Wichita State News: Technology

WSU's Ravi Pendse takes position at Brown University

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 10:14:00 CST

Ravi Pendse

Ravi Pendse, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Wichita State University, has been named vice president for computing and information services at Brown University.

He will begin his duties at Brown on Sept. 1.

A specialist in computer networking and information technology in higher education, Pendse has served in a number of information technology areas, from library systems to digital classroom design and comprehensive campus IT planning.

He is a Cisco Fellow and tenured full professor in Wichita State's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Pendse regularly teaches courses and has won awards for teaching excellence, including the Academy for Effective Teaching Award.

As vice president for information technology and chief information officer at WSU since 2011, Pendse has led a number of successful interdepartmental collaborations that have developed a broad implementation of IT resources on campus.

Wichita State became 100 percent wireless in August 2007, connecting all academic and administrative buildings and residence halls. Pendse also led a faculty task force that developed IT-equipped classrooms and standardized the user interface.

"Ravi has great talent, and while I very much hate to lose him, Brown University is a world class university that obviously has recognized his ability," Wichita State President John Bardo said. "It also should be noted that Ravi's Ph.D. is from WSU, so one of our graduates will now assume a major role in an Ivy League university. All of us at WSU wish him well and look forward to seeing his career continue to blossom."

Heart app highlights ties between WSU, inventors

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 08:20:00 CST

Jeremy Patterson and Jibo He are inventors creating an app they call the Heart R8.

As in "heart rate."

It can read heart pulses in peoples' faces. It can tell what your heart rate is even with no electrodes hooked to your chest.

Patterson, who has a doctorate in physical exercise, says the Heart R8 could be a nifty invention for the fitness industry.

John Tomblin is a fan of Patterson's lab. He says that perhaps the best invention Patterson's lab came up with in the past year is not a webcam app but a new way to do business at a university.

Tomblin has been filling in for several months as WSU'"s acting vice president for research and technology transfer. He said that what Patterson did in recent months, with approval from Tomblin and WSU president John Bardo, is create a new business, with partners including He, another faculty member, a student -- and WSU.

Tomblin's regular job is to run the National Institute for Aviation Research, one of the world's premiere aerospace testing institutes. He's seen many inventions. He's excited about the Heart R8 app but is more intrigued about the partnership.

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Tomblin named interim VP for research and technology transfer

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:54:00 CST

Because of a new emphasis on research and technology transfer, Wichita State University President John Bardo has renamed the Office of Research Administration.

It is now the Office of Research and Technology Transfer. The renamed office will report directly to the president.

John Tomblin

In addition, Bardo announced that John Tomblin will be interim vice president for research and technology transfer effective immediately. Tomblin will continue in his role as executive director of the National Institute for Aviation Research.

Tomblin's role in technology transfer will be expanded to enhance the transfer of intellectual property out of the university, to increase partnerships with businesses, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. It also is the first step in readying the university for potential development of a public/private research and development center on campus.

According to Bardo, Tomblin and the incoming vice president for academic affairs will work closely with the college deans, Faculty Senate and Research Council to assure that the new structure enhances support for faculty and staff researchers.

New tech transfer director

In addition, a director of technology transfer position will be established and a search will begin later this spring.

The director will focus on business spinouts and partnerships. Patenting and licensing will be outsourced to specialists, according to Bardo.

Since becoming president at Wichita State in July 2012, Bardo has emphasized five key areas for development, two of which are research and technology transfer.

"Moving this office to the university level is an important step in enhancing our capacities in these two critical areas," said Bardo. "WSU already does more than $55 million in funded research each year, and we intend to increase that amount substantially.

"At the same time, we recognize that taking the products of research, as well as good ideas from students, faculty and staff to the market to create new businesses and jobs is an important activity for universities today."

Wichita State discovers more with international young minds

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:42:00 CST

Madhulika Srikanth is 24 but looks younger. When John Bardo learned what she's doing at his engineering school, the president of Wichita State University talked about her with bemused pride.

"We've got a young kid working with nanobots to treat cancer," he told people. "She looks young enough, if she ever goes out, she probably gets carded every place she walks in."

Hearing this later, Srikanth grinned. It's actually nanotechnology, and not nanobots, she said. And between classes, lab work and work as a teaching assistant she logs 55 to 60 hours of study and work every week; there's little time for going out.

Besides finding promising leads in cancer treatment research, Srikanth has become for Bardo and other top administrators another example of the value of 1,800 international students studying at or working with WSU. At a university that prides itself on research, she's one of the more promising Ph.D. candidates.

Read full story.

Billions of sensors power vision of interconnected world

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:21:00 CST

A professor at Wichita State University plans to create a university center with an ambitious name: The Center for the Internet of Everything.

