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Innovation at WSU

Airbus folks

The 'Innovation Campus'

Beginning in 2012, Wichita State launched a master planning process to engage the Wichita State community in the task of imagining a campus aligned with the dynamic, powerful future envisioned in WSU's ambitious mission and vision statements. Within five years, that work was well established with the amazing tansformation of a 120-acre section of the campus that once had housed the Braeburn Golf Course.  

Dubbed the "Innovation Campus," the new part of campus has already become a catalyst for research, innovation and learning with amazing new research and lab facilities and partnerships with industry. It is also home to new residential, retail and services developments to improve the quality of student life and draw the community onto campus -- and there is much more to come!

Foundations of growth

  • Strong private investment

    WSU is a trusted partner with some of the world’s leading companies and, as a result, offers unmatched student applied learning and career gateway experiences. Because of these strong community and industry connections, WSU is a public university with significant private investments, including a Foundation fundraising campaign that has far surpassed its ambitious $250 million goal. Plans for the next Foundation campaign await the vision of the university’s next president.. 

  • R&D powerhouse

    In FY19, the university exceeded $100 million in annual R&D support for the first time. On-campus research and applied learning partners include Airbus, with 280 resident engineers; Dassault Systemes, with its world-class 3D Experience Lab employing students and full-time researchers; and Spirit AeroSystems, the state’s largest employer. All have come to WSU because of its applied learning and research commitment..

  • First-rate facilities

    Some industry and government partners are based in public private partnership buildings; others in the university’s groundbreaking Experiential Engineering Building, that includes 25 College of Engineering applied learning and research laboratories and an 18,000-square-foot public makerspace. The university and city have a strong record of entrepreneurship, and WSU Ventures is based in the building to foster new intellectual property leading to scalable business ideas.

Our presence on the Innovation Campus will help us enhance products and business processes to create value for our customers. The campus provides an environment that fosters the transition of innovative ideas into real-world uses and values for the company.

John O’Leary, Vice President 
Airbus Americas Engineering

Partners:

airbus logo
Spirit AeroSystems logo
Textron Logo
Dassault Systemes logo
Hexagon

Since 1985, the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) has attracted engineers and industry experts from around the globe, while giving students an outlet for future success. More than 200 students are employed by NIAR. This world-class R&D organization is a leader in the advancement of the next generation of aerospace — specializing in new technologies such as carbon-fiber composite fabrication and virtual reality for aerospace applications.

Grants and gifts are driving the creation of new facilities, including the Advanced Virtual-Engineering and Testing Labs, opening soon, that will include both physical and virtual crash-test facilities for military and industrial testing. This will join a long list of world-class facilities associated with WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR).

This year-over-year upward trajectory ranks WSU among the top 50 in engineering research dollars. The latest NSF ranking places Wichita State as #1 in industry-funded aerospace R&D and #4 in total aerospace engineering research dollars, ahead of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Purdue University. WSU’s pioneering aerospace certification testing and research generates a significant amount of the university’s R&D funding and serves aviation, the largest local industry.

A $50 million home for the Barton School of Business is the next academic building to begin construction. It will join buildings near completion including the new NIAR crash lab, the fourth privately financed partnership building for applied research and the new campus YMCA and Student Wellness Center.

Wichita Police officers and Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputies train on campus in the new Law Enforcement Training Center, which is also home to WSU’s School of Criminal Justice, one of the first such academic programs in the nation. City-county-university cooperation is also seen in the annual mill levy that provides local taxpayer support to WSU.

Innovation Campus Timeline

This is an exciting time to be part of Shocker Nation! To give you a sense of the pace of change on our campus, here's a timeline of the remaking of WSU. 

(Major building/facility openings in bold)

2014

  • Braeburn Golf Course closed to make way for development.
  • Wheatshocker Apartments razed to make way for the Experiential Engineering Building.
  • Koch Industries and the Fred & Mary Koch Foundation give $3.75 million for a community makerspace in Experiential Engineering Building. The makerspace would eventually be named GoCreate, a Koch collaborative.

2015

  • Airbus announces plans to relocate its Wichita engineering center to a new 90,000-square-foot building on campus.
  • Plans announced for Braeburn Square, a 20-acre mixed-use development with restaurants, shops and lodging.

2016

  • A four-bay Food Truck Plaza opens near the National Institute for Aviation Research on WSU's main campus. 
  • Plans announced for The Flats at WSU, a 112-unit student housing apartment complex.
  • Plans announced for a $9.5 million Law Enforcement Training Center in partnership with the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County. The facility would house WSU's Criminal Justice program.

2017

  • Experiential Engineering Building opens.
  • Airbus Americas Engineering holds a grand opening its new facility.
  • Dassault Systemes holds a ribbon-cutting for its 3DExperience Center.
  • GoCreate makerspace holds its grand opening.
  • YMCA and Wichita State announce partnership for a new student wellness center and fitness facility on campus.
  • A free-standing Starbucks opens. First building in Braeburn Square development.
  • The Flats at WSU opens.

2018

  • The Law Enforcement Training Center opens.
  • Partnership Building 2 opens with Spirit AeroSystems and FirePoint Innovations Center as major tenants.
  • The original Pizza Hut building is relocated and reopened as the Pizza Hut Museum.
  • Plans for Woolsey Hall, a new home for the Barton School of Business, are announced.
  • Wonder, an independent experiential learning school, opens.

2019

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  • WSU Bookstore opens a satellite location in Braeburn Square development.
  • Grand Opening celebration for the Braeburn Square.  
  • National Institute for Aviation Research Crash Dynamics Lab breaks ground.
  • The Suites at WSU, a new residence hall near The Flats at WSU, breaks ground.
  • Partnership Building 3 (PB3) breaks ground.
  • Journey East Asia Grill announces plans to open in Braeburn Square.
  • Fuzzy's Taco Shop opens as the first restaurant tenant in Braeburn Square.
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