NJIT hosted the ninth New Jersey Big Data Alliance Symposium, bringing together nearly 200 experts from academia, government and industry to share ideas about the present state and future trends of their field. Attendees represented a gamut of careers, not just programmers, which the panelists said indicates that the importance of artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning applies to nearly all aspects of life in the 21st century. Many students were also present. Distinguished Professor David Bader, director of NJIT’s Institute for Data Science, chaired the symposium. Atam…

Crisis presents opportunity, and given the pandemic, war in Ukraine, structural racism, climate change and questions around the world’s supply of energy, food and water, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson called on the Class of 2022 at New Jersey Institute of Technology to take on such challenges with the goal of improving lives. “The possibilities before you are very great. The needs of humanity also are very great. And we are counting on you to help us meet them,” said Jackson, who has led RPI since 1999. “So, as you go about your lives and your careers, let…

Pradnya Desai, a senior computer science major, made it her mission to accomplish as much as possible during her four years at NJIT, amassing an impressive resume that includes multiple awards and recognitions for her work combining technological invention with a desire to positively affect  society. Her most recent achievement, a startup idea called Ad-Connect, recently won the Audience Choice Award for Best Pitch at the 2022 University Pitch Competition of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE-NJ), which includes $500 and a one-year membership to TiE. The project previously received a $3,000…

Anuja Badeti started interning at Bloomberg in high school, kept working there during summer breaks from college and will accept a full-time role upon her graduation from the joint B.S./M.S. program in computer science this spring.  It's a strikingly logical career path, considering her childhood dream of being a farmer — "I really liked the idea of being able to grow food and eat it," she said — and then her move into campus politics, where she served as president of the NJIT Student Senate after not being involved until her junior year. Badeti was born in California, moved to New…

LIVE STREAM LINKS: May 11, 2022, 3 p.m.  NJIT, Doctor of Philosophy Hooding Ceremony  https://youtu.be/k7gF15btnYk May 13, 2022, 9:30 a.m.  NJIT, Newark College of Engineering Convocation Ceremony  https://youtu.be/fvaFjMNqZ_U May 13, 2022, 12 p.m.  NJIT, College Convocation Ceremony  https://youtu.be/a2jVgu7g0Yc May 13, 2022, 2:30 p.m.  NJIT, Newark College of Engineering Convocation Ceremony  https://youtu.be/giczS5D3rv0 May 13, 2022, 5 p.m. NJIT, Ying Wu College of Computing Convocation Ceremony …

Information technology student Sam Itman has long believed that knowledge and passion for technology can open doors as “it presents a world of opportunities to those who are willing to discover them.” For Itman, these opportunities have led to an impactful internship at Optum and a cybersecurity position with the federal government. Itman is a dean’s list student in NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing and member of the National Science Foundation’s CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program, part of the NJIT Secure Computing Initiative. The competitive scholarship program provides him the…

Sreya Das, graduating this spring with a bachelor's in computer science and is headed for the cybersecurity team at financial giant JPMorgan Chase, credits much of her success to involvement with activities outside the classroom. Das joined so many NJIT student organizations and academic commitments that she practically lost count. "The number of activities she is successfully involved in is mind boggling. I call her superwoman," Ying Wu College of Computing Professor James Geller said. On first glance, Das' technical commitments as a Highlander are what you might expect from her as an…

Business publication ROI-NJ included several NJIT executives and faculty among its annual list of New Jersey's top technology influencers. "Innovating: If your company isn’t doing it, it probably will not be around for very long," the publication stated. "Our goal was to select those who are having the most impact in the technology and innovation sectors. … We’re overwhelmed with the quality of honorees on the list — and humbled to know that there are many others out there deserving of the recognition." The editors selected President Joel S. Bloom as the fourth-most influential technologist…

Assistant Professor Hua Wei is studying how to build more realistic models for traffic simulation, with the goal of improving predictions by closing the gap between just following traffic laws vs. how people actually drive. That gap can be significant, so Wei is using the latest in artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning to help his cause, supported by  a $175,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation. Wei explained that reinforcement learning has seen success in artificial intelligence domains such as virtual gaming where simulations are constructed using…

NJIT’s Career Development Services recognized both a graduate student and undergrad in its annual intern and co-op of the year awards. The grad student, Pooja Kittanakere Balaji ’22, is pursuing a master’s in computer science, while the undergrad, Rivka Farrell ’23, is majoring in biology. CDS honored Farrell for her work as a research intern at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute during the summer of 2021, and Balaji for her role in a cooperative educational experience at Siemens Digital Industries between June and December 2021. Each has ambitious goals and is…