Marginalia

Rainbow Patent

Cheong Choon Ng ’94/96, a mechanical engineering grad, came upon the bracelet-making business quite by accident. One day about three years ago, he saw his daughters Teresa and Michelle making brightly colored bracelets with rubber bands. He decided to join them, but quickly discovered his fingers were too big to help. Determined to participate, he engineered a wooden board with pushpins to help him make the bracelets. As he continued to tinker with his invention, it morphed into a kit that today 600 retailers carry and more than one million happy bracelet-makers own. A resident of Novi, Mich., Ng was officially granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in July — a patent for his Rainbow Loom.
 

Cruise to the Top

As hot new country act Florida Georgia Line produces chart-topping music, Dan Weller ’95/97 is along for the ride. Weller, a guitarist who has a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship as well as an MBA, has been touring with Florida Georgia Line. The band has seen its song “Cruise” rack up more than three million digital downloads and break the record (21 weeks) for longest tenure atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Weller, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., and has worked with Jason Aldean and Kid Rock, among others, returned to Wichita on Sept. 12 for a performance with Florida Georgia Line at INTRUST Bank Arena.

Gold Strike

Chris Barnes ’92, standout Shocker bowler now pro extraordinaire, and his bowling partner John Szczerbinski fs ’10, captured the men’s doubles gold medal by firing a record 569 score in the final match at the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Championships. The event took place in August in Las Vegas, where Team USA, including members Barnes and Szczerbinski, came up 57 pins short in the team event, grabbing silver medals. In the all-events portion of the tournament, total pins from each player’s round determined the medals, and Barnes made another gold strike, nabbing the top medal in dominating fashion, leading the silver position by 210 pins. Barnes, who earned a bachelor’s degree in management at Wichita State, lives in Double Oak, Texas.

Musical Fireworks

Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn, WSU assistant professor of composition, music theory and technology, has won the 2013 American Prize in composition for his saxophone concerto “Fireworks.”

Victor Markovich, WSU director of bands, asked Sternfeld-Dunn to compose a work to be performed at the 2012 Kansas Music Educators Conference. Out of that assignment came the high-energy “Fireworks.”

Sternfeld-Dunn hopes his award will help spark greater enthusiasm for the arts in Kansas — and encourage his students to pursue their own musical fireworks.
 

Poker Face

Maxx Coleman ’12 played his way to a 21st-place finish in the World Series of Poker’s main event held in Las Vegas in July.

With a prize pool of $59,708,800 in the No-Limit Hold ’em World Championship, the Wichita State entrepreneurship graduate took home $285,408, according to bluff.com, which lists his career total live tournament earnings at $332,372.

Coleman, who lives in Wichita, started playing poker with his friends and family around the kitchen table.

Shocker Red Soxer

Arnie Beyeler ’86, an infielder for the Shockers from 1984-86, is at the top of his game. As first base coach for the Boston Red Sox, he was on the field as the team clinched a World Series at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918. The season was his first in the major leagues after 26 years in the minors as a player, coach and manager. Beyeler, who graduated from WSU with a bachelor’s degree in radio, TV and film, stole 96 bases and hit .314 with 227 hits, including 44 doubles, eight triples, six home runs and 141 RBIs in 200 career games as a Shocker, earning first team all-Valley honors during each of the three seasons he played at WSU. His fave Shocker baseball memories? “Playing in Hawaii and winning the tournament, and playing on ESPN in the regional finals at Oklahoma State in 1985.”