News Items
2024 New UCAN Graduate Student Employee Orientation
The new PhD students, who will be Teaching Assistants (TAs) or Research Assistants (RAs), attended a mandatory and informative orientation event before assuming their TA or RA duties. UCAN (United Council of Academics at NJIT) sponsored the lunch and representatives were on hand to provide information and updates to the new UCAN members. View the agenda here.
(left) Dr. Kristie Damell presents on Title IX; (center) Sami Klobucista and Durell Burress presents on Digital Learning and Technology Support; (right) John Kromer presents on Library Support
2024 New Domestic Graduate Student Orientation
On August 28, the new domestic graduate students attended an informative welcome orientation with presentations with dinner, sponsored by the Graduate Student Association. View the program, presenters and exhibitors here.
(left) New graduate students listening to the presentations; (center) Provost John Pelesko provides welcome remarks; (right) Staff from Career Development Services at their exhibitor table.
INAUGURAL OUTSTANDING PH.D. DISSERTATION AWARD
At the Ph.D. Commencement event on May 15, 2024, Dr. Sumona Paul, who graduated with a Ph.D. in Environmental Science (dissertation advisor: Somenath Mitra), was awarded NJIT's inaugural Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation award.
This award is presented annually in May at the Ph.D. commencement ceremony. It recognizes exceptional dissertation work, regardless of academic discipline, that has been completed and submitted to the Graduate Studies Office. The recipient of this award receives a $1000 honorarium which is sponsored by the Graduate Studies Office.
Eligibility Requirements
- Recipients have graduated in August, December, or May of the year corresponding to the commencement ceremony.
- Recipients have demonstrated exceptional achievement and promise in their field of study, characterized by distinguished scholarship and research.
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AY 2024 3-Minute Research Presentation
On February 28, over 130 guests attended the exciting annual 3MRP Competition! After the opening remarks by Dr. John Pelesko, Provost and Senior VP of Academic Affairs, Dr. Sotirios Ziavras, Vice Provost of Graduate Studies, and guest speaker, Dr. Elisa Kallioniemi, Assistant Professor of BME, forty-four graduate students proceeded to rise to the challenge to succinctly present their research within a three-minute time frame, utilizing only a single static slide.Congratulations to the winners!
1st Place
Sun Kwon, PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Lin Dong
Title: Textured Nanofibers Inspired by Nature for Harvesting Biomechanical Energy and Sensing Biophysiological Signals
2nd Place
Jarin Tusnim, PhD Candidate, Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Grasman
Title: Drug Repurposing for Peripheral Nerve Repair
3rd Place
Aseel Zeinati, PhD Student, Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Durga Misra
Title: Engineering High-K Switching Devices For In-Memory Computing
Best Visuals (tied)
Smita More-Potdar, PhD Candidate, Biological Sciences
Advisor: Dr. Jorge Golowasch
Title: Stability and Plasticity: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Kantida Nanon, PhD Candidate, Informatics
Advisors: Dr. Margarita Vinnikov and Dr. Michael J. Lee
Title: Enhancing Chemistry Education through AR
AY 2024 Graduate Research Day
On November 14, 2023, the Graduate Student Association and the PhD Club sponsored The Graduate Research Day, dedicated to highlighting the research progress and achievements of the graduate student body at NJIT. Faculty judges evaluated the students on the poster presentation, communication, and research skills. Congratulations to the winners!
1st Place
Alperen Abaci, PhD candidate, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Murat Guvendiren
Title: 3D Bioprinting of Dense Cellular Structures within Functional Hydrogels with User-Defined Heterogeneity
2nd Place
Ali Parviz, PhD student, Department of Computer Science
Advisor: Dr. Ioannis Koutis
Title: Long Range Graph Benchmark
3rd Place
Jun Yuan, PhD student, Department of Informatics
Advisor: Dr. Aritra Dasgupta
Title: Analytics of Algorithmic Ranker for Transparent Decision-Making
Best Presentations Across Colleges:
Newark College of Engineering
Deniz Najafi ($200), PhD student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Shaahin Angizi
Title: Enabling Normally-off In-Situ Computing with a Magneto-Electric FET-Based SRAM Design
College of Science and Liberal Arts (tied)
Asieh Mahmoodi, PhD student, Department of Chemistry
Advisor: Dr. Edgardo Farinas
Title: Evolution in a Test Tube: Rescuing the Earth from Plastic Pollution
Gianpiero Fiorentino, PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences
Advisor: Dr. Phillip Barden
Title: Deep Time Extinction of Largest Insular Ant Predators from Miocene Age Dominican Amber
J. Robert and Barbara A. Hillier College of Architecture and Design
Minkyeong Park, PhD student in Urban Systems
Advisor: Dr. Hyojin Kim
Title: Empirical Validation of Building Energy Simulation Program Using the NIST’s Net-Zero House
Ying Wu College of Computing
Dahlia Musa, PhD student in Information Systems
Advisor: Dr. Salam Daher
Title: 3D Measurement System for Wound Care
2023 NJIT Commencement
May 16, 2023 – NJIT’s advanced degree graduates (masters and PhD) walked across the stage in three commencement ceremonies at NJIT’s Joel & Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center (WEC). The 2023 class, composed of more than 1,300 graduates and including 95 PhD students, is the largest in five years and reflects the larger growth and upward trajectory of the institution.
