Wichita State Continues to Grow Engineering Faculty

Wichita State University College of Engineering continues to expand in quality and diversity with the hiring of five new faculty members in 2016. A total of 19 faculty positions have been added since Fall 2013. The number of women faculty members have increased 33% over the same period.

They join an award-winning faculty who create environments where engineering students learn and conduct research side-by-side with students from other disciplines, faculty, and industry. It is an exciting time of growth in faculty, facilities, and programs as the College equips students with the key ingredients necessary to excel in their careers: mindset, skill-set, and hands-on experience.

Please join in celebrating the newest members of the College of Engineering esteemed faculty. They are introduced below.

Christopher Wyant, Engineering Educator, Engineering Student Success Center (PhD candidate, Wichita State University)

Mr. Chris Wyant has a Master's Degree from University of Kansas, and is a doctoral student in the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department at Wichita State University. His research interests include engineering education and motivational factors in STEM performance. Mr. Wyant will be teaching Engineering 101 during the fall semester. Mr. Wyant enjoys spending time with his wife and five kids, biking, and cutting edge science.

Dr. Bhisham Sharma, Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering (PhD, Purdue University)

Dr. Bhisham Sharma received his PhD in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University. His research focuses on gaining fundamental insights into the acoustical and mechanical behavior of advanced engineered material systems. His other research interests are in utilizing novel experimental methods to understand the interplay between microstructures, deformation mechanisms, and the processing methods required to manufacture such advanced materials. During the fall semester, Dr. Sharma is teaching Theory of Elasticity. In his spare time, Dr. Sharma enjoys playing soccer/tennis/badminton, listening to classical music, and cooking various ethnic foods.

Dr. Debswapna Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (PhD, University of Missouri)

Dr. Debswapna Bhattacharya obtained his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Missouri. His research interests include bioinformatics and computational biology, data science and big data analytics, machine learning and data mining. This fall, he is teaching Introduction to Bioinformatics. In his spare time, Dr. Bhattacharya enjoys listening to music.

Dr. David Long, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

(PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Dr. David Long earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After that, Dr. Long was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, then a faculty member at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research broadly spans cell and tissue mechanobiology. Dr. Long enjoys traveling, mountaineering, yoga, cycling, basketball, and spending time with his family. Dr. Long will join the Department of Biomedical Engineering in January 2017.

Dr. Yumeng Li, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering (PhD, Virginia Tech)

Dr. Yumeng Li received her PhD from Virginia Tech in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. Her research interests lie in the fields of concurrent design of materials and structures, multiscale modeling of multifunctional composites and failure and fracture analysis. During the fall semester, Dr. Li is teaching Material Engineering. Dr. Li enjoys traveling, playing badminton and swimming in her spare time.

This newsletter is an official publication of Wichita State University College of Engineering.

Questions? Contact Polly Basore, WSU College of Engineering Strategic Communications Officer.