All engineers are familiar with the chemical, mechanical and physical properties of the materials that they work with. But for materials engineers, their expertise goes much deeper, demonstrating highly detailed knowledge — down to the molecular and atomic level — of materials such as ceramics, concrete, metals, plastics, textiles and compounds that are compatible with living tissues. 

Pia Piazzi '26, a graduate of New Jersey Institute of Technology with a B.S. in materials engineering, is bringing that proficiency in materials science to the aerospace industry. 

Austin Chen ’26 arrived at NJIT with an interest in architecture, but he leaves with something more defined: a belief that the built environment must be measured not only by its form, but also by its function, performance, and how it responds to people who inhabit it.

NJIT celebrated its undergraduate Class of 2026 at Prudential Center in Newark, honoring baccalaureate degree candidates from across the university’s colleges in a ceremony centered on service, achievement, alumni connection and the responsibility to use an NJIT education with purpose.

Samantha Montalbine '26 always knew that she liked engineering. She was team captain of her middle-school robotics team in Brooklyn, and at Freehold Township High School she took engineering classes and served as president of the Technology Students Association.

But when Montalbine applied to New Jersey Institute of Technology's Newark College of Engineering, she was uncertain about which engineering track would be the right one for her. She ended up choosing mechanical engineering for an unconventional reason.

Students in Adjunct Professor Vincent Marchetto’s architecture studio are redesigning an abandoned railroad right-of-way in Jersey City as a 21st century urban greenway. Reconnection: The Bergen Arches studio focuses on the mile-long Erie Cut, a 60-foot-wide channel blasted from the live rock of the Palisades to a depth of 40–75 feet and crossed by four monumental arches. 

NJIT celebrated its master’s and doctoral graduates in two commencement ceremonies that joined academic tradition with messages about resilience, uncertainty, knowledge and the responsibility to use advanced education in service of others.

Avanish Kulkarni got his dream job right out of college.

Kulkarni, an Albert Dorman Honors College member who calls East Brunswick home, is graduating with a B.S. in computer science and will move to Silicon Valley this summer to become a software engineer at videogame platform company Roblox.

He scored the coveted position at Roblox after interning there in summer 2025 — and even that was highly competitive, with around 50,000 applicants whittled down to just a couple of hundred students selected.

Concluding our Senior Success series on honorees from the 2026 HCSLA Awards, we spotlight Thomas Omiatek ahead of Commencement 2026.

Academic excellence helped earn Thomas Omiatek the HCSLA Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award in Mathematical Sciences — but it was the hundreds of hours he spent tutoring peers in the Central King Building that set him apart.

Students from Albert Dorman Honors College courses presented their semester’s research during the fifth Honors Interdisciplinary Research Forum, showcasing projects that ranged from bias in generative artificial intelligence to engineering responses for environmental challenges along Newark’s waterways.

Continuing our Senior Success Series, we’re spotlighting undergraduate seniors honored at the 2026 HCSLA Awards as they prepare for Commencement.