From 3D Bioprinting to Disease Tracking, NJIT Showcases its Groundbreaking Labs

Throughout the year, NJIT researchers focus on unsolved problems in areas such as medical science, energy sustainability and cybersecurity and test new methods to tackle them. Each spring, at the annual Research Institutes, Centers and Laboratories Showcase, they step out of their labs to present their progress to the campus community.

The university’s six primary research clusters, which are all represented at the event, encompass Bioscience and Bioengineering, Data Science and Management, the Environment and Sustainability, Materials Science and Engineering, Robotics and Machine Intelligence and Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

In Jonathan Grasman’s Tissue Innervation and Muscle Mimetics Laboratory, for example, a team develops technologies to boost muscle regeneration following major tissue loss. Arjun Venkatesan's Emerging Contaminants Research Laboratory analyzes wastewater from the state’s treatment facilities to identify pesticides and look for chemical evidence that these substances have entered the human body - a critical step toward understanding the implications for health.

Salam Daher’s Virtual Technology Applications Lab for Human develops techniques and technologies that improve learning and training, such as 3D virtual patients. Nathan Malkin’s Security, Privacy, Usability, Respect Lab designs systems that help people overcome technological challenges through more usable interfaces, such as by automating and eliminating confusing choices in smart home settings.

This year, the showcase highlighted two initiatives that are shaping research and discovery on campus: major new investments in research and education in artificial intelligence and translational research.

 “Everything is data-driven. Societal needs are identified and substantiated on the basis of the data. Through artificial intelligence and machine learning, we now have the capabilities to look into massive amounts of data and develop new approaches to harness it to meet those needs,” said Atam Dhawan, senior vice provost for research at NJIT. “The goal is to facilitate translation of innovative technologies into applications with a high societal and economic impact.”

At the showcase, a panel that included Jamie Payton, dean of Ying Wu College of Computing, Eliza Michalopoulou, chair of the mathematical sciences department and David Bader, director of NJIT’s Institute for Data Science, discussed AI’s role in advancing university research, such as technologies to predict the course of diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Earlier this year, NJIT launched the Grace Hopper AI Research Institute. The new institute is back by a $10+ million investment designed to significantly advance the university’s strength in the field of AI and position NJIT to become a leader in both AI research and application in higher education. The institute’s seed grant program primarily supports students engaged in research ranging from advanced machine learning methods for data analytics to topological networks for applications with high potential impact, such as space weather, material science and photonics.

“In research, we're training the new generation. We’re also training the new workforce and giving them the knowledge and skills they need for what's happening out in the real world, whether it's research in machine learning or using machine learning and AI for optimization of transportation, moving goods and so on,” said Michalopoulou.

“NJIT is in a unique position in this innovation sector, in this region of the country, where we interact with multiple sectors of the economy – from security to transportation to manufacturing to food production. We have gaming and entertainment, we have fashion, we have the tech sector, we have financial services and insurance, and that puts us in this perfect area to be able to innovate. Our location is so unique, and unlike many other universities around the country that don't have that rich economy around them,” said Bader. 

NJIT’s new Center for Translational Research (CTR), funded by a $6 million grant from the Accelerating Research Translation program of the National Science Foundation’s Technology, Innovation and Partnerships directorate, promotes collaborative research, innovation partnerships, entrepreneurial pathways, education, training and infrastructure development.

The NJIT Board of Trustees has also approved a $9 million Collaborative Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships (CRISP) investment plan to help researchers attract further funding through large-scale, multi-disciplinary collaborative research projects. An example is the “Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence for Seamless, Sustainable, Accessible, Affordable, and Safe Transportation” – an interdisciplinary program across Newark College of Engineering, Jordon Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts, and Ying Wu College of Computing.

The CTR serves as a hub for commercialization training and development on campus, but also as a meeting place to generate ideas and formulate new approaches for addressing unmet needs in areas ranging from health care, to sustainable energy and environmental remediation, to data privacy. 

Along with the NJIT chapter of the National Academy of Inventors, the center is convening a workshop next month that will bring together researchers from universities throughout the state, lawmakers and representatives from major water companies to discuss policies and innovative technologies aimed at remediating PFAs, so-called “forever chemicals,” in the water supply.