Wherever there’s dirt there’s bound to be ants, but one particular group is so adept at blending in with the ground that they hold the name “dirt ant” (Basiceros) all to themselves. Now, an ancient fossil has revealed these elusive ants have seen much more of the planet’s dirt throughout their history than scientists previously realized. In findings published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team led by New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) biologists has reported the first fossil Basiceros dirt ant recovered from the Caribbean, preserved in 16-million-year-old amber from…

We all know how bad smoking is for you, but what about vaping? A new study at New Jersey Institute of technology (NJIT) led by forensic anthropologist and biochemist Sara Zapico is exploring the potential long-term health risks of e-cigarettes and how they might manifest in young adults at the genetic level, which up until now isn't fully understood. With funding from the New Jersey Health Foundation, Zapico is investigating how vaping may alter patterns in gene expression in Gen Z and young Millennial users — insights from which could reveal early warning signs of cancer and respiratory…

ROI-NJ recognized deans, administrators, board members, alumni and a director from New Jersey Institute of Technology as the most influential women in business for 2025. Four of the Highlanders made the top 50 list: Trustee Elisa Charters; Michele Siekerka and Debbie Hart, who both serve on the Board of Directors of NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Institute; and Becky Button, who serves on the Advisory Board of NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design. The others are part of the publication’s broader, alphabetical list. Here’s a closer look at the NJIT honorees. Deans Gabrielle…

The 36th Annual Scholarship Brunch at New Jersey Institute of Technology celebrated a significant milestone this year, welcoming its largest gathering of students and benefactors to date. Donors from across the region and as far away as Sweden convened, united by a shared commitment to empowering the next generation of leaders and innovators at NJIT.  The annual brunch serves as a vital platform for scholarship recipients to connect directly with the generous individuals and families whose contributions make their academic journeys possible. The event underscored the profound impact of…

Goldwater Scholarships, among the most prestigious awards for undergraduate students pursuing STEM degrees, are going to two juniors at NJIT.  The recipients are: Dev Doshi, a biomedical engineering major in the Newark College of Engineering; and Brock Shahinian, an environmental science major in the Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts. The NJIT Goldwater Scholars represent two of 11 statewide, and 441 total across the United States. They were selected from an estimated pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors nominated by 445 academic institutions. This is the…

As most students were buried in final exams last December, Iniobong Ofonime took an extra assignment outside her usual work as an engineering student — rather than applying mathematics to solve problems, she decided to profile an inspirational mathematician. Her efforts have added up to a first-place finish among undergraduates in the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) national essay competition, announced fittingly on International Women's Day. The annual contest draws hundreds of student submissions from across the U.S. and abroad, spotlighting the contributions of women and…

The NJIT Rocketry Club is experimenting with a model that autonomously lands itself standing up, a la SpaceX, but accomplished through novel methods. SpaceX rockets fire their liquid fuel thrusters while descending. Other hobbyists have already tried to duplicate that method, so the Highlanders devised a unique approach: next year, they want to make the nose cone of their Project Lotus rocket unfold like flower petals, revealing a drone that takes control. It’s a new path in model rocketry, where nose cones typically pop open to expose a simple parachute. Hobbyists have done it this way…

NJIT’s forensics program made an impression at the 77th Annual American Academy of Forensic Sciences’ Conference in Baltimore’s Convention Center, unveiling new research and innovations that tackled this year’s conference theme, “Technology: A Tool for Transformation or Tyranny?” NJIT faculty and students presented on advances shaping the world of forensics, from research that could improve how forensic scientists estimate a person’s age at death, to technology demos of CSIxR — a virtual reality (VR) application developed at NJIT that simulates crime scenes scenarios to train crime scene…

Plenty of researchers already study how to tell if online writing bears the traits of artificial intelligence — but Michael Laudenbach, in the humanities and social sciences department at NJIT’s Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts, is studying what traits indicate that digital prose was crafted by analog humans. The risk of not knowing the difference is that if instructors and business managers too openly adopt AI writing tools, then children and college students might wrongly learn that AI writing is good writing, Laudenbach said. Even though some people are bad writers, at least…

A keynote speaker at NJIT’s Women Designing the Future conference explained the imperative for holistic approaches to climate change policy, while another shared her tale of breaking through glass ceilings to develop innovative artificial intelligence software. The speakers — Rhiana Gunn-Wright, who orchestrated behind-the-scenes policymaking for the 2019 Green New Deal, and Danielle Feinberg, visual effects supervisor at Pixar — were on campus March 7 to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the NJIT Murray Center for Women in Technology, and also for Women’s History Month. “We had two…