Convergence Sciences
Wichita State University announced the inaugural awardees of the highly competitive President’s Convergence Sciences Research Initiative. The initiative is an effort to bring together the intellectual curiosity and strengths of faculty and students from a range of disciplines and give them the support to develop research programs that drive the diversity and growth of the Kansas economy while addressing global challenges.
Namboodiri
NSF Grant
Navigating around a city or inside a building isn’t always as simple as tapping on the Google Maps app. For some people with disabilities, it can be nearly impossible. Dr. Vinod Namboodiri, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Wichita State University, is building an infrastructure to make getting around a bit easier.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded more than $1.1 million to Namboodiri and his team to create a community-wide wayfinding system for people with disabilities. he team includes Dr. Nils Hakansson, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and researchers from Kansas State University, Texas A&M University, the Envision Research Institute, and the City of Wichita.
First-Year Research Experience
In its second year, the First-Year Research Experience (FYRE) program engaged 16 incoming freshmen in STEM research opportunities across campus. FYRE was created to allow incoming freshmen to spend a week engaged in research-focused academic sessions and lab experiences. FYRE students learn and apply collaborative research practices, expand scientific communication skills, explore the features of art in science, experience Wichita State housing, and engage in campus social events.
Digital Twin
Shockers are breathing new life to aging military aircraft through Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR)’s Digital Twin program.
“We're taking old military assets, taking them apart piece by piece, cleaning the pieces up, scanning them in, and then digitally reassembling them,” said Dr. Melinda Laubach-Hock, NIAR’s director of sustainment and a Wichita State graduate.
Currently, NIAR’s Digital Twin program is working on two Blackhawks and a B-1 Bomber. The insights gained through the digital assembly provide valuable data to those who might work to maintain and repair similar aircraft in the future, and it will give the U.S. Department of Defense more autonomy to analyze its own aircraft.
Minority Mental Health
Inneke Vargas, a participant in the Wichita State Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, who graduated in 2020 with a degree in psychology and a minor in criminal justice, conducted a comparative study exploring the satisfaction rates of on-campus mental health services among minority and non-minority students for her senior capstone and research methods course.
Her focus was on bringing awareness to the mental health stigma amongst minorities, particularly African Americans. Her life experiences, like being raised by a “single-parent black women,” she said, made her realize that culturally, they aren’t taught to speak about how they feel. Inneke’s research uncovered that it’s a mindset and a share experience among the same minority group.
Vargas’ interest in psychology developed from simply talking to others about their lives, what the human experience was for minorities and understanding that psychological stress affects people across generations.
