In recognition of its strong commitment to economic engagement, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) recently designated Wichita State University as an Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) University.

The national designation acknowledges public research universities working with public and private sector partners in their states and regions to support economic development through a variety of activities, including innovation and entrepreneurship, technology transfer, talent and workforce development, and community development.

"This designation affirms what we’ve known all along as Kansas’ premier urban public research university," said WSU President Rick Muma.

A research team led by researchers with Wichita State’s College of Engineering and Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a proposal that they hope will help expand the role of telehealth for cardiovascular care in older adults.

The project also includes Dr. Jung Sim Jun, Kansas State University social work associate professor, Dr. Bassem M. Chehab, a cardiology specialist at Cardiovascular Consultants of Kansas, and Bryan Hahlbeck, state, local government and higher education client executive.

The Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) at Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) opened the new Solvay Manufacturing Innovation Center this fall.

Within the new joint center for ATLAS and Solvay, companies will be able to fabricate entire aircraft structures such as wings and fuselages at a fraction of the cost of making it themselves. Using automated and high-rate processing with smart and agile manufacturing technologies, Solvay and NIAR engineers will work hand-in-hand with customers to test ideas and innovative structures in real time.

These capabilities help to increase the adoption of composites and allow aviation companies to meet increased performance and efficiency targets.

Since the early 20th century, road salt has been saving lives on highways across the nation, but its liberal use also presents significant consequences for wildlife and human health.

An interdisciplinary team of Wichita State researchers is working to curb pollution and damage caused by road salt.

Their project — ECO-CBET: Convergent Electrolysis-Electrodialysis System (CEES) to Curb Urban Chloride Pollution by Eco-friendly Road Deicing and Waste Salt Upcycling — was recently awarded $1.4 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The FirePoint Innovations Center at Wichita State wrapped up the second year of its Future Innovators Program, an engineering internship opportunity that provides some of America’s brightest engineers from historically under-represented communities the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects and programs that directly support the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC) and the Department of Defense (DoD).

The program is a partnership between FirePoint, AvMC, Tuskegee University and Prairie View A&M University, connecting students from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to multiple internship opportunities.

As Wichita State University celebrates record enrollment, the university is bolstering its student success initiatives to increase graduation rates.

As part of those efforts, the National Science Foundation has awarded WSU researchers $750,000 to increase persistence rates among low-income engineering students, particularly those who are interested in advanced manufacturing careers.

Neutrinos are on the short list of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics, and Wichita State University researchers are taking a lead role in investigating them.

This fall, Wichita State students Jarred Novak and Trent English presented papers on the design of their neutrino detector prototype at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, representing the NASA-funded Solar Neutrino Orbiting Laboratory Detector Development Project.

The grant project, “Cube-sat Space Flight Test of a Neutrino Detector,” will allow Dr. Nick Solomey’s team to design a solar probe to look for neutrinos.

Solomey, a physics professor at Wichita State, and his research collaborators earned a $2 million grant from NASA in 2021 to improve a future solar mission's technological readiness level.

Learn more at wichita.edu/research.

Learn more at wichita.edu/innovation.

Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling almost 22,000 students between its main campus and WSU Tech, including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student centered and innovation driven.

 

Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students.

 

The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing more than 120 acres, and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.