Campus Connection: Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Weather Awareness

Kansas participating in Severe Weather Preparedness Week March 4-8

In conjunction with the National Weather Service, the State of Kansas will participate in the Severe Weather Preparedness Week from March 4 to 8. At 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 6, Sedgwick County Emergency Management Services will sound the severe weather sirens throughout the county.

All personnel — faculty, staff, students and guests — are expected to go to a designated shelter until the all clear is given. This drill will be educational for all involved and provide those overseeing campus safety a way of evaluating the effectiveness of WSU’s emergency preparedness during a tornado. Go to the Wichita State Tornado Shelters webpage to learn more about what to do during a tornado warning and to locate your designated shelter.

For more information, contact Andrew Clem, Environmental, Health and Safety Department director, at 316-978-7904 or email andrew.clem@wichita.edu.

News

Graduate School seeks judges for GRASP Symposium

The Graduate School is seeking faculty, staff and community volunteers to judge during the poster session of the 2024 Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) Symposium Friday, April 26 in the Rhatigan Student Center Ballroom.

The Graduate School is counting on volunteer services this year, and this will give volunteers an excellent opportunity to learn about the research graduate students have been engaged in across campus.

Barton School and Envision Arts partnership continues with new art installation

The Barton School of Business has installed a new art exhibit in partnership with the Envision Arts Program. Gretchen Howarth is the latest artist who is visually impaired to be showcased on the third floor of the Barton School.

“The Envision Arts installation has become a stalwart exhibit at Woolsey Hall,” said Dr. Duane Nagel, senior associate dean of the Barton School of Business. “It is a true inspiration to everyone.”

Howarth is legally blind with much of her vision gradually lost to Stargardt, a genetic eye disorder that causes progressive vision loss. This disorder creates thousands of holes in the retina. For Howarth, she sees through “a galaxy of tiny dots” and has no center focus.

Learn more about the new installation

Podcasts

Create Space podcast features a multidisciplinary collaboration between two departments in Fairmount College

Jessica Newman, assistant educator in the Elliott School of Communication, produces and hosts the podcast Create Space. The show focuses on creativity and storytelling and has featured WSU faculty, students and alums.

Presentations and Talks

Matthew Howland will give next physics seminar talk March 6

Join the Department of Physics for its next physics seminar talk at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 in 128 Jabara Hall and also on Zoom.

The talk features Matthew Howland, assistant professor of anthropology and director of the Geospatial Archaeology Laboratory.

Learn more about the physics seminar

Dr. Lindsey Churchill to give International Women’s Day Lecture March 7

The Department of Women’s, Ethnicity, and International Studies invites the campus community to the 2024 International Women’s Day lecture from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7 in 305/306 Rhatigan Student Center, Beggs Ballroom.

Dr. Lindsey Churchill, associate professor of history and geography from the University of Central Oklahoma, will talk on “From Incels to Only Fans: Radicalization, Liberation, Sexualization, and Ambiguity Online and Beyond.”

This event is open to faculty, staff, students and the wider Wichita-area public.

Department of History to host spring lecture March 6

The Department of History invites the campus community to hear Dr. Andrew Orr, associate professor of history at Kansas State University, present the lecture, “The Gay Girl in Damascus: Stolen Identities, Western Progressivism, and the Arab Spring” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 in 218 Hubbard Hall.

Learn more about living off land in outer space with Alex Ellery at Interstellar Seminar

Dr. Alex Ellery, a mechanical and aerospace engineer from Carleton University in Ottawa, will join Interstellar Seminar from 2:30 to 3:20 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 in 104 Jabara Hall and online to discuss in-situ resource utilization, space manufacturing and the interplanetary economy.

Regenerating spacecraft during multigenerational voyages, when there is no chance of resupply, requires ingenuity, planning and flexible additive manufacturing.

Ellery’s work touches on space robotics, biomimetic design, autonomous systems, lunar mining and self-regenerating von Neumann probes. Find zoom details and an archive of past Interstellar Seminars on the Wichita Space Initiative webpage (wichita.edu/space).

Events

Innovation Campus invited to meditation sessions

Join other Innovation Campus employees in two short meditation sessions held in-person and online starting Jan. 30. Sessions will be held from 2 to 2:30 p.m. each Tuesday in the Defiance Room on the first floor of the NetApp building, across the cafeteria, and are offered free of charge to Innovation Campus partners.

Can’t join right at 2 p.m.? Each Tuesday there will be two meditations, one starting around 2:05 p.m. and the second starting around 2:20. Come for both or just one.

In-person sessions this spring:

Jan. 30
Feb. 6
Feb. 20
Feb. 27
March 5
March 26

Prefer to attend online? Get the link on the OIR website. The session on March 19 is online only.

ODI celebrates literature by women for Women’s History Month

Join the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) and student organization Shelf Care in celebrating the women who wrote history from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, March 8 in 266 Rhatigan Student Center, Pike Room, for Women’s History Month.

Honor women authors from various genres, eras and nationalities with an interactive display and bookmark making. The presentation by Shelf Care is at 4 p.m. with free snacks and a chance to win a prize.

Stay tuned for more Women’s History Month events from ODI.

Learn how to craft an NSF pitch at webinar March 27

Learn about best practices and strategies to help you craft a compelling National Science Foundation (NSF) project pitch from 10 to 11 a.m. March 27 via Zoom.

The workshop will include tips to help you meet requirements of the project pitch’s four key elements: Technology innovation, technical objectives and challenges, market opportunity, and the company and team.

For questions, reach out to WSU Strategic Initiatives at 316-978-5363 or email strategicinitiatives@wichita.edu.

Learn more about register