NJIT's student newspaper, The Vector, won third place for general excellence in the 2019-2020 edition of the New Jersey Press Association collegiate contest. It was the staff's first time entering the competition. The association praised the students' range of story ideas and graphics layout. Some of the paper's significant articles this year covered campus sustainability, studio culture among architecture majors, a graduate student protest and the lead in the city of Newark's drinking water. Copy editor Colin Bayne received an individual second-place award for his film review of The King…

Volunteerism continues to be part of the foundation of NJIT. In 2019 alone, the university’s students contributed more than 67,000 hours of community service and gave their time to over 300 community-based organizations. Among the many volunteers worthy of recognition are the recipients of Career Development Services’ (CDS) Garrison-Kirk Community Service Scholarship. Established in honor of former CDS staff members George Garrison and Sandy Kirk, the award promotes civic engagement and acknowledges exemplary commitment of NJIT students. Each year, a CDS review committee presents a $750…

NJIT undergrads continue to earn the nation’s top academic honors, the latest being a new university record of four students named Goldwater Scholars this year by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The scholarship is recognized among the country’s most prestigious for STEM undergraduates pursuing research careers. This year’s NJIT Goldwater Scholar class, doubling last year’s total, is the largest from any academic institution in New Jersey and equals second-most across the nation, beating out universities such as Columbia University (3),…

It all started with an email sent by NJIT/Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) alumnus, Biren Bhatt, M.D., to Louis Hamilton, ADHC dean, as the coronavirus pandemic was spreading with lightning speed throughout the New York-New Jersey area. Dr. Bhatt, an attending emergency physician at Hackensack Medical Center (HMC), asked the dean to put out a call to Dorman Scholars to design and create a prototype for a face shield, vital personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers. Without hesitation, the Honors College sprung into action. The very next day, a Saturday, it messaged its…

For doctoral student Gayani Gunarathna, the Ph.D. Professional Development Series of seminars offered by NJIT’s Graduate Studies Office (GSO) has been a boon as she gets set to launch her career. Gunarathna, who will be a geotechnical engineer in New York City for WSP USA, a global engineering professional services firm, said she has a lot of useful information to draw upon from the series. The GSO began holding the seminars this past fall, with the goal to assist students in both improving their productivity and becoming more effective in securing jobs after graduating. The topics have…

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? Last week, the topic brought together a diverse group of scientists, economists, educators and hundreds more around the world virtually during a live webinar titled, “COVID-…

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. In this second of a two-part series, Sotirios G. Ziavras, vice provost for graduate studies, dean of the graduate faculty and professor of electrical and computer engineering, talks about some of NJIT’s newest…

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.  How can two people with vastly different-sized limbs and muscles perform identical fine-motor tasks equally well, such as hitting a baseball or sending a text? Is it a unique tuning between our brain and nervous system with the rest of…

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. The distinctions represent data-based measures culled from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (more well-known as IPEDS), as well as economic mobility “report cards”…

They represent a sizable segment of NJIT’s student population — about a quarter — and come from around the country and the world to attend the university and acquire advanced skills to secure successful professional careers. Indeed, graduate students are pursuing degrees in a range of academic disciplines through a variety of instructional formats, from traditional classroom or face-to-face learning, to online and hybrid (combines online and face-to-face) learning. Also, many of NJIT’s undergraduate students are enrolled in accelerated programs to take advantage of course double-counting that…