As a kid growing up in Omaha, Neb., Chloe Jelley ’20 had a major aversion to insects that many can relate with. “I was one of the more careful kids and I was not into bugs at all when I was young … actually, I was really afraid of all bugs,” recalled Jelley. That didn’t really change much by the time her family relocated to Nutley, N.J., her eighth-grade year, or even by the time she arrived at NJIT with an athletics scholarship in cross-country and early aspirations as a pre-med first-year student. But fast-forward to where she’s at now — a biology undergrad at NJIT heading toward…

“It’s a little bittersweet to have to leave without being able to say proper goodbyes to everyone,” lamented Sravya Vegunta, a senior Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) scholar, about graduating from NJIT during the coronavirus pandemic. “But I’m definitely glad to be moving on to that next stage, because it’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for so long,” she added, speaking from her Monroe Township home where she is staying inside with her parents and younger brother. Vegunta is a biology major and headed this fall to New Jersey Medical School, as part of ADHC’s seven-year,…

Biochemistry senior Alejandra Lopez-Diaz hasn’t wasted much time during her past three years at NJIT. Outside of class, she’s spent most of her free hours inside the university’s labs researching an aspect of time itself — our circadian clock, or the internal biological clock that helps takes us through various phases of the day from morning to night. Her work has been helping the lab of her mentor, NJIT biochemistry professor Yong-Ick Kim, better understand the molecular mechanisms behind why we might experience jet lag when we fly to another time zone, and explore ways to treat…

It isn't an easy balance between working and going to school — especially for students determined to excel in the challenging studies they take on at NJIT.   But even considering the double-life that many students endure to help pay their way while earning their coveted degree, Darius Singletary has gone beyond the call of duty in his five years at NJIT. By day, Singletary has been a hard-working college student in the Law, Technology and Culture (LTC) program at NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts, about to graduate this spring.  By night, he’s a full-time active…

The current pandemic has deeply influenced our social behavior in many ways, among the most obvious being that while physical interaction is way down, screen time is way up — some early estimates since March showed total web hits jumping up to 70%, and streaming content by at least 30% worldwide.  What is less clear is the overall impact that the soaring screen time has had on our mental health as our experience of physical spaces and relationships are diminished and as virtual spaces become, for some, the primary window to friends and family, work and school routines, and milestone…

Ten public universities and colleges in New Jersey have joined forces and issued a call for the over 100,000 state residents who attend higher education institutions out-of-state to return home, enroll in New Jersey institutions, and help rebuild the state as part the New Jersey Scholar Corps program. The participating four-year institutions in the NJ Come Home Program are New Jersey Institute of Technology, Montclair State University, Rowan University, Kean University, New Jersey City University, Ramapo College, Stockton University, The College of New Jersey, Thomas Edison State…

Members of NJIT's string, jazz and wind ensembles are showcasing their collective spirit with a new inspirational performance for the university community. Student-musicians of NJIT’s Music Initiative have collaborated to digitally stage a performance of Journey's "Don’t Stop Believin’," featuring an original arrangement by Dave Rimelis, NJIT jazz ensemble conductor and artist-in-residence for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.  Students of Rimelis and other NJIT ensemble instructors, Christine Sweet (string ensemble and the video’s project director) and Nick Santoro (…

A team of NJIT physicists has developed a novel test swab that can be 3D printed using inexpensive, widely available materials and speedily assembled in a range of fabrication settings. To augment the nation’s testing capabilities, the inventors are making the swab’s design publicly available to large and small manufacturers, free of licensing fees, during the COVID-19 emergency.  The developers, from NJIT’s Additive Manufacturing Lab (AddLab), committed to the Open COVID Pledge and posted the design on the National Institutes of Health’s 3D Print Exchange website, which provides…

Class of 2020 graduates have until this Tuesday, May 5, to order their Commencement regalia and have it shipped to them. Wearing Commencement regalia is necessary to participate in NJIT’s virtual Commencement ceremony, to be held Friday, June 12. Students are urged to visit the Commencement website for details on ordering Commencement regalia. The website provides additional important information, including the deadlines for students to submit the correct pronunciation of their name, as well as photos and videos. The website will be continually updated prior to Commencement.

Even in the social distancing era, the show must go on for the art world. That includes the NJIT/Rutgers-Newark theatre arts community, which is soon returning to its audiences with a string of all-new virtual performances exploring art, click-based technology and social connections during physical isolation.  The theater group is prepping to premiere its latest work to home audiences via Zoom, titled “One Click Away” — a collection of four one-act plays all written, directed and set in the present reality of COVID-19 quarantine. The performances delve, through comedy and drama, into…