Category: Research

Are you nearing publication of your research or has your research been recently published? Let the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing know for consideration in WSU Today and Research & Innovation News, WSU’s bi-monthly research newsletter that is sent out to WSU’s peer research universities.

If you’ve had your research published within the last six months, or expect to be published soon, email the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing at strategic.comm@wichita.edu with the subject “Research,” and include:

• The title of your research
• Publication date
• A brief description of your research/abstract
• A link to where readers can find it online or a citation

Reach out early to the Office of Research, as soon as you have identified a potential funding opportunity that you wish to apply for. Early notifications allow the Office of Research to minimize the risk of missing agency deadlines, to fix potential errors, to ensure compliance with WSU policies and procedures, and to ensure the best service from the office.

For access to WSU’s Pivot account to search for funding opportunities, sign up and affiliate with Wichita State using your wichita.edu email address. To request assistance with a customized search, contact funding@wichita.edu. If you are asked to collaborate on a externally sponsored project or if you find a potential funding opportunity, email proposals@wichita.edu as soon as possible so that a grant specialist may be assigned to assist.

Visit Pre-Award Services to find out more about applying for external funding.

The First Year Research Experience (FYRE in STEM) is open to new students from all majors. Through a competitive application process, students are matched with ongoing research projects led by professors in numerous STEM disciplines. Selected students will participate in active laboratory research in the spring 2025 semester, culminating in a poster presentation about their work.

The FYRE applications are due Oct. 11 with interviews and selection occurring in November. Students earn three hours of Honors credit and a letter grade for successful completion of FYRE in the spring 2025 semester. Through the FYRE program, students gain perspectives about research and mentoring for developing their career plan.

Questions may be directed to FYRE Program Director Dr. Moriah Beck at moriah.beck@wichita.edu or call 316-978-5476.

Proposals are due to the Office of Research for both the University Research/Creative Award (URCA) and the Multidisciplinary Research Project Awards (MURPA) projects no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4.

The URCA opportunity provides funding of up to $4,500 for faculty to retool or reestablish productive research/creative projects or as seed money to develop pilot data where external funding is available. The MURPA opportunity provides funding of up to $7,500 for faculty projects that involve two or more investigators from different disciplines that focus different perspectives and capabilities on complex problems that intersect established areas of study.

Proposers must work with a grant specialist in the Office of Research prior to submission and all complete applications require an endorsement from the chair and dean. Incomplete or late applications will not be reviewed or considered. Contact proposals@wichita.edu early to get started or visit the internal grants website for additional information.

Did you know that WSU provides funding for faculty research and creative activity projects? The Faculty Support Committee encourages faculty to explore this year’s URCA, MURPA and ARCS opportunities.

Funding ranges from $4,000 up to $7,500 for multi-disciplinary projects. These opportunities are perfect for faculty looking to retool or reestablish productive research/creative projects or as seed money to develop pilot data where external funding is available. The first opportunity deadline for the 2024-25 academic year is in October, so check out the Internal Grants Opportunity webpage for more information.

WSU is starting a group aural wellness program for seniors. The program consists of eight, two-hour weekly sessions during the fall and spring semesters. These sessions will include information about hearing, hearing aids, communication strategies and have speakers from the community discuss their experiences. It is looking for six individuals and their communication partners (spouse, friend, family member) to enroll. Throughout the program, participants will complete several surveys and have their hearing aids tested.

Those interested in the study or have questions can contact Dr. Katharine Fitzharris (katharine.fitzharris@wichita.edu) or Dr. Cynthia Richburg (cynthia.richburg@wichita.edu).

There is no cost for this program, and no compensation will be provided for this study.

Wichita State students and faculty have access to a wide range of computational resources, locally and through regional and national partnerships. Make the most of these powerful tools to boost your research and projects at no cost.

Local resources:

• BeoShock – Wichita State: The BeoShock High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster at WSU provides computational resources to students and faculty, as well as KBOR constituents outside of WSU. To request an HPC account, visit the HPC user access request page. For further information, visit the HPC website or contact the HPC director at WSU, Dr. Terrance Figy, at terrance.figy@wichita.edu.
  

  If you are new to HPC, the best resource to start with is BeoShock HPC system. Once you educate yourself about HPC and your computing needs grow, you are welcome to explore the following large-scale computing clusters.

• Ryan Doll and Terrance Figy via Award Abstract # 2346097, “CC* Planning: Establishing a Sustainable Framework for High-Performance Computing Growth at Wichita State University,” are formulating plans for the next generation of advanced computing resources. If you would like to be involved or have opinions, contact either Terrance Figy (terrance.figy@wichita.edu) or Ryan Doll (ryan.doll@wichita.edu).

