A small indigenous Ecuadorian community now has clean spring water thanks to a passionate group of engineering students at the NJIT Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. The initiative started in 2016 as part of an independent project led by Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Jay Meegoda. Students in his classes were tasked with the design and implementation of a spring cap to clean and increase the supply of water from a natural spring in the Cotopaxi Province.  It’s the first of the three phases that will see the community gain access to clean spring water on tap. The…

NJIT Associate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Shawn Chester won the coveted Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), which recognizes special achievement in applied mechanics for researchers under the age of 41. Chester, an esteemed faculty member of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, is being recognized for outstanding research contributions to the mechanics of soft materials that are becoming part of the core knowledge of the field and are having a significant impact on its development.…

Her 20s have been a busy time for Dina Ayman: earning two degrees at NJIT in the same year, working at Intel and Microsoft, teaching at her alma mater and starting a consultancy dedicated to diversity and inclusion. Along the way, she achieved her dream of working at the intersection of engineering and technology, and became a role model for women interested in STEM. And now Forbes is recognizing all that, by naming her to its 2022 list of 30 Under 30 in Enterprise Technology. Ayman, a program manager at Microsoft, adjunct instructor at NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering and founder of…

A research paper on metal carbides and nitrides is paying dividends for NJIT’s Meng-Qiang Zhao — seven years after it was published. For the third straight year, Zhao, an assistant professor of chemical and materials engineering at NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering, has made Clarivate’s list of Highly Cited Researchers. Why? Chiefly because peers continue to cite the paper, which introduced a faster and safer way to synthesize MXenes, a family of novel 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides, according to Zhao. MXenes are promising electrode materials for next generation energy…

Andressa Marangon, a senior electrical and computer engineering major at New Jersey Institute of Technology, won a $1,000 scholarship from the IEEE Electron Devices Society for her role in improving the brightness and power consumption of blue LEDs that technologically lag behind their red and green cousins. That might not affect your iPhone or TV anytime soon, she said, but it's important for applications such as healthcare products and industrial machinery. Red, green and blue lights are required to make all other colors, but blue LEDs tend to leak electrons because they have a relatively…

Sanchoy Das recalls his first jaw-dropping view of an Amazon fulfillment warehouse in 2013. The word “explosive” came to mind. Gone were the single-product sections where boxes of diapers and paper towels were stacked next to each other in neat rows. Instead, these products were dispersed throughout the building in hundreds of different locations, tucked into bins with unrelated items such as ketchup and motor oil. But what looked like chaos, he learned, was in fact a sophisticated model optimized for speed. By offering free, expedited shipping, Amazon’s orders mushroomed. The e-tailer…

Nearly half of adolescents and young adults with lingering symptoms of concussion suffer from an eye coordination disorder that causes blurred and double vision, headaches and difficulties concentrating. There is no proven method for treating the condition when it occurs after a head injury. “The disorder makes it hard to read books, work on a computer or even use a smartphone, and the impact on cognition and learning can be severe. It also delays the return to sports, work and driving for young people,” said Tara Alvarez, a professor of biomedical engineering at NJIT and an expert on…

Xiaoyang Xu, a chemical and materials engineer at NJIT who specializes in nanomedicines, has secured a $1 million award from the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation to develop the next generation of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Xu’s immediate goal is to improve protections against COVID-19. He is designing a nano-sized delivery vehicle for gene-based medications that can be stored much longer and at higher temperatures than the current mRNA shots deployed against the virus, including by freeze-drying. “More durable vaccines would be especially useful in rural and…

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. “It’s wonderful…

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. Anyone who knows Parth shouldn’t be surprised at this decision. His ingenuity shined through the darkness of the pandemic when the Albert Dorman Honors College issued a call for design submission for face shields, in response…