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The School of Music puts on a recital in Wiedemann Hall wit the text 'Mental Health Advocate' and

Aug. 5, 2025 The School of Music, in the College of Fine Arts, is being recognized as a Suspenders4Hope mental health advocate for its ongoing commitment to student well-being, its leadership in raising awareness and its creative use of music to express the importance of hope, healing and human connection.

Overhead photo of campus with a flag pole with the United States, Kansas and Wichita flags in the foreground and the campus in the background

July 31, 2025 Wichita State University is one of the recipients of a renewed $20 million grant as part of the AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (IFML), of which WSU is a founding member.

A student does research

July 14, 2025 — Wichita State University has been named a partner in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Great Plains Hub — a $14 million initiative that equips researchers, students and entrepreneurs with the tools to move ideas from the lab to the marketplace. The first WSU-led cohort begins Sept. 15 and will further strengthen the university’s innovation ecosystem.

VISION machine

June 12, 2025 — Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) has received a patent for VISION, an AI-powered composite inspection robot designed to detect and repair damage on aircraft parts autonomously. Developed at NIAR’s Automation Research Center and recently installed at a U.S. Army facility, the system uses machine learning to analyze inspection images and speed up aircraft maintenance.

Members of the Shocker Store staff pose near a section of the store that displays Suspenders4Hope merch. Text saying

June 9, 2025 The Shocker Store is being recognized as a Mental Health Advocate for its support of the Suspenders4Hope program by offering the Suspenders4Hope T-shirts for sale, with proceeds directly benefiting HOPE Services, and by serving as a hub for resources for Shockers on campus.

Dr. Sarah Beth Estes

April 28, 2025 — Wichita State University has appointed Dr. Sarah Beth Estes as the new dean of the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Estes brings a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to student and faculty success.

Dr. Mary Liz Jameson shows off her dung beetles to a student at the lab

April 28, 2025 When the email notification popped up, Dr. Mary Liz Jameson, professor of biological sciences, thought there must have been a mistake. It must have been for someone else at the university or perhaps another Mary Liz at a different university. Once the shock wore away, Jameson realized it was true: She had been elected to the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Fellows, class of 2024, for her integrated work on entomology.

Campus

April 28, 2025 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.

CARE/SOS Teams in their Suspenders4Hope T-shirts.

April 14, 2025 The CARE Team and Student Outreach and Support (SOS) are being recognized as a Suspenders4Hope Mental Health Advocate for their proactive support for the campus community. Their work ensures students, staff and faculty alike all have the tools necessary to work and learn at their full potential. Hear from Katie Davidson, director of SOS, on how the teams are supporting mental health.

Two students hold out an artifact from an archeology dig in Texas

April 10, 2025 — Wichita State students spent summer 2024 excavating the Boxed Springs archaeological site in East Texas, uncovering 6,000 years of Caddo history through hands-on research, artifact analysis and academic publishing.

Dr. Darren DeFrain holds a phone that shows the Vizling app he created.

Feb. 25, 2025 — The National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded a Wichita State University faculty member $150,000 to further develop a smartphone application that allows visually impaired people to read materials rich in visual content.

Dr. Moriah Beck, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Wichita State

Feb. 14, 2025 — Dr. Moriah Beck's journey as a scientist is rooted in the belief that research is a powerful driver of innovation and personal transformation. For Beck, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Wichita State University, research is far more than an academic pursuit — it’s a way to connect with a global scientific community and spark change.

Melissa Penkava Koza works on a costume for a show.

Jan. 31, 2025 What started as a work study position in the costume shop of her university’s theater department has propelled Melissa Penkava Koza’s sewing hobby into guiding the next generation of costume creators.

Snowy campus

Jan. 6, 2025 — Wichita State University will return to normal campus operations Tuesday, Jan. 7.

A Wichita State University graduate waves at the camera, surrounded by other graduates.

Dec. 11, 2024 – A total of 1,209 students are eligible to participate in Wichita State University’s 127th fall commencement ceremonies Sunday, Dec. 15 in Charles Koch Arena.