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Will Johnston shows a 3D printed owl feather.

April 27, 2023 — A student-led research team is attempting to replicate owl feathers in its quest to create silent drone propellers. Now NASA has invested in the project with a potential award of up to $82,000.

Photo of Ayshea Banes in her regalia.

April 27, 2023 Ayshea Banes has only just begun her educational career as she plans to pursue her doctorate after graduating from Wichita State University.

Maggie Schoonover

April 25, 2023 — Kansas NASA EPSCoR Program has named Wichita State University’s College of Innovation and Design faculty member Maggie Schoonover as a recipient of its 2023 Partnership Development Grant for her proposal, “Familiarization Training Game for Extended Reality Spacesuit User Interface.”

A graphic with photos of the three 2023 John A. See Award recipients.

April 21, 2023 — Three Wichita State researchers have been awarded the John A. See Innovation Award. The award is given each year as a way to recognize novel ideas that have the potential to meet a market need and attract further funding once they have advanced through the early prototyping phase.

Wichita State Campus

April 14, 2023 — Wichita State University’s Environmental Finance Center is one of 17 locations selected to establish an Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center. This new center will promote environmental and energy justice in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and adjoining Indigenous nations.

Wichita State's Molecular Diagnostics Lab

April 6, 2023 — With the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, Wichita State University’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory will soon be expanding its focus to become a full microbiology laboratory.

Blakeslee inspects an artifact while on-site in Etzanoa.

March 30, 2023 — The Great Plains has often been overlooked in the history books of North America, but recent discoveries made by a team of Wichita State University archaeologists are rewriting the history of where the beating heart of North American actually was in the pre-historic era before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.

ATF and WSU officials standing together

March 17, 2023 — Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steven Dettelbach and Senator Jerry Moran recently visited Wichita State University to announce plans for a unique new National Forensic Laboratory at Wichita State. The forensic laboratory is a new $75 million facility that will complement the Gun Crime Intelligence Center of Excellence and National Integrated Ballistic Information Network Correlation and Training Center, which were announced last summer.

Ayshea stands in front of her research poster.

March 16, 2023 — Ayshea Banes took a passion for astronomy and ran with it, taking any opportunity to immerse herself in her newly chosen field. One of those opportunities occurred this past January, when Banes was chosen to present at the American Astronomical Society’s annual meeting in Seattle.

Picture of 1958 sit-in from The Enlightener

Feb. 24, 2023 - The Dockum Drug Store sit-in of 1958 attracted new attention in 2021 during Black History Month, in part thanks to NBC’s “Today” and Wichita native Sheinelle Jones. Several University of Wichita students participated in the sit-in, which is increasingly recognized as a landmark event in the Civil Rights Movement. NBC’s “Today” featured the events in a 2021 broadcast.

Stock photo of a wound being treated

Feb. 8, 2023 — Every year, there are roughly 450,000 burn wounds that require clinical care throughout the United States. Of those, more than 3,500 people are fatally injured. An interdisciplinary team of Wichita State University researchers is working to revolutionize burn-wound care with a scaffolding system that prevents infection and promotes healing.

NSF visit

Jan. 25, 2023 - The director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) visited Wichita State University last week. The Honorable Sethuraman Panchanathan toured Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research, WSU Tech and the National Center for Aviation Training as a guest of U.S. Senator Jerry Moran.

Wheelchair user in elevator

Jan. 20, 2023 - In December, the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Track awarded a Wichita State-led team a $750,000 grant to gather information and create digital maps of indoor spaces that could be used by persons with disabilities.

Engineering researchers at Wichita State

Jan. 9, 2023 — Wichita State University has moved into the list of the top 20 universities in engineering research and development (R&D) expenditures, according to the latest data compiled by the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development Survey.

A neutrino detector carried by a nanosatellite in low Earth orbit

Nov. 15, 2022 — Wichita State's Jonathan Folkerts, 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.