Step one: Plant a small garden on campus where plants will message irrigation pipes telling how much water they need.

Ravi Pendse, helped by Internet companies NetApp and Cisco, hopes to create other innovations he says could put WSU in the high-tech big leagues.

The garden will model how to save water and billions of dollars in the world's crops and lawns.

In the second and subsequent steps, Pendse's students and partners would develop innovations linking computers, smartphones, social media and the billions of sensors now being attached to — everything.

Pendse as a technologist has collaborated with NetApp and Cisco for years, creating technology and many WSU graduates who went to work for those companies.

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For this crew, popular program at Cosmosphere always an adventure

Thu, 2 Jun 2011 08:37:00 CST

Minimum wage and long hours of work haven't discouraged those hoping for a shot at becoming space camp counselors at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center's summer educational camps.

There never seems to be a shortage of qualified staff.

"It always amazes me the caliber of the applicants," said Tom Holcomb, education director for the Cosmosphere, on a recent morning.

Staff members include 21-year-old Katie Gillmore, a returning counselor. The Wichita State University pre-med senior and history major envisions a future attending medical school, then hopefully landing a job with NASA, doing medical testing with astronauts.

Michael Staab, 22, also a veteran camper and counselor, credits those experiences with heavily influencing his life. The Wichita State University student is currently in a cooperative education program working at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Despite his busy schedule, he keeps returning to Hutchinson.

"I love this place," said Staab, who was on hand to help with counselor training. "Camp is a different beast. It never gets old."

Read full story.

Leaders converge to grow aviation

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:11:00 CST

Gov. Sam Brownback held his first economic summit in Wichita on Monday, focusing on the aviation industry and what Kansas can do to maintain and grow the sector.

The summit —"Kansas Aviation: Soaring into the Future" — was attended by about 160 leaders from large and small aviation companies, the state's colleges and universities, unions, and local and state government.

More also should be done to help foreign engineering students take jobs with Wichita companies after graduation, leaders said.

A large portion of engineering graduates are ethnically diverse, but companies have to battle bureaucratic obstacles to hire them.

"There has to be an effort to increase the number of visas to international professionals, Brownback said. "That's where the bottleneck lies."

Eighty percent of Wichita State University engineering undergraduates are domestic students, said WSU College of Engineering dean Zulma Toro-Ramos. However, 75 percent of the engineering master's degree students are international students, while 80 percent of doctorate-level students are international.

They come here for their education, but take that training back home with them, leaders said.

Read full story.

Wichita State biology labs to receive major upgrade

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 10:07:06 CST

George Bousfield

The National Institutes of Health recently approved a $2.2 million WSU Combined Core Facility Renovation Project to significantly upgrade four research laboratories at Wichita State University. About $700,000 will be used to purchase new equipment.

The renovation project in Hubbard Hall is scheduled to begin June 2011 and be completed by March 2012.

The laboratory upgrade will complement a $6.6 million, five-year, multi-investigator, multi-institutional infertility research project, "The Aging Pituitary/Gonadal Axis" by biology professor George Bousfield.

Infertility statistics ...
» Number of women ages 15-44 with impaired ability to have children: 7.3 million (11.8 percent).
» Number of married women ages 15-44 who are infertile: 2.1 million (7.4 percent)
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov.

WSU College of Engineering students to show off hard work

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:12:09 CST

Engineering students at Wichita State University will showcase some of their hard work during the 55th Annual College of Engineering Open House from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, April 30.

The public is welcome to walk around the Engineering Research Laboratory Building, Wallace Hall and the National Institute for Aviation Research to view the laboratories and projects.

Tours will be offered hourly throughout the day. Some activities will be geared toward school-age youth.

Among the activities will be aging aircraft equipment demos, a live video feed of Crash Dynamics Lab sled shots, radio frequency emissions demos, Virtual Reality Center demos, Beech Wind Tunnel tours and more.

The best projects will be recognized at an awards dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 1, at Tallgrass Country Club. Tickets will be available during the open house for $25 and $30 at the door.

For more information, go to www.wichita.edu/engineeringopenhouse.

Hawker Beechcraft, NIAR expand strategic partnership

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 10:21:19 CST

As an expansion to a strategic partnership, Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) today announced it will transfer the equipment and operations of its electromagnetic compatibility, mechanical and environmental test laboratories to the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University.

This is the second collaboration between NIAR and HBC, signifying a unique university/industry relationship. NIAR currently leases space on the HBC campus for its Aircraft Structural Testing and Evaluation Center (ASTEC). The agreement began in 2004 and has been highly successful.