Congratulations to the new PhDs! (left) from Chemistry & Environmental Science (CES), Dr. Daniel Isika, Dr. Mohammad Saiful Islam, Dr. Chen Wu, Dr. Jie Dou, Dr. Gaddi Eshun, Dr. Indrani Gupta, faculty advisors Dr.Omowunmi Sadik, Dr. Alexei Khalizov, new PhD Dr. Ali Hasani, Dr. Somenath Mitra and Dr. Yuanwei Zhang; (center) from Environmental Engineering, Dr. Qingquan Ma and Dr. Wen Zhang (faculty advisor); (right) from CES, Dr. Mohammad Saiful Islam, Dr. Somenath Mitra (faculty advisor) and Dr. Indrani Gupta
2023 GSA Graduate Research Day
GSA 2023 Graduate Research Day, held on March 23, 2023, is dedicated to highlighting the research progress and achievements of the graduate student body at NJIT. Students present their cutting-edge research either through oral presentations or via poster presentations. President Teik Lim kicked off the event with opening remarks. Dr. Kevin Belfield, Dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts, and Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science, gave the keynote talk on Research in CSLA.
The poster presentation winners are:
- Donna Chen: Altered Topological Organization with Age in Young Children: A Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy Study (Advisor: Dr. Bharat Biswal, Department of Biomedical Engineering)
- Smita More-Potdar: Oscillatory network spontaneously recovers the robustness in activity, which is lost due to removal of neuromodulation (Advisor: Dr. Jorge Golowasch, Department of Biological Sciences)
The oral presentation winners are:
- Jinzhen Wang: Improving Progressive Retrieval for HPC Scientific Data using Deep Neural Network (Advisor: Dr. Qing Liu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering)
- Kaustav Bhattacharjee: Look before you Link: Interactive Visualization Workflows for Assessing Privacy-Utility Trade-offs in Linkable Open Data (Advisor: Dr. Aritra Dasgupta, Department of Informatics)
- Sun Kwon: Electrospun Porous Nanofibers for Energy-Harvesting Applications (Advisor: Dr. Lin Dong, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering)
- Elif Irem Senyurt: Thermal Decomposition of Diisopropyl Methylphosphonate (DIMP), A Chemical Weapon Agent Simulant (Advisor: Dr. Edward Dreizin, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering)
AY 2023 GSA 3 Minute Research Presentation
On November 30, 2022, PhD and Masters students competed at the 3MRP competition hosted by GSA. The students had to effectively communicate their research in under three minutes with the aid of a single slide. Faculty judges evaluated on their presentation, communication, and research skills. The top scorers were awarded prizes and certificates.
The winners are:
1st Place
Aseel Zeinati (2nd year Masters student in the Electrical Engineering program)
Research: RRAM Devices for In-Memory Computing
Advisor: Dr. Durga Misra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2nd Place
Kübra Akbaş (4th year Ph.D. candidate in the Biomedical Engineering program)
Research: Quantifying Balance: Computational and Learning Frameworks for the Characterization of Balance in Bipedal Systems
Advisor: Dr. Xianlian Zhou, Department of Biomedical Engineering
3rd Place
Swaprakash (Krash) Yogeshwaran (2nd year Ph.D. candidate in the Biomedical Engineering program)
Research: High-throughput Drug Screening Model for Chemotherapy-induced Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
Advisor: Dr. Eun Jung (Alice) Lee, Department of Biomedical Engineering
NCE Winner
Yudong Wang (3rd year Ph.D. candidate in the Mechanical Engineering program)
Research: Dean Vortex Enhanced Blood Plasma Separation during capillary flow in the Spiral Microchannel for Point-of-care (POC) Applications
Advisor: Dr. Eon Soo Lee, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
YWCC Winner
Ehsan Beikihassan (4th year Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science program)
Research: Ensemble Learning as a Resource-Constrained Peer Process
Advisor: Dr. Ioannis Koutis, Department of Computer Science
CSLA Winner
Jose Antunes (3rd year Ph.D. candidate in the Environmental Science program)
Research: Novel Group-6 Propane Monooxygenases in Charge of 1,4-Dioxane Biodegradation in Psychrophilic Propanotrophic Consortia
Advisor: Dr. Mengyan Li, Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science
Increase of Enrolled Ph.D. Students for 2021 and 2022
In recent years, NJIT has seen very substantial increases in the number of enrolled Ph.D. students. The number of graduating Ph.D. students is close to 100 for each of the years in 2021 and 2022.
AY 2022 GSA 3 Minute Research Presentation
On March 31, 2022, PhD and Masters students competed in the exciting annual competition where they were given three minutes to describe their research to a general audience, with only one slide as a visual aid. The goal is to properly convey their research to those who are not familiar with their work or field since in professional settings, one may only get a few minutes to convince others that their research is impactful.
