05/15/19
K-State Current - May 15, 2019
K-State Current is a weekly news update for the Kansas Board of Regents to apprise the Regents on a few of the many successes and achievements made by K-State faculty, staff and students.
K-State News
Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus wins AUVSI XCELLENCE Award
The unmanned aircraft systems program at Kansas State University's Polytechnic Campus has been named the second-place winner in the Training and Education category of the XCELLENCE Awards by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International or AUVSI.
Kansas State Polytechnic was selected from a pool of accomplished applicants. Winners were announced at the association's XPONENTIAL awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 30, at McCormick Place in Chicago.
The Kansas State Polytechnic program nomination detailed its plethora of UAS training options, which range from for-credit bachelor degrees to noncredit short courses customized for specific professional applications. The program's training options include Federal Aviation Administration commercial pilot certification for students. Degree-seeking students not only receive flight training in a range of multi-rotor and fixed-wing platforms, but they also become instructor pilots of these systems. As with all aircraft, safety is at the forefront of all flight training courses offered by Kansas State Polytechnic.
"I am so proud to be part of the fantastic UAS program at Kansas State Polytechnic,” said Kurt J. Carraway, UAS executive director of the campus's Applied Aviation Research Center. "The UAS training and education team includes campus faculty, staff and our incredible pool of students. Our education model is similar to our manned professional pilot program, which means we use upper-class undergraduate students as flight instructors of some of our courses. This prepares our students to lead aircrews in a professional manner upon graduation."
Carraway said the Kansas State Polytechnic UAS training and education model works, as evidenced by its incredibly high post-graduation placement rates and feedback from corporate partners that hire the program's graduates.
"We are also humbled to have such strong partnerships with our public safety agencies across the state, which includes training emergency managers, law enforcement officers and firefighters on practical applications for incorporating UAS operations into their toolkit for response options," Carraway said.
The Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International's XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators in the unmanned systems industry, including individuals and organizations, with a demonstrated commitment to advancing technology, leading and promoting safe operations, and developing programs that use unmanned systems to improve the human condition.
"The rapid growth of the unmanned systems industry is reshaping our future by expanding business markets, providing consumers with innovative solutions and even saving lives," said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International. "The XCELLENCE awards recognize companies and individuals who are achieving remarkable results with unmanned systems technology to benefit our communities."
K-State Faculty Highlights
APDesign professor releases new book 'Linear Thought-Condensation'
Peter Magyar, professor of architecture in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, recently published "Linear Thought-Condensation," released spring 2019.
"Unify knowing and feeling with drawing, this process is influenced by the racial memory of our body, the outcome could be unpredictable, mysterious and timeless," Magyar said. "If the drawn investigation questions the fundamentals of knowledge, existence and truth, then the resulting architecture might embody a new branch of philosophy. It will affect simultaneously our cerebral, tactile, and spatial perceptions and appear as a circumstantial singularity."
Additional contributors to the book include Adriana Molina, Robert McCarter, Kendra Schank Smith and Gyorgy Szego.
In addition to Magyar's book, his poster of the "Second National Salon of Hungarian Architecture" was recently published. Two of Magyar's works are on national exhibition, which takes place every five years in Budapest, Hungary.
Between 1989 and 2011, Magyar served as director of the Schools of Architecture at three American universities. He holds a Master of Architecture and a Doctorate of Architecture issued by the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary. He has taught, lectured and practiced internationally and designs large urban ensembles — many of which have been constructed. He has authored many books about his projects and in 2011 won the Pro Architectura Hungarica Medal and in 2015 became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and Letters. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2016 and a finalist of the World Architecture Festival in 2017 and 2018.
K-State Student News
Three Kansas State University students receive Fulbright awards to study/teach abroad
Three Kansas State University students will represent the United States as Fulbright award recipients.
Jakob Hanschu, senior in anthropology and geography, Hillsboro; Sarah Marek, senior in secondary education, German and Spanish, Holton; and Hannah Harker, master's student in second language acquisition-Spanish, Marshallville, Ohio, are 2019-2020 Fulbright U.S. student grantees.
