RESEARCH & INNOVATION NEWS
| | Wichita State's NIAR receives patent for composite part inspection robot | |
Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) has been granted a patent for a newly developed composite inspection robot.
The machine, dubbed VISION, is an autonomous and semi-autonomous cell for inspecting composite parts, and verifying and facilitating part repairs. VISION, the main industrial robot carrying out the inspections, automatically attaches to a set of interchangeable inspection and repair end effectors to carry out its processes.
For other features, the cell can be equipped with fixtures for supporting rotorcraft and rotating blades, and over time, a software applicant can use past inspection data to train the machine to recognize damage to composite parts based on inspection images.
| | Wichita Biomedical Campus marks one year since its groundbreaking | |
May 8 marked the one-year anniversary of the Wichita Biomedical Campus Phase 1 groundbreaking, signaling the beginning of a game-changing project among Wichita State, WSU Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech), and the University of Kansas that will revolutionize health care in the state.
In the time since the groundbreaking, the vision and promise of the Wichita Biomedical Campus has expanded greatly. Read more about the past year.
Currently, steel is continuing to be placed and concrete is poured every day, causing the building to take shape downtown. You can watch a continuous livestream of the construction site online.
Phase 1 of the location is a $222 million, 350,000-square-foot joint health sciences center, in downtown Wichita. Once complete, the Wichita Biomedical Campus will combine WSU’s College of Health Professions programs, WSU Tech’s health care program and the Wichita campuses of KU School of Medicine and KU School of Pharmacy.
| | Wichita State, Dassault Systèmes launch innovation center to advance virtual design, automation and additive manufacturing | |
Wichita State University and longtime Innovation Campus partner Dassault Systèmes celebrated the grand opening of the Manufacturing Innovation Center, an advanced research and design facility located on WSU’s Innovation Campus May 21.
Developed in partnership with WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), the center is designed to help aviation companies of all sizes improve resilience and efficiency using virtual twin technology and 3D design solutions. The Manufacturing Innovation Center is a world-class research and design facility available to private-sector project teams that want hands-on proof of what the virtual world can do for their design processes, supply chains and manufacturing facilities.
Demonstrations at the facility will include:
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eXtended Reality (XR) Lab – Experience immersive, full-scale simulation in the world’s largest flexible VR cave
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Automation Research Center – Explore advanced robotic systems and intelligent automation at scale, demonstrating real-world manufacturing integration
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Reverse Engineering Lab – From physical to virtual: agile part re-creation and inspection workflows
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Additive Manufacturing Lab – Scalable 3D printing for functional prototyping and production
| | Wichita State, Connected Nations, Newby Ventures break ground on new Internet Exchange Point at WSU | |
Representatives from Wichita State University, Connected Nations, Newby Ventures, the city of Wichita and the state of Kansas gathered May 15 at the site of Kansas’ first Internet Exchange Point (IXP), located at Wichita State.
“Connected Nations was founded on the premise that everyone should have the opportunity to change their lives and their communities regardless of who they are, where they are or how they begin,” said Tom Ferree, chairman and CEO of Connected Nations, at the groundbreaking.
The IXP will increase high-speed internet accessibility, affordability and performance for WSU, Shocker Neighborhood and many others across the Kansas region.
| | From law enforcement to mentorship: WSU professor is shaping research and student success | |
Dr. Michael Birzer built his first career in law enforcement, rising through the ranks of the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Department while quietly discovering a deeper passion for research and education. That unexpected interest helped him launch a second career shaped by a relentless drive to understand and improve the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
“I realized I loved college, and when I started getting involved in research, everything just clicked," said Birzer, a professor in Wichita State’s Cohen Honors College and the School of Criminal Justice.
That realization led him to pursue a doctoral degree in Oklahoma while working full-time in law enforcement, commuting several times a week to complete his studies. Eventually, Birzer made the leap into higher education, joining Wichita State University in 2004.
| | New data literacy curriculum, developed as part of WSU professor’s NSF grant, empowers high schoolers to think like scientists | |
High schoolers don’t often get to see what real science is being done every day by researchers. Worst case scenario is that they are dealing with abstract numbers that don’t have any real-world parallels.
But with the help of Dr. Thomas Luhring, assistant professor of biological sciences at Wichita State University, students will not only get to work with active data acquired by a real scientist, but the data also will have implications in their neighborhoods.
The opportunity comes through Galactic Polymath — a platform developed by Dr. Matt Wilkins in 2021 to help bridge the gap between scientists with classrooms — and Luhring’s NSF CAREER grant. The platform is now home to a module, free for all teachers to use in their curriculum, on data literacy, which allows students to explore and analyze real datasets to practice their skills.
| | NIAR fiber patch placement research earns SAMPE technical paper award | |
A team of researchers from Wichita State University’s National Institute of Aviation Research (NIAR) received second place in the Outstanding Technical Paper Awards from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE).
The technical paper, titled “Design Optimization and Analysis Validation of Complex Composite Parts Manufactured using Fiber Patch Placement,” was written by Dr. Waruna Seneviratne, director of NIAR’s Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS), Jerome Teoh, ATLAS analyst and research engineer and Swetha Thirumurugan, ATLAS aerospace manufacturing and research engineer.
| | Barton School’s Spero program secures funding for year 2 expansion | |
After an inaugural year, Spero has secured funding for its second year, thanks to private and corporate partners and a reinvestment by the Charles Koch Foundation. Housed within the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University, Spero — Latin for "hope" — helps individuals achieve lasting independence through skill-building and access to meaningful employment. In its first year, it became both the first micro-credential program in WSU’s history and the first 1EdTech TrustEd Micro-credential program in the world.
“I am proud of the impact Spero has already made in helping community members who need it most,” said Dr. Larisa Genin, dean of the Barton School and executive director of Spero. “With the continued support of the Charles Koch Foundation and the commitment from new donors, we look forward to expanding the growth opportunities for our students.”
| | Shocker alum creates business pioneering recycling composites, manufacturing materials | Wichita State University’s commitment to fostering innovation is transforming high-potential student research into real-world impact. A compelling example is Shocker Composites, a startup founded by Vamsidhar (Vamsi) Patlolla, a former Ph.D. student at Wichita State. The company is pioneering recycling of composites and manufacturing parts with 100% sustainable materials that are lasting longer in the field thanks to innovation born in the lab and powered by university support. | | Research at Wichita State | | | | |
With yearly funding topping $400 million, research at Wichita State ranges from bioscience, chemistry and engineering to mathematics, physics and ancient civilization.
Learn more at wichita.edu/research.
| | Innovation at Wichita State | | | | |
Innovation is more than just talk at WSU. It permeates everything we do, all we aspire to become and reaches far beyond our campus boundaries.
Learn more at wichita.edu/innovation.
| | STUDENT CENTERED. INNOVATION DRIVEN. | | |
About Wichita State University
Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 23,000 students between its main campus and WSU Tech, including students from every state in the United States 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 National Science Foundation ranked WSU No. 1 in the nation for aerospace engineering R&D, No. 2 for industry-funded engineering R&D and No. 8 overall for engineering R&D.
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.
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