Oct. 13, 2025 — Dr. Lisa Parcel, Kansas Health Foundation Director of the Elliott School of Communication and professor of communication, was named Kansas Board of Regents’ Tenured Faculty of the Year in September.
Oct. 13. 2025 — Christopher Leonard, director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Wichita State University, has been named Staff of the Year by the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) — an honor he says reflects the hard work and dedication of his entire team.
Oct. 13, 2025 – Wichita State’s Marco Hernandez has been named 2025 Kansas Board of Regents Faculty of the Year. He was recognized during an event on Sept. 17 in Topeka.
Oct. 13, 2025 — Four Wichita State University faculty and staff members have been named 2025 Faculty and Staff of the Year by the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR), recognizing their excellence in teaching, research, service and student support.
Oct. 13. 2025 — Erin O’Bryan, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders at Wichita State University, has been named Tenure-Track Faculty of the Year by the Kansas Board of Regents.
Oct. 6, 2025 — Wichita State University physical therapy students donned a homemade aging-simulation suit to experience impaired vision, hearing and mobility challenges, helping them better understand the daily struggles of older adults.
Aug. 27, 2025 — Several groundbreaking manufacturing research programs from Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) have been named finalists for the industry’s top honors by the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo (CAMX) and the American Composites Manufacturers Association’s (ACMA) Awards for Composites Excellence (ACE).
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.
July 31, 2025 — Wichita State and Groover Labs received a state grant to boost student innovation and help bring Kansas ideas to market. The funding expands hands-on learning, prototyping and outreach across the state.
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.
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.
June 18, 2025 — Hexcel Corp., a global leader in advanced composites technology, is expanding its long-standing partnership with Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research by establishing a Hexcel Application Center inside NIAR’s Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems.
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.
June 9, 2025 — Shocker Composites, founded by Wichita State alum Vamsidhar Patlolla, transforms carbon fiber waste into high-performance, sustainable materials using a recycling method he developed during his graduate research. With support from Wichita State’s NIAR and Innovation Campus, the company is scaling up its impact and demonstrating how university-backed startups can drive real-world innovation and sustainability.
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.
