Tungsten-Doped 3D Printed Radiation Shields”
• Second place: Kiora Joseph, aerospace engineering doctoral student, advised by Dr. Nadia Kianvashrad, for the poster entitled “Frequency and Heated Region Shape Effects on the Physics of Mach 2 Flow Over a Hemisphere Cylinder”
• Third place and People’s Choice winner: Timmerie Henke, Alex Meyer and Christina Wilk, anthropology master’s students, advised by Dr. Crystal Dozier, for their poster “Archaeological Analysis of Burnt Animal Bone: A Case Study on Faunal Remains for Fuel Use and Cooking Techniques at Etzanoa”

From May 4 through May 7, Wichita State is hosting Food for Fines, a program that allows students to have parking or traffic citations forgiven by donating items to support the Kiah Duggins Shocker Support Locker.

If you have a citation, you can participate by donating nonperishable food or hygiene items instead of paying your fine. Citation forgiveness is based on donation level: for citations between $0 and $50, donate 10 to 15 nonperishable food or hygiene items. For $45 tickets, donate two household or hygiene items. For $75 tickets, donate one baby item

On Friday, April 24 in Woolsey Hall, 70 undergraduate students presented their research to faculty and staff in conjunction with GRASP. Students competed in three categories, “Natural Sciences and Engineering,” “Social Sciences and Humanities” and “Creative Activity and Performance.” Students had the option to present orally or with a poster. Creative activities included presentations of music composition and live performance.

Cash awards will be presented to first and second place winners. Thank you to all judges, volunteers and faculty mentors. Congratulations to all URCAF participants. Abstracts will soon be made available in the Shocker Open Access Repository.

Natural Sciences and Engineering:

• First place: Elliott Chambon, Nicholas Atanasio, Drew Perez, Korben Schrotberger, “Student Designed, NASA Approved: WSU’s Next Gen Spacewalk Tool”
• Second place: Jonathan Nichols, “Remnants of the deep: a preliminary map of mafic enclaves near the vent of Big Obsidian Flow, Newberry Caldera, Central Oregon”
• Third place: Lauren Hughes, “What’s Linker Got To Do With It? Examining the Mechanical Stability of Palladin’s Ig3-4 Linker Region”

Social Sciences and Humanities:

• First place: Conner Murphy, “Quantifying Tillage Intensity as a Contributing Factor to Tillage Erosion at Archaeological Sites in Kansas”
• Second place: Braeden Miller, “Exploring Predictors for Online Disordered Gambling”
• Third place (tie): Grace Brabander, Aubrey Eilers, Addison Francis-Wilcox, Kellen Peri, Samantha Silva, “The Silent Epidemic: Bright Care, Healthy Smiles”
• Third place (tie): Elijah Jenkins, “Self Disclosing Behaviors with Robots”

Creative Activity and Performance:

• First place: Ethan Grohe, “Runnin’ on Fumes – Piece for Unaccompanied Alto Saxophone”
• Second place: Jasper Fast, “Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven?”
• Third place: Sophia Hart, ”Cosmos Laundromat: The Full Process of Scoring a Film”
• Fourth place: Grace Schulze, “Blues and Variations for Monk”

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Wear your suspender shirts on Fridays to support mental health awareness and join in normalizing the practice of prioritizing mental health care without guilt or shame.

WSU employees and students can get their free shirt by completing the Suspenders4Hope #WSUWeSupportU Mental Wellness and Preventing Suicide at suspenders4hope.com.

Free, online mental health and wellness screenings are available to all at wichita.edu/freescreen.

Wichita State University has selected Wichita Northwest High School senior Dulce Torres Gonzalez as the 2026 recipient of the $34,000 Mark and Stacy Parkinson Scholarship.

The Parkinson Scholarship supports high-achieving incoming freshmen at Wichita State who are the first in their families to pursue higher education and come from immigrant or refugee backgrounds. The renewable scholarship provides significant financial assistance and access to mentoring, leadership development and student success programming. Established by Kansans Mark and Stacy Parkinson, the fund reflects their commitment to expanding educational opportunities and strengthening communities through higher education.

The Barton School of Business has appointed Dr. Smita Srivastava as associate dean for faculty and research, reinforcing its commitment to advancing faculty excellence across teaching, research and external engagement.

Srivastava, an associate professor of entrepreneurship and strategy, brings a distinguished record of scholarly achievement and academic leadership focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and strategy. Her research has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, and reflects a strong trajectory toward high-impact scholarship.

The following faculty were approved for sabbaticals:

• Carryl Baldwin, professor – psychology
• Ryan Beeken, professor – music
• Doris Chang, professor – political science
• Maojun Gong, associate professor – chemistry
• William Groutas, professor – chemistry
• Yueh-Ju Lin, associate professor – mathematics, statistics and physics
• Thomas Luhring, associate professor – biological sciences
• Robert Manske, professor – physical therapy
• Aaron Rife, associate professor – education
• Brigitte Roussel, associate professor – modern and classical language and literatures
• Carolyn Shaw, professor – political science

In an effort to support thoughtful and ethical campus adoption of artificial intelligence tools and strategies, Wichita State has launched the WSU Artificial Intelligence Strategy Council and wichita.edu/ai, a hub for AI resources and initiatives at WSU.

This approach will support Wichita State’s student-centered, innovation-driven approach by staying at the forefront of technology and by recognizing the need to provide a framework for the responsible and effective use of AI.

WSU AI Strategy Council

The AI Strategy Council was formed at the request of Provost Monica Lounsbery and in response to KBOR’s goal for this academic year: “State universities will submit a report detailing current initiatives, research, and instructional strategies related to Artificial Intelligence (AI). This effort will help identify best practices, foster collaboration, and position Kansas institutions as leaders in AI-driven education and workforce development.”

The council‘s strategic focus is on proactively guiding the thoughtful, purposeful and ethical implementation of artificial intelligence at Wichita State, ensuring it strengthens learning and workforce readiness for students, faculty and staff; advances research; supports operational effectiveness; protects sensitive data while engaging community and industry partners; and advances Wichita State’s mission and priorities.

The AI Strategy Council comprises faculty and staff from across the university to represent diverse constituencies and AI use cases at WSU, and it engages hundreds more through focus groups, training opportunities and discussion forums to ensure all voices are heard on issues regarding AI. By facilitating campuswide conversations and knowledge sharing around this emerging technology, the council envisions a future‑ready campus that harnesses AI to enhance human potential, prepares students for an evolving workforce and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration.

AI resources

The new artificial intelligence website, wichita.edu/ai, is the hub for current resources at Wichita State to help the campus community utilize AI. Included is:

• More information on Wichita State’s AI strategy, focusing on students, faculty and staff; research; operations; and community and industry partners
• Initiatives at WSU on the front lines of AI adoption and discussion, like the Faculty Senate AI Literacy Task Force, Center for AI Security, Evaluations, Control and Cooperation housed within Industry and Defense Programs, the Responsible AI@ICT group and the Applied AI in Education Lab in the College of Education
• Guides from the Office of Instructional Resources for using AI and for faculty to monitor AI usage in the classroom

Join the conversation

Opportunities for faculty and staff to participate in the conversations and initiatives surrounding AI at WSU, including working groups that support specific focus areas, will continue to expand. Keep an eye on WSU Today as further information is shared regarding these working groups and more.

For questions, ideas and opportunities to get involved with WSU’s AI strategy and implementation, reach out to the AI Strategy Council at ai@wichita.edu.

Additionally, WSU is committed to supporting the community and industry partners in using AI in their operations, and organizations interested in learning more can complete the contact form located on the AI website.