Librarians and an increasing number of faculty are pushing NJIT ahead of the curve in a statewide effort to replace expensive textbooks with free online alternatives for lower-level courses. Free online course materials, which insiders refer to as open educational resources, can save money for students and be just as good or better than regular course material from traditional publishing companies.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues upending life for countless people around the world, threatening public health while disrupting everything from basic home and work routines, to air travel and financial markets. But what has the global slowdown meant for the environment and sustainable living, and what could it mean if some of the radical changes in our everyday lifestyles and consumption habits persisted long-term?

As emergency response teams in the region scramble to acquire dwindling medical supplies to combat the surge in COVID-19 (coronavirus) infections, diverse members of the NJIT community – from engineers to physicists to advanced manufacturing specialists to students – are designing and fabricating devices to help address the shortfall.

NJIT has been named one of the country’s Best Graduate Schools for Business in U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 listing. Only two other universities in New Jersey are ranked in this category.

Here you will find a weekly listing of updates and announcements for members of the NJIT campus community. Announcements are to be submitted through the form found at https://forms.gle/V6PBxUy5b3jkErMc8 or by your area vice president to Deric Raymond, director of content planning and intelligence, in the Office of Strategic Initiatives. Those submitted by each Thursday will be included in the following week's Updates and Announcements email.

Students applying for Fulbright scholarships often see their work described as advanced, insightful, sophisticated or any number of similar platitudes -- but for senior industrial design major Daniel Meza the word was also slimy. Meza, who plans to graduate in December from Hillier College of Architecture and Design and who's also an Albert Dorman Honors College student, found his medium in mold and slime. He is just the fourth NJIT student to become a Fulbright Scholar and the first from HCAD.

From traditional classroom learning and accelerated programs to online and hybrid (combining online and face-to-face) instruction, graduate students at NJIT have a variety of options to earn advanced degrees. They also have a lot of choice, with 50+ master’s programs (including 15 fully online), 19 doctoral programs and 40 certificate programs representing an array of STEM disciplines.

For its unwavering and ongoing commitment to both first-generation college students and students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, NJIT has been acknowledged in four key areas of distinction: inclusion, affordability, completion and outcomes. The accolade comes from Strive for College, an online mentoring platform that supports aspiring college students and with which NJIT is a success partner.

Interior design majors are learning to use virtual reality tools earlier than ever, with sophomores and even first-year students here at NJIT working with the technology as a way to gain an edge for their careers. The crux of the plan involved 14 sophomores in a design studio course developing virtual walk-throughs of cafés this semester throughout the entire design process, as instructed by School of Art + Design Director Glenn Goldman, with each student using an Oculus Rift headset and a high-end desktop computer.

Plenty of fictional works like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein have explored the idea of swapping out a brain from one individual and transferring it into a completely different body. However, a team of biologists and engineers has now used a variation of the sci-fi concept, via computer simulation, to explore a core brain-body question.