Transport: The Online Magazine of WSU's College of Engineering


Photograph of Wallace Hall on the campus of Wichita State University courtesy of Kosuke Ishikawa, graduate student in aerospace engineering.
Reinvisioning Engineering Education With a strategic plan that includes the innovative Engineer 2020 program and six research thrusts, WSU Engineering is preparing engineers for a changing world.
		Undergraduate Research Whether presenting findings to the FAA or helping to facilitate the first green manufacturing project in Kansas, WSU engineering undergraduate students have recently stood at the forefront of engineering research in such areas as aviation safety and sustainability. The College of Engineering's new 44,700-square-foot research facility will soon further expand undergraduate research opportunities.
Cooperative Education, Internships, and Industry Partnerships Thanks to WSU's Cooperative Education Program, close connections to industry, and unique employment opportunities in the “Air Capital of the World,” many WSU students—including Alex Kanelakos [right] and Callie Baker, both of whom are spending this summer at NASA—become working engineers long before graduation day. Last June, Cisco Systems, which employs more than two hundred WSU graduates, committed $8 million for The College of Engineering to run a technology research center, marking the company's first partnership with a university.
		Global Learning Last semester, students in Dr. Larry Whitman's Enterprise Engineering class came face-to-face with the world's experts in the field without ever leaving their classroom. Meanwhile, students in Dr. Kurt Soschinske's senior design course collaborated with professional engineers in Moscow. In the fall, senior Jessica Stitt will study engineering in Spanish, at the University of Lima in Peru.
Service Learning The last thing a patient who enters an emergency room wants to have to do is wait. Recently, a team of WSU Engineering students analyzed the Emergency Department of Via Christi-St. Francis, a not-for-profit medical center. The team estimated that the changes it recommended would cut a patient’s average time spent from check-in to admission or discharge by forty minutes. .
		Leadership As Chair of the Open House Committee, IE senior Jessica Stitt oversaw an event that drew nearly 1,000 people to the College of Engineering, including 500 4th-12th grade students. To make it happen, she had to lead. Over the past six years, WSU students have won the Institute of Industrial Engineering's regional student paper competition five times, first and second at the regional competition four times, and the national paper award three times. This year, Mitch Rausch and Rebekah Drake continued to demonstrate WSU's leadership in the competition.
Multidisciplinary Education Real problems in the world aren't in any single domain; they are at the boundaries of many different domains. —Dr. Janet Twomey, Associate Professor, IMfgE As part of several interdisciplinary programs, WSU students have recently learned to negotiate those boundaries. Whether designing a "talking" glove that translates sign language to speech; creating a CD that allows people to start and stream their own Internet radio stations; or designing, building, and driving one of the fastest mini-baja cars on the circuit, Shocker engineers engage other disciplines in order to create excellence. In the new Advanced Composites Graduate Certificate program, students will take courses in three different engineering disciplines in order to receive a rounded view of a subject that is gaining increased prominence in industry.
		Engineering K-12 Education Whether helping local high school students build a wind turbine, or implementing the Switched-on Saturday Academy, Lego Mindstorms Competition, and annual Open House, WSU faculty and students help middle school students, especially females and minorities, learn to love science and math through fun, hands-on projects.

Faculty Profiles @ WSU Engineering
Sustaining the Future The College of Engineering’s Center for Sustainable Engineered Systems “This is important. I am passionate about this,” said Dr. Janet Twomey, an NSF-Career Award recipient, on her current work on the leading edge of sustainability research.