The winners are:
1st Place
Shomik Mukhopadhyay (3rd year Ph.D. candidate in the CME program)
Research: Interaction of Inert Powders with Shockwave and Plasma Generated from Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) – Effect of Layer Thickness and Particle Size
Advisor: Dr. Edward Dreizin, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
2nd Place
Bruno Bezerra de Souza (2nd year Ph.D. candidate in the CE program)
Research: Thermal Degradation of PFAS at Elevated Temperature
Advisor: Dr. Jay Meegoda, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
3rd Place
Aida López Ruiz (5th year Ph.D. candidate in the ChE program
Research: Platinum Nanoparticles, Targeted Therapy for Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Advisor: Dr. Kathleen McEnnis, Department of Chemicals and Materials Engineering
Most Effective Oral Presentation
Catarina Baptista Pereira (4th year Ph.D. candidate in CE program)
Research: Quantification Micro/Nano Scale Properties with Ultrasound
Advisor: Dr. Jay Meegoda, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Best Visual
Elif Irem Senyurt (3rd year Ph.D. candidate in CME program)
Research: Solid Contaminants Adsorb Organophosphorus Compounds and Catalyze Their Decomposition
Advisor: Dr. Edward Dreizin, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
2021 GSA Research Day
On November 30, the Graduate Student Association hosted the eagerly anticipated 2021 Research Day.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Robert K Prud'homme, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University, gave a timely and fascinating presentation on Nanomedicine: From High Tech to Global Health. His research, spanning over 40 years, focuses on studying the effect of molecular level interactions on macroscopic properties. In the last 15 years Dr. Prud'homme's research group has worked on “inverse flash nanoprecipitation” (iFNP) which encapsulates drugs or biological molecules such as peptides, proteins or mRNA in nanoscale particles for more efficient delivery into cells than traditional methods.
After the keynote presentation and lunch, graduate students involved in Ph.D. dissertation or master thesis research presented their exciting research in an e-poster format to a panel of faculty judges from various departments. Students were evaluated on their presentation skills, quality of work, and importance of their research. The top scorers were awarded prizes.
Congratulations to the winners! They are:
1st Place
Name: Aida López Ruiz (4th year Ph.D. candidate in the ChE program)
Research Title: Encapsulated Platinum Nanoparticles, Targeted Therapy for Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kathleen McEnnis, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
2nd Place
Name: Alina Emelianova (4th year Ph.D. candidate in the CME program)
Research Title: Revisiting the TraPPE Force Field for Organophosphorus Compounds: Sarin, DMMP, DIMP
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gor Gennady, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
3rd Place
Name: Arun Reddy Ravula (4th year Ph.D. candidate in Biology program)
Research Title: Repeated Low-Level Blast Induces Chronic Neuropathological and Neurobehavioral Changes in Rat Model
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Namas Chandra, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Honorable Mention for Best Oral Presentation
Name: Binan Gu (6th year Ph.D. candidate in Applied Mathematics)
Research Title: A Graphical Representation of Membrane Filtration
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Linda Cummings and Dr. Lou Kondic, Department of Mathematical Sciences
Honorable Mention for Best Visual Poster
Name: Indrani Gupta (4th year Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Science)
Research Title: Bacterial Degradation and Pure Water Generation by Nanocarbon Immobilized Membranes via Membrane Distillation
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Somenath Mitra, Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science
Below are photos from the event
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Photo of Dr. Ogochukwu Enekwizu, the May 2021 PhD commencement
speaker, who was awarded the PhD degree in Chemical Engineering.
Her dissertation advisor, Dr. Alexei Khalizov, is on the right.
NJIT and the University of Parma, Italy celebrate a milestone
In May 2019, about 20 students from Parma and their parents attended NJIT’s commencement event. The students pursued graduate programs in Engineering Management and Mechanical Engineering based on a dual degree agreement between NJIT and the University of Parma. These academic programs prepare students for competitive careers with multinational companies.
The attached photos are from another event that was held at NJIT a few days before the commencement. The participants from Parma were graduating students, their parents and several University of Parma officials: Professor Paolo Andrei, University, Rector; Professor Roberto Montanari, Rector Delegate for International Exchanges and Dual Degrees Coordinator; and Dr. Alessandro Bernazzoli, Head of International Relations Division. The participants from NJIT were: Professor Sotirios Ziavras , Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Faculty; Professor Sanchoy Das, Graduate Advisor; and Professor Layek Abdel-Malek, Program Coordinator.
3-Minute Research Thesis Presentation Event
A 3-minute research thesis (3MT) presentation event was held on March 28, 2019. The event was organized jointly by NJIT’s Graduate Studies Office, Graduate Student Association and PhD Club. Graduate students gave a brief synopsis of their Ph.D. dissertation or M.S. thesis work, and summarized the importance of their research topic and their contributions. The three best presentations and a runner-up received awards.
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