The Fulbright programs create international educational exchange opportunities to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Fulbright grant recipients receive round-trip transportation, tuition when applicable and a monthly living stipend for one academic year abroad.
Hanschu will attend the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom to study critical theory and politics. He is the president of the Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry Student Ambassadors, vice president of Anthropology Club, and organizer of the Anthropology Book Club. During his undergraduate studies, he has authored five peer-reviewed articles, co-authored a peer-reviewed book chapter and given nearly 20 academic presentations.
In addition to the Fulbright, Hanschu's other honors include being named a Rhodes Scholarship finalist; receiving the Huber Self Geography Scholarship, Patricia J. O'Brien Scholarship in Archaeology, Mark Chapman Scholarship, Peru-Sondor Field School Scholarship, Putnam Scholarship, Kassebaum Scholarship, Swogger Primary Texts Scholarship and the College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Award; and earning first place at the 2018 Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division of the American Association of Geographers Undergraduate Paper Competition and receiving an Undergraduate Student Poster Award from the Society for American Archaeology/Institute for Field Research. A graduate of Hillsboro High School, Hanschu is the son of Jayson and Jan Hanschu, Hillsboro.
Marek will teach English at a high school in Germany. 
A member of the University Honors Program, she is the president of German Club; a member of Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education, Delta Phi Alpha National German Honorary Society and Sigma Delta Pi Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society; and house manager for the Manhattan Arts Center. Marek presented her undergraduate research on peer interactions in second language at the American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference.
In addition to the Fulbright, Marek's honors include a Putnam Scholarship, Tomorrow's Teacher Scholarship and an Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry Research Grant. A graduate of Rock Creek High School, Marek is the daughter of Norbert and Jennifer Marek, Holton.
Harker will teach English and attend classes in Montevideo, Uruguay. 
She is the president of the Modern Languages Graduate Student Association and served as vice president of Sigma Delta Pi Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society. As part of her master's thesis, she is researching language change in Spanish literary texts during the 17th and 19th centuries. At Texas Tech University in March, she presented an earlier version of this project at the 20th annual Céfiro Conference, which focuses on Hispanic linguistic and cultural exchanges.
A graduate of Smithville High School and Malone University, Harker is the daughter of Brad and Lorna Harker, Marshallville, Ohio.
To learn more about competing for future Fulbright opportunities or other scholarships while a student at Kansas State University, contact Jim Hohenbary, director of the office of nationally competitive scholarships, at jimlth@k-state.edu. The deadline for the next round of Fulbright competition is Aug. 30.
Battle of the bots: Robotics team wins regionals, on to nationals
The Combat Robotics Squad, from the Kansas State University Robotics Competition Team, took first place in the regional competition, BOTSKC, April 7 in Liberty, Missouri. The squad now qualifies for national competition May 18 in California, Pennsylvania.
The event, sponsored by the National Robotics League, is a double-elimination, single-combat battle tournament bracket. For each battle, two teams put their robots into opposite corners and the first team to break, flip or otherwise incapacitate the other robot wins. If time runs out before there is a clear winner, a panel of judges declares a winner.
The squad from the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering competed in the 15-pound weight class against 33 other entrants. In addition to head-to-head battles, teams compete in video interviews and written documentation segments.
"We fought five times in our path to second place overall in the battle section," said Isaiah Garrett, senior in computer engineering from Lawrence and president of the robotics team. "However, our stellar interviews and documentation pulled us into first place by overall points."
William Hageman, Kansas State University assistant professor of electrical and computer science, is faculty adviser for the team.
Other members of the Combat Robotics Squad include Eero Halbleib, junior in electrical engineering, Holton; Jeffrey Payne, senior in chemical engineering, Olathe; Noah Aeillo, and Andrew Haverkamp, both juniors in mechanical engineering and both from Topeka; Kyle Bannon, junior in mechanical engineering, Wichita; and Bradly Snow, senior in electrical engineering, Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge awards $77,000 to student entrepreneurs
A student entrepreneurship competition featuring 56 high school and 10 collegiate teams from across Kansas has awarded entrepreneurial-minded students with $77,000 in prize money.
The Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge gave students experience in the process of making a business proposal. The sixth annual event was organized by the Kansas State University Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship and was sponsored by the Kansas Masonic Foundation on behalf of all Kansas Masons, and supported by Network Kansas.
"I was blown away by the maturity and poise of all of the students, especially at the high school level, and was particularly impressed with the innovative ideas on display," said Rick Ryan, executive vice president of the Kansas Masonic Foundation. "We see this event as an opportunity for the Kansas Masons to extend our charitable mission to help young people build businesses that are going to help the state's economy and be beneficial to all Kansans."
The Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge saw teams compete in two areas: an elevator pitch and a mock boardroom session. For the elevator pitch, competitors had two minutes to pitch their business to a panel of judges without the aid of any presentation materials. In the mock boardroom, judges reviewed each teams' executive summary and had 15 minutes with each team to ask questions about their businesses. The judges' scores were used to determine winners in the different competition divisions.
High school teams also had the option to participate in a tradeshow event showcasing their products and services. Guests at the competition were able to vote for their favorite idea. The winning team received a $500 prize sponsored by Network Kansas.
"This event is an opportunity to showcase the tremendous entrepreneurial talent we have in the state of Kansas," said Chad Jackson, director of the Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship. "The real-world experience of pitching a business in front of the type of business experts we have on our panel is invaluable to these students, and provides real-world feedback and support to launch companies within our state."
High school competition winners
Existing Business Division:
• Grand prize of $4,000 — Ethan Lang, Thomas More Prep-Marian High School, Hays, for Making Cents of Finance.
• Runner-up prize of $2,500 — Aidan Scurato and Nate Schanker, Blue Valley North High School, Overland Park, for Hyped KC.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Julia Rieger, Clay Center Community Middle School, Clay Center, for jBev Studio & Design.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Laura Koch, Chase County High School, Cottonwood Falls, for Fixes and Stitches.
Technology Division:
• Grand prize of $4,000 — Austin Jones and Hunter Vasquez, Blue Valley West High School, Overland Park, for Drone Estate.
• Runner-up prize of $2,500 — Sailor-Anne Seiler, Hodgeman County High School, Jetmore, for Bee Safe.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Austin Stahl, Seaman Middle School, Topeka, for Free State UAS.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Erny Knelsen and Tayber Elder, Greeley County High School, Tribune, for VrView.
Agriculture Division:
• Grand prize of $4,000 — Dylan Ketzner and Brady Ketzener, Cheylin High School, Bird City, for Ketzner Feed Roasted Gold.
• Runner-up prize of $2,500 — Lane Manners and David Rohling, Labette County High School, Altamont, for M&R Technologies.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Cassandra Aleshire and Elizabeth Huskey, Lincoln High School, Lincoln, for Aleshire Farms.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Jena Kunc and Dylan White, Republic County High School, Belleville, for Otter Creek Farms.
Open Division:
• Grand prize of $4,000 — Cassie Stickler, Pike Valley High School, Scandia, for The Bomb Lip Balm.
• Runner-up prize of $2,500 — Kodi Rogers, Scott Community High School, Scott City, for Origins.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Reema Moussa, The Independent School, Wichita, for HoopHers.
• Honorable mention of $1,000 — Andrew Foote and Molly Foote, Hoxie High School, Hoxie, for Contained.
Collegiate competition winners
Technology Division:
• Grand prize of $5,000 — Dustin Aherin, Kansas State University, doctoral student in pathobiology from Phillipsburg, for Cattlelist.
• Runner-up prize for $4,000 — Tammy Dorsey and James Balman, Wichita State University, Wichita, for Prenatal Hope.
• Honorable mention prize for $2,500 — Joshua Peck, Emporia State University, Emporia, for Outdoor Buddy.
Open Division:
• Grand prize of $5,000 — Wynter Jacobs and Sarah Clausen, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, for Live Oriental.
• Runner-up prize for $4,000 — Andrew Foreman, Jim Henry and Jonathan Barnell, Washburn University, Topeka, for Arbor Industries.
• Honorable mention prize for $2,500 — Anni Paunisaari, Emporia State University, Emporia, for The Circle.