Society consumes too much energy. Industry takes an especially large slice of the energy pie, and Afrida Kabir, a process engineer and 2016 NJIT chemical engineering graduate, is heading to Finland to study technologies that would curb industry’s energy appetite.

Kabir recently joined the Advanced Energy Solutions master’s program at Aalto University on a full-ride scholarship to study drying processes, methods, and designs to make drying more efficient and sustainable.

Countless hours of research and preparation were on display at the Undergraduate Summer Research and Innovation (URI) Symposium as 134 students presented 108 projects to a group of peers, NJIT faculty and URI External Advisory Board members. The board selected three top project presentations for the Dr. James F. Stevenson Innovation Awards, named for the late educator and engineer who supported NJIT’s Interdisciplinary Design Studio, TechQuest Innovation and URI programs.

Dhiraj Shah, a transformational business leader, high growth investor and passionate entrepreneur who founded global IT services company Avaap, has joined NJIT’s Board of Trustees.

Shah is executive chairman of Avaap, a technology and management consultancy that provides software services to help organizations modernize and transform their operations for the digital world. Its clients are concentrated in healthcare, higher education and government. Shah founded the Edison-based firm in 2006.

Ayushi Sangoi ’20, a Ph.D. candidate who uses neuroimaging and eye movement-tracking equipment to discover connections between brain injuries and eye disorders was awarded a highly competitive graduate fellowship from Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society. The biomedical engineer is the first NJIT graduate student to receive one.

Sangoi was among 28 awardees, selected from a field of 336 applicants, who were commended for their academic achievements, campus leadership and service, and anticipated contributions to their fields. Fellows receive a $10,000 stipend.

Daniela Bushiri, NJIT Class of 2021, has not been in the U.S. for long – about five years. In that time, she graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in chemical engineering, a minor in Applied Mathematics, and is now taking her talents to Columbia University in the fall where she will research alternative energy in pursuit of a Ph.D. She is an Albert Dorman Scholar, a McNair Scholar, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and a member of the National Society of Black Engineers.

Parth Agrawal, a 2021 biomedical engineering graduate and Albert Dorman Honors scholar, was accepted to the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. But he’s not going – right away, at least. He deferred admission for a two-year fellowship with Venture For America, a nonprofit organization that trains recent college graduates to work in startups in cities across the country.

Facebook, Merck, Brown University, the University of Minnesota, Venture for America and the U.S. Air Force are among the destinations of standouts from the Class of 2021 at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Here’s a closer look at seven graduates. 

Roberto Adamson: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule 

3.49 is not a baseball ERA, basketball steals per game, volleyball block average, or any other athletic statistic measured of the Highlanders this spring semester. Rather, it is their impressive cumulative grade point average.

This semester marks the 25th straight that Highlander student athletes have held above a 3.0 GPA—a streak extending over 12 years. 

At NJIT, Sydney Sweet’s success extended beyond the classroom into research labs, cooperative educational experiences, a Goldwater scholarship and the opportunity to study in Australia. 

Remarkably, the chemical engineering major and Albert Dorman Honors College scholar also found time to tutor undergraduates in math and hold leadership roles in chemical engineering honor society Omega Chi Epsilon, the Science and Politics Society and Society of Musical Arts. 

Roberto Adamson, an aspiring technology leader who aims to create AI-driven convenience and efficiency for peoples’ homes and workplaces, will begin the next stage of his professional journey at one of the world’s preeminent STEM universities. 

Named the “Outstanding Senior” for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Adamson will move to Switzerland this fall to pursue a master’s degree in electrical engineering at ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, where he will specialize in control systems and artificial intelligence.