"This collaboration is a great example of industry and academia working together to leverage our strengths," said Ed Petkus, vice president, HBC Product Development and Engineering. "It will provide research opportunities and technical expertise that will grow Wichita's aerospace knowledge base and expand our community's technological leadership."

Gary Miller

"Not only will NIAR be able to perform the required testing for industry, but the facility will be a unique classroom for undergraduate and graduate students to achieve hands-on training," said Gary Miller, WSU provost. "NIAR will be able to offer these services on both the industry testing level, as well as the research level. This facility will place NIAR among the most unique university-based research facilities in the world."

Through the new arrangement, NIAR will gain new testing capabilities, additional space and experienced staff. NIAR will operate facilities within two HBC buildings on its main campus in Wichita, totaling 49,000 square feet. In order to maintain consistency within the laboratory, a number of HBC employees working in the facility will be offered employment with WSU.

"I appreciate Hawker Beechcraft's enterprising approach to achieving full utilization of these testing facilities while expanding NIAR's research and development capabilities," said John Tomblin, NIAR executive director. "The operation of this facility will raise NIAR's level of aviation research and testing services and capabilities to a level that is unprecedented for a university center. We anticipate the new labs will follow the success of ASTEC, which also strengthened our capabilities and is now used by a number of aerospace companies across the country."

The facilities, named the Aircraft Environment Research and Testing Laboratory, will be used to conduct state-of-the-art testing and research for HBC and the entire aerospace industry, as well as federal agencies. The new labs will have the capability to perform a variety of environmental tests, including electromagnetic effects, lightning effects, temperature and altitude, humidity, operational shock and vibration, salt spray, flammability and icing, and other specialized testing for aircraft safety assurance and certification.

The Aircraft Environmental Research and Testing Laboratory at HBC adds increased capacity to NIAR's existing facilities, which includes an 88,000-square-foot laboratory complex on the WSU campus and its 46,000-square-foot ASTEC facility. NIAR currently benefits from a talented workforce of more than 350, including 200 full-time staff members and faculty associates who have undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in aerospace and engineering-related disciplines.

The National Institute for Aviation Research is a prestigious state-of-the-art aerospace research and development laboratory with global reach and expertise in research, design, testing and certification. NIAR's clientele include many of the world's aerospace manufacturers, NASA and the FAA. It is one of the largest aviation R&D academic institutions in America. NIAR is an unincorporated division of Wichita State University and a KTEC Center of Excellence.

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation is a world-leading manufacturer of business, special-mission and trainer aircraft – designing, marketing and supporting aviation products and services for businesses, governments and individuals worldwide. The company's headquarters and major facilities are located in Wichita, Kan., with operations in Salina, Kan.; Little Rock, Ark.; Chester, England, U.K.; and Chihuahua, Mexico. The company leads the industry with a global network of more than 100 factory-owned and authorized service centers.

Wichita student to work for NASA

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 08:43:52 CST

Twenty-three-year-old Mallory Jennings is on cloud nine, or should we say over the moon, as she walks across the Wichita State campus.

"I just got an official job offer from NASA Johnson Space Center," said Jennings with a huge grin on her face.

Since the spring of 2007, Mallory has been interning with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her first mission: working in Mission Control monitoring the International Space Station.

See full story and video.

Scientist sees tech as a way of living

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 23:01:58 CST

There's a guy in town who is helping to reinvent the world.
He says the PC is your past and that mobile computing is your future. He says that soon everything we do with a PC and a phone and an iPhone and a TV and a video camera and a laptop and a GPS and an iPod and a movie theater will be fantastically more magical and will all be contained in one dinky computer as small as an ink pen.

And with that tiny magic wand you will turn any flat surface into your keyboard, turn any blank wall into your viewing screen.
Scientists and university honchos say he's a genius; he says he's merely a good engineer with common sense. Last year he turned down a $120,000 raise so he could stay in Wichita.

His name is Ravi Pendse. He works at Wichita State University.
He's 49, a native of India (naturalized 10 years ago) who thinks that Wichitans are the nicest and most decent people on Earth.
That's why he turned down that fat raise.

Read full story.

Miller: WSU and KU have different approaches

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 11:16:49 CST

There is great promise for Kansas in the development of a vigorous biotechnology business.

Wichita State University and the University of Kansas are poised to take leading roles in the effort nationally, just as Kansas State University has in research to combat bioterrorism.

Read full story.

Robots to take center stage at WSU's Koch Arena

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:49:55 CST

The 10th Annual Kansas BEST robotics competition, designed to inspire and motivate high school students toward careers in engineering, science and technology, will be held from 8:45 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, in Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena.

2008 Kansas BEST

Thirty high schools and organizations from Arkansas and all areas of Kansas will compete in Kansas BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) event. This year's game is called "Just Plane Crazy."

