The young CEO of a new healthcare company, two undergraduate students building tech-driven start-ups, a professor of entrepreneurship and NJIT VentureLink’s director of commercialization were all named “2019 STEM Leaders: Innovators to Watch” this week by the New Jersey Tech Council. The five-member contingent of NJIT entrepreneurs received their awards at a rooftop ceremony at Bell Works in Holmdel, site of the former Bell Labs, following the Tech Council’s annual Future Forum, a gathering that convenes researchers, entrepreneurs, company executives and innovators, investors, developers and…

When Angelo Del Russo ’82 says that he “always wanted to be a builder,” he is not exaggerating. By his early teens, the young enthusiast of masonry, concrete, roofing and carpentry already had a toehold in the industry, regularly working after school and on weekends with local home remodelers in the construction business. “It was mostly laborious work – raking gravel, pushing wheelbarrows full of concrete – but I loved it. To see the end product – that completed patio or set of stairs – was always so satisfying,” he recounts. “And as a teenager, I was making money.” But his parents,…

Union County College (UCC) students pursuing an associate degree in either science or applied sciences are now able to seamlessly transfer into a variety of bachelor’s degree programs — from engineering and architecture to computing and management, and more — at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The two institutions signed a two-year academic agreement April 30, 2019, to provide UCC students with the opportunity to plan their total baccalaureate experience at the beginning of their college education. Effective this past February, the agreement also serves to facilitate the…

“We saw when you came in as freshmen, and you thought you knew it all. Then you realized after the first week of the summer program, do I really know anything?” reminisced Crystal Smith, interim director of NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), while addressing EOP graduating seniors, their parents and university staff and faculty. “And then you made it through to this awards ceremony for us to celebrate you.” And celebrated they were at EOP’s 47th annual gathering to commend students for their academic accomplishments. The class of 2019 includes 110 graduates representing a range of…

The life expectancy for those living in Chad is less than 50 years. In Swaziland, 26% of the population is HIV positive. These statistics are just some indicators of a much larger global health crisis. But what possible role can technology play in addressing this crisis and what can biomedical engineers do to help? Can simply donating medical equipment from developed countries to underdeveloped regions solve the problem? Answers to these questions will be addressed in an upcoming Technology and Society Forum presentation from Dr. Mohammad F. Kiani, professor of mechanical engineering,…

Throw on any iconic rock album from the mid-1970’s to early 1980’s, and chances are, you’ll hear the distinct sound of pitch-shifting and harmonizing effects that were just beginning to revolutionize how records were being produced — from the rhythm instruments on David Bowie’s 1975 album “Young Americans”, to the arena-sized choruses of AC/DC’s “Back In Black”, to the signature double-tracked tones of Eddie Van Halen’s finger-blistering guitar work in his band’s 1978 debut album, “Van Halen”.  An important genesis of that sound would first make its waves in the basement of…

NJIT’s Career Development Services (CDS) paid tribute to an array of recruiting partners at its annual Awards and Recognition Ceremony, held April 2 in the Campus Center Atrium. There, CDS staff acknowledged the important relationship between the university and employers in advancing the professional success of NJIT students. The feeling was mutual among the award recipients, who remarked on the well-prepared and “motivated, diverse community of students,” as well as the “amount of incredible talent” at NJIT. Here are the 2019 honorees: Best Community Partner: American Cancer Society Best…

Before his freshman year had even begun, Robert Tarantino ’90 had embarked on more professional ventures than many people do in a lifetime: computer systems manager, programmer, journeyman tool and die maker and software developer. But in founding his high-tech start-up, New Jersey Precision Technologies (NJPT), a company built around novel software programmed to automate manufacturing processes, Tarantino drew upon all of the skills he’d acquired in his brief, but energetic work life. “The idea was to let a computer program decide how best to manufacture parts – and to do it more…

NJIT offered the best biomedical engineering program for undergrads in New Jersey according to the 2020 BestValueSchools.com rankings. This program is also ranked sixth nationally. NJIT's biomedical engineering program is part of the Newark College of Engineering (NCE), the oldest and largest professional engineering school in the United States. Rankings were determined by a variety of factors including acceptance rate, affordability, retention data, student satisfaction and earning potential. Each weighted metric was combined for an overall score. Biomedical engineering is an…

This week, nearly 50 of the year’s most promising NJIT student-researchers gathered to present their work to the campus community at the university’s annual year-end research competition — the 2019 Dana Knox Showcase “A Glimpse Into the Future.” At this year’s event, held open to the public on the second floor of the university’s Campus Center, students presented highlights from their research to attendees and more than 20 faculty-judges through poster demonstrations that ran the spectrum of scientific discovery at NJIT — from research exploring the social phenomena of live-stream…