Regional resources:

• Pete – Oklahoma State University: The Pete Supercomputer at Oklahoma State University offers advanced computational resources and data storage, accessible to students and faculty at WSU to support diverse research initiatives.
• New computing resource coming soon
  This is an outcome of a collaborative effort among Wichita State University, Oklahoma State University and six other institutions in the OAK region, resulting in the MRI award for the “Acquisition of a High-Performance Computational System for OAK Region to Enable Computing and Data-Driven Discovery.”
• BeoCat – Kansas State University: Beocat, a high-performance computing cluster at Kansas State University operated by the Institute for Computational Research, offers free access to any educational researcher in Kansas and their collaborators.

National resources:

• Open Science Grid: The Open Science Grid facilitates high-throughput computing, enabling the parallel execution of numerous tasks or simulations that demand substantial computational resources over extended periods.
• ACCESS: ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support) supports computational- and data-intensive research with resources like HPC clusters, virtualization clusters and massive storage clusters. For account creation and resource information, contact Campus Champion Dr. Terrance Figy at terrance.figy@wichita.edu.
• NRP: The National Research Platform (NRP) is a heterogeneous, nationally distributed, open system that includes different types of processors: standard CPUs, GPUs optimized for different precision levels and FPGAs. It has two types of setups at three locations: one for high-performance tasks and two optimized for specific types of GPUs. This setup supports various tasks like data science, simulations and machine learning or AI. It also allows easy data access through a large, connected network that shares content across the country.
  

   

  
  

Did you know that WSU provides funding for faculty research and creative activity projects? The Faculty Support Committee encourages you to explore this year’s URCA, MURPA and ARCS opportunities.

Funding ranges from $4,000 up to $7,500 for multi-disciplinary projects. These opportunities are perfect for faculty looking to retool or reestablish productive research/creative projects or as seed money to develop pilot data where external funding is available.

The first opportunity deadline for the 2024-25 academic year is in October, so check out the Internal Grants Opportunity webpage for more information today.

Wichita State researchers are looking for participants for NASA-funded human subjects research. The purpose of this study is to assess the functionality and wearability of a newly developed wireless and flexible skin-wearable photoplethysmography device for cardiovascular health monitoring.

For the ambulatory monitoring test, the participant will be asked to wear the skin-wearable device on different body sites (e.g., forehead, chest, wrist and ankle) and conduct physical activities including walking and jogging.

For the lower body negative pressure test, the participant will wear multiple skin-wearable devices on different body sites (e.g., forehead, chest, wrist, and ankle) and place his or her lower body in a lower body negative pressure camber. The chamber pressure will be lowered by 10 mmHg every 10 minutes until the pressure reaches negative 40 mmHg compared to the atmospheric pressure. After the data collection, the chamber pressure will gradually return to the atmospheric pressure. It is totally safe.

You can select one test to participate in. Before conducting the test, the research team will explain the details of the test to get signed consent form.

This study is reviewed and approved by IRB (study# 5192).

• Participants must be age 20 to 35.
• Participants should not have any known cardiovascular diseases.
• Participants should not have low resting blood pressure (less than 100/60 mm Hg).
• Participants should not have mobility or activity difficulty.
• Participants should not have memory problems.
• Participants must shave skin hair if necessary.

For the ambulatory monitoring test, you will receive up to $100 Greenphire ClinCard for your participation.

For the lower body negative pressure test, you will receive up to $200 Greenphire ClinCard for your participation.

If you are interested in participating in this study, please contact Dr. Yongkuk Lee by email yongkuk.lee@wichita.edu or phone (316) 978-7670.

Wichita Public Schools (USD 259) requests a minimum of 30 business days to process letters of support or participation in research. It is WSU’s responsibility to have appropriate support from the school(s)/personnel that will be involved in the project prior to submitting a request.

Letters of support/grant proposals: WSU personnel who need a letter of support or USD 259 participation on a grant proposal should complete the External-Request for Grant Support form and are encouraged to reach out directly to Holly Wilson at hwilson@usd259.net early in the process for questions/clarification.

Research requests: WSU personnel who want to conduct research in USD 259 must download and complete the Research Request Document. Investigators are encouraged to reach out directly to Will Graves at wgraves@usd259.net early in the process for questions/clarifications.

As a reminder, all proposals submitted on behalf of WSU must be reviewed by the Office of Research prior to submission. This includes proposals where WSU is a direct recipient of funds and proposals where WSU is a proposed subawardee/subcontractor. Contact the Office of Research at proposals@wichita.edu to get started.