Communicating by sound underwater works great for dolphins and whales, so an NJIT expert decided to try a new variant of this method for autonomous vehicles, divers and sensors, too. Radio signals used by traditional wireless devices become too weak underwater, explained Ali Abdi, a professor of electrical engineering and director of the Advanced Communication and Signal Processing Laboratory, in NJIT’s Center for Wireless Information Processing. But sound has long been used to send data — the noise a fax machine makes when it’s connecting is evidence of one easy-to-understand example — and…

Matthew Berdel, a systems engineer who tests software during the workweek, spent his Saturday mornings in NJIT’s Makerspace last semester immersed in engineering of a very different sort: constructing a working machine from fabricated parts. “I wanted to know more about hardware,” Berdel explained. “I was looking for a deeper understanding of electrical and mechanical systems – and to develop a new set of skills I can rely on.” The systems engineer was one of 35 people to graduate earlier this year in the inaugural class of NJIT’s Advanced Manufacturing and Mechatronics Training Program.…

In a robotics lab spilling over with 3D-printed parts, engineering students are gutting toy trucks, SUVs, sedans and two-door Mini Coopers and refitting them with custom-designed systems: laser-cut side mirrors, wheels that can parallel park and a braking system that employs algorithms to control an electric motor, thus enabling soft and hard breaking, idling and taxiing. Now tooling around Cong Wang’s Control Automation Robotics Lab, where they are guided by remote drivers at gaming-style steering wheel and pedal control stations, the cars will soon be deployed on the streets of a…

More than 20 employers have been recognized by NJIT’s Career Development Services (CDS) as the university’s top recruitment partners, based on their 2019 hiring numbers. The honors mark the seventh consecutive year that CDS has paid tribute to employers for their engagement with and recruitment and hiring of students. “Each of the employers on this list has offered exciting and rewarding career opportunities to many NJIT students this year, and we truly could not achieve our mission without them,” noted Patrick Young, associate director of employer relations. “During this time of uncertainty…

The New Jersey Institute of Technology community notes with great sadness the passing of John J. Mooney MS ’60, an inspired engineer, renowned inventor and beloved alumnus of Newark College of Engineering who is best known for developing a catalytic converter for vehicles that filters three toxic chemicals. In devising a so-called “three-way” scrubber, Mooney and Carl D. Keith, his research partner at Engelhard Corporation (now part of BASF), were responding to new air quality standards established by the 1970 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act. Their device improved upon the original…

Donald “Will” Andrews, NJIT’s first-ever recipient of the Humanity in Action Fellowship, attributes his selection for the distinguished summertime program to his choice of study at the university: industrial engineering. “There probably weren’t that many engineers that applied … so that made my application stand out from the start — like, ‘hey, look, we have an engineer from Kentucky applying for this social sciences fellowship in Europe,’” said Andrews laughingly. The second-year Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) scholar was scheduled to travel to Berlin for the June fellowship,…

“It is an unusual graduation, but what is extraordinary always is the work of this class,” said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker HON ’09, who began NJIT’s 104th Commencement with a pre-ceremony heartfelt greeting thanking the university’s 2020 graduates for their grit, hard work, sacrifice and struggle, and for epitomizing what “Jersey Strong” is all about. The senator’s message of congratulations was one of many during the June 12 ceremony, held virtually this year as the world continues to face disruption and devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Sen. Booker shared a meaningful story with…

Since the end of March, Rukayat Balogun has been working remotely for Facebook as a site logistics analyst, overseeing staff that maintain the servers and the facility, and ensuring compliance with industry standards. She will move to the Atlanta area in July for this position, which came her way last fall when a fellow student in NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) introduced Balogun to a visiting Facebook recruiter. The company flew her down south for what turned out to be a series of video interviews, followed by a bit of a wait. “The interviews went well, but it was nerve-…

In 2019, Owais Aftab was in search of a summer research project to meet his degree requirements for independent study. The biomedical engineering/pre-health Albert Dorman Honors College scholar, then a first-year student, found what he was looking for after a conversation with one of his teachers, John Vito d'Antonio-Bertagnolli ’16, M.S. ’17. D’Antonio-Bertagnolli introduced Aftab to Antje Ihlefeld, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and director of NJIT’s Neural Engineering for Speech and Hearing Laboratory, who had a project involving a screening device focused on auditory…

As it embarks on clinical trials at children’s hospitals across the country, a novel vision therapy device developed by NJIT engineers is generating streams of data on eye movements in need of rapid and precise analysis. Enter Ayushi Sangoi ’20*, coder par excellence, to the algorithmic rescue. As a senior capstone project, Sangoi and her teammates designed an automated eye movement analysis program called RETINAS to process the blinks, saccades (rapid, jerky motions) and vergent movements (coordinated action by both eyes to focus on near objects) the study participants produce.…