2020 Cohort
15
edits
Changes
With the creation and building of the new Innovation Campus, WSU is partnering up with some big industry names to bring collaboration and innovation to its new campus. The goal of such partnerships will be to encourage and improve collaboration and innovation between students and professionals in the industry. The new Innovation Campus will boast multiple Partnership Buildings where companies will be able to lease space and work with WSU students and faculty. These Partnership Buildings will open up a new line of networking between students and industry to provide internship and job opportunities. At the same time, the companies will be able to provide and fund new research and experimental facilities. As a benefit to them, they will be able to recruit new talent continuously.
Some of the companies and organizations that have already partnered with WSU include Airbus, NetApp, Applied Technology Acceleration Institute, National Institute of Aviation Research (NIAR), Tech Mahindra, iTalent Corp, Youth Entrepreneurs, ABI Group, Koch Industries, Inc., Hexagon, Deloite, and othersFirepoint. Airbus, for example, has relocated their engineering center in downtown Wichita to the new Innovation Campus. Airbus’ presence on campus allows them to access research, testing labs, student employees, and faculty expertise quickly and easily. With NIAR already present on the campus, Airbus relocating to the new WSU campus will add to the research centers provided to students. Another example is Firepoint, an innovation company that employs students of varying disciplines to accelerate strategic projects for industry partners. Recently, Firepoint partnered with the Army to host a challenge offering a combined $35,000 in funding to design a new drone.
Wichita State is working to facilitate university-industry collaboration at a much more aggressive pace than in the past year due to the need to bring advanced research and experimental facilities for students and faculty. The goal is to transform Wichita State into an innovation-focused university that is partnered with some of the biggest names in the industry. A recent partnership that the new Innovation Campus secured in Spring 2017 was with Boston Consulting Group with the goal of increasing collaboration and to advance the Wichita manufacturing industry.