Remora fishes are famed hitchhikers of the marine world, possessing high-powered suction disks on the back of their head for attaching themselves in torpedo-like fashion to larger hosts that can provide food and safety — from whales and sharks to boats and divers. Key to the remora’s adhesion are the disk’s well-known capabilities for generating suction, as well as friction created by spiky bones within the disk called lamellae to maintain hold on its host. However, the factors driving the evolution of remora’s unique disc morphology have long eluded researchers seeking to understand, and…

It was an intense seven-week program of math enrichment in algebra, pre-calculus and calculus, coupled with college and SAT prep, and on-campus recreation. When it concluded Aug. 9 at a ceremony in the Campus Center Atrium, the 35 rising 12th-graders who participated in the inaugural NJIT/Newark Math Success Initiative (MSI) looked back on their accomplishments with pride and happily accepted their certificates of achievement. “We’re pleased that you’re interested in NJIT, because we’re interested in you,” said Jacqueline Cusack, executive director of the university’s Center for Pre-College…

Like many young New Jersey commuters making the morning trek through the Lincoln Tunnel into New York City, Jenessey Amparo-Rosario Morel would shuffle through her phone’s music playlist to find familiar star names like Rihanna, Shakira and Jay-Z. However, for Morel, those particular popular artists would also become clients, and even her new boss, as she entered work for her first day of a three-month co-op role this past February.  Her destination at the time: a 40-story tower at 1411 Broadway in midtown Manhattan — headquarters of Jay-Z’s global entertainment company, Roc Nation. “I…

Kevin Belfield, dean of NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts, has earned the exclusive honor of being elected fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. With the ACS’s announcement, published in the July 15 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, Belfield becomes among the first NJIT faculty members to be named ACS Fellow, a distinction the society established through its fellows program in 2008 to award its members for “outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession and the society.” Currently, just over 1,100 of…

Ants. Sure, most are harmless and inconspicuous. Though, there are always exceptions. Army ants, bulldog ants and fire ants are a few living members of the family Formicidae that nature television viewers might recognize from any number of “World’s Deadliest” countdown shows that populate the airwaves these days.  However, one of the most fearsome and striking of any ant species to come about, since the insect’s evolution from their wasp-like ancestors nearly 140 million years ago, is a species of long-extinct “hell ant” (haidomyrmecine), now known as “Vlad the Impaler” (Linguamyrmex…

As lead engineer of a self-driving car project, you are tasked with teaching the AI to drive. You realize that the AI may have to make a decision between putting the car’s occupants at risk or prioritizing the safety of those outside the car. What do you do?  The above scenario, adapted from a real-life case, is part of a game called “Apperception”, a smartphone-based educational game developed by a team of ethics researchers led by Britt Holbrook, assistant professor of philosophy at NJIT.  With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Holbrook has introduced…

Last month, more than 150 local high school students arrived at NJIT to begin charting their career paths alongside New Jersey’s top employers at the 2019 Junior Achievement (JA) Career Success® Workshop College Series. The workshop — co-hosted in the university’s Campus Center by NJIT’s Collaborative for Leadership, Education, and Assessment Research (CLEAR) and the non-profit organization Junior Achievement of New Jersey — featured a day of professional development activities that connected visiting students to career mentors, which ranged from NJIT faculty and student ambassadors to…

Sean Lubreski, who starred for the NJIT baseball program for four seasons, ending in 2019, has signed a professional contract with the Tucson Saguaros. Lubreski graduated in May 2018 with a bachelors in Communication and Media, Magna Cum Laude received his master's degree in Management on May 21, 2019. He concludes his four-year Highlander career, starting in 55 career games (ranked third in NJIT D1 era), including five complete games, and registering 18 wins (tied for third in the NJIT D1 era). "I'm really happy and excited for Sean (Lubreski) to get the chance to play professionally,"…

Engineering $200 fuel cells capable of powering windmills, designing high-performance sunblock from scratch, quantifying how much copper is used to coat a modern penny — these were among the many unusual, pressure-packed challenges that stood before 250 of New Jersey’s top high school chemists, all arriving at NJIT last week with a goal that they’d been training towards for months. Victory, at the 34th Annual New Jersey Chemistry Olympics. On May 17, Bunsen burner flames were lit and the 34th Annual New Jersey Chemistry Olympics (NJCO) officially began, attracting student-teams…

Whether they’ll be soaking up cultures abroad in the coming year or advancing research in science, health care and other fields, all of the NJIT students receiving prominent and highly competitive scholarships and fellowships in 2019 are, in a word, impressive. In fact, two university records were achieved: For the first time, an NJIT student earned the David L. Boren Scholarship, which seeks to build a workforce of national security professionals with critical language skills, and two NJIT students were awarded Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, for undergraduate research, in the same year. “…