Alumni News

A robotic alarm clock that hides from you, so you have to get out of bed anyway if you wish to silence it, was the star Highlander entry in the spring 2025 edition of the MakeNJIT hardware hackathon. The clockmakers earned third place overall among 47 teams from several universities. Members of Team Daniel knew that many tinkerers have built such devices, but they designed their own version just for the fun and education of it.

Imani Ihmaid’s journey as an interior design student at NJIT is rooted in a passion for design that began in high school. After taking a drafting class and completing an internship with RH Interiors, the Paterson, New Jersey native discovered a love for interior design that solidified her decision to pursue the dual path of architecture and interior design. At NJIT, she found a welcoming and respected environment that fostered her creativity and growth. 

As Acewin Tam prepares to cross the graduation stage at NJIT, she reflects not just on the culmination of five years of rigorous study, but on a deeply personal journey of growth, discovery and purpose. An architecture student whose work straddles the line between the technical and the poetic, Tam has made her mark not only through design excellence but through a commitment to community, justice and innovation.

Jordan Hu ’89, CEO of RiskVal Financial Solutions, and a distinguished alumnus of New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has been named a finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year New Jersey award. Now in its 40th year, the award celebrates entrepreneurs who are shaping the future through groundbreaking companies. Hu's journey embodies the American dream. From his initial move to the United States from Taiwan with limited resources, his dedication propelled him to launch RiskVal Financial Solutions, a multimillion-dollar global enterprise.

Seeing her father struggle through rehabilitation exercises after a stroke made Marina Samuel '25 think, why can’t therapy be more personalized, effective and efficient for the patient? So, with a central focus on patients, she pursued a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology and after graduation in May, will seek a Ph.D. in the same discipline at NJIT. Her research as an undergraduate fueled this pursuit.

Graduating NJIT senior Danielle Grunwald and her employer as of this summer, Axtria Inc., are made for each other — Grunwald loves digging into life sciences data to extract useful insights, and that’s the gist of what Axtria does. Grunwald is wrapping up her studies with a B.S. in data science from Ying Wu College of Computing. She was also an Albert Dorman Honors College scholar, the only female member of the NJIT bowling team (personal high score 268), active with the Nucleus yearbook and an event coordinator for the Student Activities Council.

As Earth Day calls attention to the need for smart energy choices, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is answering with a bold, campus-wide plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. More than a pledge, NJIT’s new decarbonization roadmap is a detailed, evidence-based blueprint to transform how energy is used, generated and conserved across its 45-acre urban campus in University Heights.

For Digital Designer Megan Krutz, graduation from NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design isn’t just a milestone — it’s a full-circle moment that reflects years of growth, discovery and the kind of artistic transformation she never anticipated. As she looks ahead, Krutz can’t help but reflect on how much NJIT helped her grow into the designer and educator she’s today.

Biologists at NJIT unearth a buried chapter in the evolution of dirt ants, uncovering first fossil evidence that one of Earth's stealthiest insects inhabited the Caribbean millions of years ago. Wherever there’s dirt there’s bound to be ants, but one particular group is so adept at blending in with the ground that they hold the name “dirt ant” (Basiceros) all to themselves. Now, an ancient fossil has revealed these elusive ants have seen much more of the planet’s dirt throughout their history than scientists previously realized.