Alumni News

Robert Cohen, a three-time alumnus, chair of NJIT's Board of Trustees and President of Digital, Robotics, and Enabling Technologies at Stryker, has been inducted as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). This prestigious honor recognizes Cohen’s prolific, innovative and groundbreaking contributions to the medtech field and academia.

Materium Technologies, a startup company with deep NJIT roots, is bringing data science innovations into the slowly evolving field of solar energy panels. Startups are always a gamble, but the Materium team has a good hand, with two pair of Highlanders — recent alumni Sheldon Fereira (M.S. ‘23) and Scott Daniel (M.S. ‘24), advised by Professor Nuggehalli Ravindra and Adjunct Instructor Michael Jaffe. Their collective scientific expertise spans the worlds of artificial intelligence, applied physics, biomedical engineering, and semiconductors.

Dear Highlanders, NJIT is proud to celebrate Juneteenth (being observed by the university on Friday, June 21), a federal and state holiday that commemorates the day (June 19, 1865) when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and brought news that enslaved Black people in Texas were free. This officially ended slavery in the United States more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Fernanda Somohano Ortega ‘27 is eyeing cybersecurity jobs in the sports world, or better yet an opportunity to work in Barcelona and support her favorite soccer club. With the help of the Innovation Fellow of The Knowledge House (TKH), the NJIT computer science major is closing in fulfilling her career aspirations. 

Cade Ladehoff was named to the 2024 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division I Freshman All-American Team the organization announced on Monday. Ladehoff, the 2024 America East Rookie of the Year, was selected to the NCBWA Freshman Second Team All-America, ranking sixth among all freshmen with 60 RBI this year while batting .324.

The transparent larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) is only 4mm long, but for NJIT biologist Kristen Severi, the vertebrate offers an expansive window for exploration into how the brain and nervous system controls behavior. “Like putting a big puzzle together, we’re trying to understand all the circuits in the brain that control locomotion,” said Severi. “If the spinal cord is damaged, it can result in paralysis, but we still don't understand all the pieces we’d need to restore full function.

A team of researchers have demonstrated a new method that leverages AI and computer simulations to train robotic exoskeletons that can help users save energy while walking, running, and climbing stairs. Described in a study published in Nature, the novel method rapidly develops exoskeleton controllers to assist locomotion without relying on lengthy human-involved experiments. Moreover, the method can apply to a wide variety of assistive devices beyond the hip exoskeleton demonstrated in this research.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) came out with its annual regional rankings for teams and individuals on Friday, June 7 and the NJIT women's tennis team was represented on both lists.