Investing in the Future @ WSU Engineering Each year, the College of Engineering awards over $250,000 to incoming freshmen who take part in the Wallace Invitational for Scholarships in Engineering (WISE). Thanks to the generosity of alumni such as Apple Computer engineer Robert Bailey (EE '71) and a group of former Wallace scholars, scholarship funding will soon dramatically increase. Faculty and students alike will soon benefit from the generosity of the Sam Bloomfield Foundation, which will support faculty development and an engineer-in-residence program.
Events @ WSU Engineering
College of Engineering Commencement 2006 Nearly 300 students graduated with bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees from the College of Engineering on May 13, 2006. “If we don’t grow and learn by continuing education and taking on new challenges, the next classes to graduate will replace us. We must stay current in our field or we become outdated, irrelevant. We must bridge the gap from today’s technology to tomorrow’s or we are not truly engineers.” —Alumnus Carol Hart, from her commencement address, “Bridging the Gap”
	The 2006 College of Engineering Open House Nearly 1,000 people attended this year’s Open House, which featured K-12 student activities, award-winning student and faculty projects, and tours of our state-the-art facilities.
Switched-On Saturdays Now entering its third year, the Switched-on Saturday Academy jump-starts K-12 students' interests in math and science through engaging, hands-on activities.
	Lego Mindstorms The Wonders of the World were on display in February, as seventeen teams of middle-school students navigated their Lego robots through Shocker-designed courses that featured such engineering marvels as the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
Wallace Scholar Program Celebrates Thirty Years Over 150 former, current, and incoming Wallace Scholars gathered for a dinner and reception with local aircraft pioneer Velma Lunt Wallace.

Faculty Achievements @ WSU Engineering Many of WSU Engineering’s distinguished faculty members have recently earned fellowships and awards sponsored by Bombardier, Boeing, Dwane and Velma Wallace, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and others. Dr. Michael Jorgensen (IMfgE) Receives Board of Trustees Young Faculty Scholar Award Dr. Michael J. Jorgensen (IMfgE), Dr. Ward Jewell (ECE), and Dr. Charles Yang (AE), receive Dwane and Velma Wallace Faculty Awards Dr. Ward Jewell (ECE), Dr. Hamid Lankarani (ME), Dr. Gamal Weheba (IMfgE), and Dr. Charles Yang (AE) have been named Boeing Fellows Dr. James Steck (AE), Dr. Steven Skinner (ECE), Dr. Krishna Krishnan (IMfgE), and Dr. David Koert (ME) have been named Bombardier/Learjet fellows Charles Yang (AE) Honored by Students Dr. Ravi Pendse, Dr. Ravi Bhagavathula, and Mr. Sabeeh Ali (all ECE) win Best Paper Award at the 23rd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)
New Faculty @ WSU Engineering The College of Engineering welcomes new assistant professor of aerospace engineering, Dr. Raju Keshavanarayana The College of Engineering welcomes new assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, Haitao T. Liao
Scholarships @ WSU Engineering
	*It Pays to Be WISE* Over $250,000 was awarded to incoming freshmen as a result of November’s Wallace Invitational for Scholarships in Engineering (WISE). Find out about this year’s WISE—which will be held on November 10, 2006—and how you can earn scholarship money to attend the College of Engineering.

Women in WSU Engineering Updated regularly, this page features profiles of WSU Engineering alumni, scholarship information, links, and more. "My education at Wichita State, with the challenging coursework and leadership opportunities, has prepared me for my career. The coursework at WSU was relevant to what I am doing now. Almost every in-major class had a real world project which made it easy to transition to the real world..." (more) —Joan Wagner, B.S., Industrial Engineering (’99), M.S., Industrial Engineering (’04) Industrial Engineer, Metal-Fab, Inc.
Alumni @ WSU Engineering Alumni News If you are a WSU Engineering alumnus, please take a moment to fill out our quick online form to let us know what you’re up to. Catch up with other alums on our ever-expanding alumni news page.
In Memory of Lynn Elder As Coordinator of the College of Engineering’s SEEDS program, Lynn Elder worked tirelessly to inspire K-12 students, especially young women, to pursue careers in the sciences. She was instrumental in planning and securing funding for programs aimed at connecting students with professional mentors, establishing interactive after-school programs through which young people learn about engineering and technology by performing hands-on experiments, and invigorating the work of K-12 science and math teachers by showing them exciting new ways to teach their subjects. In addition, she was a leader in the Lego MindStorms Challenge and the Science Olympiad. She was also an accomplished violinist, harpist, writer, and equestrian. She passed away in May 2004. It is our intention to do justice to her passion, dedication, and intelligence by continuing the programs she initiated and fulfilling her vision of educating and energizing young minds with the wonders, challenges, and joys of science. If you would like to help, please contact us.
Department News
	Aerospace Engineering
Electrical & Computer Engineering
	Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering
Mechanical Engineering