Wichita State News: Computer Networking

The World Wide Wow

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 10:45:44 CST

How many emails do you read a day, or log onto Facebook? How many text messages do you send every day? Now multiply that the population of Kansas. Now, the United States. The rest of the world.

All of that digital information piles up. Now, researchers are figuring out ways to store it. Because if they don't, there may be a day when the Internet overloads.

As Dr. Ravi Pendse of Wichita State University said, "Somebody's uploading, somebody's downloading, and all this information has to be properly organized."

That's why two Wichita organizations now work together to save the world wide web. LSI Corp. and Wichita State University created the Center for Storage Networking Research last fall.

Read full story.

$48K Gore Scholarship given to Kansas high school seniors

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:21:09 CST

Kansas high school seniors Jenice Duong and Sarah Thompson have won Wichita State University's Harry Gore Memorial Scholarships.

The scholarships, awarded annually at WSU, recognize leadership and academic skills and are the largest undergraduate scholarships in Kansas.

Duong, a senior at Wichita East High School, and Thompson, a senior at Salina South High School, will receive $12,000 a year for four years to attend Wichita State, totaling $48,000 each.

Jenice Duong

Jenice Duong

Duong is the daughter of Dieu and Jenny Pham. She is in the International Baccalaureate program at East High, where she carries a 3.94 GPA.

She plans to major in computer science at Wichita State.

Duong is involved in a multitude of activities at East, including journalism, cheerleading, orchestra, yearbook and the French National Honor Society.

Her many volunteer duties have included tutoring fellow students and volunteering with the Junior League of Wichita and March of Dimes.

Sharon K. Martin, Duong's journalism professor at East, said a couple of words help describe her pupil's leadership potential: vision and determination.

"Jen has the talent of seeing the goal, dreaming the possible and pursing that doggedly," Martin said. "When committed, Jen will make personal sacrifices in order to gather the information that she needs and then work day and night to see a project completed to the utmost of her ability."

Sarah Thompson

Sarah Thompson

Thompson is the daughter of Kenny and Amy Thompson. Her major at WSU is undecided, but she is aiming for something in the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Thompson has a long list of extracurricular activities to keep her busy. Among them are student council, Junior Leadership Salina, orchestra, drama club, debate swimming and golf.

Her community service includes the American Red Cross, Vacation Bible School, summer camp counselor and Relay for Life.

Loren Banninger, an instructor at Salina South, has known Thompson all four years of high school. He said one of her best attributes is her trustworthiness and ability to work with others.

"Sarah is not afraid to voice her opinions, but she will listen to other input before making the final call," he said. "She is very grounded in her beliefs. Sarah Thompson is a leader."

Background

Duong and Thompson competed in the largest Distinguished Scholarship Invitational in history, with 375 competitors.

To be invited to compete in the invitational, students had to have a 24 or higher ACT score and a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA.

Gore Scholarships have been awarded annually since 1954 to freshmen entering WSU who display outstanding potential for leadership. Theodore and Ralph Gore established the Harry Gore Memorial Scholarship in 1952.

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.

WSU lab building stellar reputation

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:04:43 CST

Wichita State University may be known internationally for its aviation research program, but it is also quietly building another engineering research powerhouse.

The 7-year-old Advanced Networking Research Center is set to nearly double in size over the next 18 months because of interest from major technology companies and university officials' ambitious plans.

"The potential is extraordinary," said Gary Miller, WSU's provost and vice president for academic affairs and research. "There are networks in everything."

Wichita benefits from that growth by retaining and attracting more top students at WSU, by producing better-trained workers for local industry and, eventually, university officials say, by seeing an economic boost from new companies that develop out of the center.

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Wichita State offering new master's in computer networking

Wed, 3 Dec 2008 14:14:48 CST

The Kansas Board of Regents has approved a new Master of Science in Computer Networking degree in the electrical engineering and computer science department at Wichita State University.

New students will begin being admitted for fall 2009. Current WSU graduate students may transfer to the new program beginning in the spring 2009 semester.

Edwin Sawan

Demand for networking experts to design, deploy, support and maintain computer networks is expected to multiply exponentially as more small businesses and individual citizens "go online," said Edwin Sawan, interim chair of the department.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the computer networking area is projected to increase by 27 percent in the next 10 years.

Graduates of the new program at WSU will have expertise in hardware and software technologies, which will prepare them for a career to meet the growing demand for networking experts.

Program structure, requirements
The Master of Science in Computer Networking is a comprehensive degree program. The curriculum structure provides the students with an integrated experience in system engineering, economics, architecture and policies of computer communication networks. These topics are covered in the required core courses.

The program encompasses courses offered by departments in several colleges, including the College of Engineering, the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Barton School of Business.

The comprehensive nature of the program aims at enhancing the strong ties that WSU has with various companies, including Cisco Systems and LSI, among others.

To fulfill the degree requirements, a student must complete the courses on an individual plan of study to be approved by an adviser, the graduate coordinator and the dean of the Graduate School.

The program is intended for graduate students with a bachelor's degree majoring in engineering or an area related to information technology. Students from other areas may be admitted conditionally and will be required to complete some undergraduate courses to be prescribed by the graduate coordinator at the time of admission.

To qualify for admission, a student must have a GPA of at least 3.0 in the past 60 hours of undergraduate study.