James Wright’s work in the Environmental Test Lab for the National Institute for Aviation Research includes measuring salt spray fallout, welding and CAD modeling. 

Through each day of his paid internship, one benefit stands out – problem solving. Wright, a Wichita State University senior majoring in aerospace engineering, is from Joplin, Missouri, and works as a mechanical student assistant at NIAR. 

“It’s a lot of problem solving,” he said. “I think that it’s vital to learn how to operate in this sort of environment while you’re at school, so that once you make it into the workforce you’re comfortable learning things the hard way and clawing your way up when you’re in a new and unfamiliar situation.” 

One of his most interesting duties is working on a fixture to suspend a business jet precooler and its ducting in midair. The variety of opportunities keeps him busy. 

“I enjoy working in the relatively small team we have here at the lab, where if you have a skill, it’s likely to get exercised,” he said. “I don’t know of many other jobs where I might go between writing VBA to welding to structures calculations all in the same day. We need all the skills we can get, and if you keep an ear and an eye out this is a great place to pick up new ones.” 

Wright also works as a paid senior peer mentor for Shocker Design Experience, a program for first-year students in WSU’s College of Engineering. In 2023, his ViBracelet team won the Koch Innovation Challenge at WSU and competed at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization Global Pitch Conference in Tampa, Florida.  

At the competition, the students presented a working prototype of ViBracelet, a wearable vibration alarm that gives members of the deaf community a safe and reliable way to wake up from sleep. 

“Our teams are tasked with identifying community needs through interviews, developing technology-based prototype solutions, and pitching their innovations,” Wright said. “My successes and experiences with this program have directly informed the way I mentor my teams. I relish the experience of working with a team for a year to help them expand their idea from a pre-concept into functional prototypes.  

Wright wants to help foster entrepreneurial ideas at WSU. He co-founded a new interdisciplinary student organization across the W. Frank Barton School of Business, the College of Engineering and the local chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization to collect WSU’s most successful teams and expand their entrepreneurial ideas. 

Earning money while working and learning is part of Wichita State’s mission to help students and boost the area’s talent pipeline.  

“I’m exceedingly grateful to my parents for starting a college fund for me even before I was born, so my college has been paid for,” Wright said. “The funds from this internship have allowed me to save for my future and to enjoy Wichita and all it has to offer.” 

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Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 23,000 students between its main campus and the WSU Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech), including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student-centered and innovation-driven.

Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students. The National Science Foundation ranked WSU No. 1 in the nation for aerospace engineering R&D, No. 2 for industry-funded engineering R&D and No. 8 overall for engineering R&D.

The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.

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