Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts

Over 86 billion neurons are in the human brain, roughly 450,000 of which generate dopamine — a powerful neurotransmitter that drives motivated behavior, learning and habit formation. Now, researchers say one brain region, the cerebellum, may hold more influence over these dopamine neurons than realized. New findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience have shed light on a mysterious pathway between the reward center of the brain that is key to how we form habits, known as the basal ganglia, and another anatomically distinct region where nearly three-quarters of the brain’s neurons...

NJIT’s spring career fair is right around the corner and registration is now open for students on the Handshake platform. Career Development Services biannual career fair has become one of the most anticipated events for students. The fall semester fair, held last September, was the largest-ever participation: 3,300 students and alumni and 240 companies packed into the WEC and Naimoli Center. The spring fair, now scheduled for March 4 from 11 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., is shaping up to be another packed house. Students are encouraged to register now for the upcoming fair and for pre-fair events...

Voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri now have the ears of an estimated 142 million users in the United States, but just how much we trust and listen to AI assistants for daily information may come down to how much we identify with them personality-wise. That’s the takeaway from a study led by researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Penn State University examining the impact of voice assistant (VA) personalities on user engagement and decision-making. The study — published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies — has revealed that users...

A new committee aims to accelerate gender equity among faculty members at New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Women Faculty Advisory Committee, chaired by Nancy Steffen-Fluhr, will hold peer forums to examine key issues based on the testimony of junior faculty members. It also intends to poll women faculty to gather quantitative data. Both will fuel an action plan and create a foundation for measuring progress toward faculty gender diversity.  Women are particularly underrepresented among full-time faculty at NJIT, most starkly at the level of professor, where they represent...