Students will give their robots a trial run on Practice Day from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Heskett Center at WSU.

The sports-like technology contest combines the excitement of a high school football game with the strategy of a chess match and the intellectual challenge of a science fair. Working from identical kits, each team has had six weeks to design and build their robot.

The 2008 game includes an additional competition for the BEST Award to the team that best embodies the concept of Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology.

The teams competing this year are: Ambassadors for Christ Academy, Andale High School, Andover Central High School, Baldwin High School, Blue Valley High School, Buhler High School, Campus High School, Circle High School, Collegiate Upper School, Concordia High School, Decatur Community High School, Goddard High School, Hutchinson Tech Center, Independence High School, Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School, Lawrence High School, Madison High School, Maize High School, Mulvane High School, Northeast Magnet High School, Panther Creek Academy, Rose Hill High School, Sunrise Christian Academy, The Independent School, Topeka High School, Washburn Rural, Valley Center High School, Wichita Southeast High School, Wichita West High School and Wichita HomeSchool.

Winners of Kansas BEST 2008 will travel to Fort Smith, Ark., to compete in the Frontier Trails Regional Competition at the University of Arkansas Dec. 5-6.

Kansas BEST is made possible with the support of the following sponsors: Cessna Aircraft Co., Hawker Beechcraft Corp., LSI Corp., The Boeing Co., Spirit AeroSystems, Bombardier Learjet, Cargill, Great Plains Ventures Inc., igus Inc., Solid Works, AIAA-Wichita Section, The Hangar, the Heskett Center, Susan Burdick Graphic Design and Illustration and the WSU College of Engineering.

For more information, visit the Kansas BEST Web site www.kansasbest.org.

WSU to celebrate 60th anniversary of wind tunnel

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:37:11 CST

Since its initial construction in 1948, the primary purpose of the Walter H. Beech Memorial Wind Tunnel has remained the same: to meet the needs of local aviation research. Today the tunnel at Wichita State University is still a state-of-the art facility serving clients nationwide in aviation and other industries.

Wichita State will formally recognize and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Beech wind tunnel with a public open house from 3-6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10.

Visitors are asked to meet in the lobby of the new Engineering Research Laboratory Building just west of the National Institute for Aviation Research on the WSU campus. There, a guide will give background on the wind tunnel and provide an overview of its history — capabilities, upgrades, modifications, interesting notes and points of pride.

A second guide will lead guests from the lobby to the wind tunnel at designated times. Visitors will see a historical display with photos and timeline of the wind tunnel and see a demonstration of the wind tunnel in use.

Another event, "What's Up in Flight R&D at WSU?," will be held from 2-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, in the Ulrich Museum of Art. A combination of short talks will capture what's up in flight research and development at WSU. L. Scott Miller, professor and chair of the aerospace engineering department at WSU, will moderate faculty presentations.

Engineering innovation has been primary to Wichita's historic prominence in aviation, and WSU plays a large role in retaining and extending its edge in the industry. Find out what research occupies the bright minds of WSU engineering faculty connected to flight. Discover how this industry is evolving by hearing presentations for the general public by WSU engineering leaders.

Following the talks at the museum, selected engineering and National Institute for Aviation Research labs will host an open house for Ulrich Museum guests.

The wind tunnel also will be open for public tours from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11. Admission to Friday's and Saturday's events, including the faculty talks and tours of NIAR, is free.

Now through Dec. 19, the Ulrich Museum also features an exhibition of 35 large-scale images of today's machines of air and sky by New York photographer Jeffrey Milstein. He captures his images at the end of the Los Angeles International Airport runway as planes pass overhead on descent.

The wind tunnel has seen many changes in order to maintain quality and efficiency. The idea to build the tunnel was proposed in 1946 by Walter H. Beech, former president of Beech Aircraft Co., and Dwane L. Wallace, former president of Cessna Aircraft Co., who needed a place to do aeronautical research in Wichita.

The project, directed by Ken Razak, former director of the School of Engineering at the University of Wichita, cost $165,000 and took two years to construct, making it the largest wind tunnel of its kind in the Midwest at that time.

The most substantial upgrade to the tunnel was finished in January 2005. It cost $6 million and involved a modernization of the tunnel's test section, control room, fan and balance.

Although aviation has long been the primary beneficiary of the wind tunnel, the tunnel has been used for a variety of tests and purposes including a Junior Olympic skier, Olympic cyclist, model of Kemper Arena roof, curbside dumpsters, snowmobiles, motorcycles, Santa's sleigh, car topper, early automobiles and hurricane emergency response vehicle models.

For more information on the history of the Walter H. Beech Memorial Wind Tunnel, go to http://www.aero-labs.org.