Alumni News

Almost daily, there are reports of attacks on the security of the computing data and interconnected devices that make up the digital nervous system of our society, from the computers critical to the functioning of government and business, to information stored in the cloud, to cellphones more powerful than the systems that helped send Apollo astronauts to the moon.

Today’s business executives, policymakers, researchers and consumers operate in an environment that is not only infused by information gleaned from big data, but increasingly directed by it. As decision makers turn to big data analytics tools to shape and support their initiatives, companies rely on it to hone and optimize their operations and shoppers to guide purchasing decisions.

Recent breakthroughs in imaging technology and biomolecular research are together shedding new light on the brain’s fundamental operations, revealing the mechanisms by which thoughts are generated, emotions triggered and movements coded. Aided by high-powered microscopes and phosphorescent tracking, neuroscientists can now observe, for example, the activation of cells in the cerebral cortex that equip animals to navigate within territorial grids and trace the formation of a sea slug’s memory of a predator’s attack.

From large-scale weather or environmental disaster predictions and efficient design of vehicles and power generators, to understanding how bacteria propel themselves and how nutrients are delivered to different organs in our body at the cell level — researchers will need to find new ways of studying the complex flow of liquids, gases and plasmas that drive or characterize intricate climatic, transportation and biological systems.

Peter Engler was four years old when his family fled Berlin in the wake of Kristallnacht, the infamous “Night of Broken Glass.” Stateless, their passports stamped “J” for Juden by the Nazis, the Englers made their way to Shanghai, one of the only free ports in the world at the time. Soon after arriving, they were confined to a mile-square Jewish ghetto by Japanese occupiers.

Despite the drizzle, hundreds of middle school and high school students from throughout northern New Jersey roamed the NJIT campus Jan. 12 in pursuit of scientific victory. As participants in the 2018 New Jersey Regional Science Olympiad, coordinated by the university’s Center for Pre-College Programs, they were visiting NJIT to engage in a variety of hands-on, competitive activities designed to teach them about and nurture their interest in STEM.

Michael Lee, an assistant professor of informatics who focuses on human-computer interaction, has invented a clever application to bridge the digital divide: a multi-level game called Gidget that teaches people of all ages and cultures to program by solving debugging puzzles.

NJIT is part of a team led by Kansas State University that has been awarded several million dollars by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide technical assistance nationwide and to all tribal governments interested in cleaning up brownfield sites.

Come Jan. 20, 2018, 20 middle school students from Sussex Avenue Renew School in Newark will begin a free program to learn basic coding language and hear from guest speakers about coding careers. The initiative, called Newark Kids Code, is a pilot partnership between New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the Urban League of Essex County.