Priscilla Maryanski, a first-year computer science major from Jersey City, was always told that learning by doing was the only way to succeed at college — but at NJIT she discovered a different approach of learning by doing good deeds.

Since April 2020, Maryanski has been a volunteer at Erevna, a multinational, student-led organization founded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that focuses on community service.

Vrushti Dalal, an Albert Dorman Honors College and computer science student from Sayreville, won the new University Innovation Challenge, a pitch-style competition sponsored by the Guardian Life Insurance Company.

For young entrepreneurs, pitch competitions are a popular way to present concepts, hone essential business skills and make industry connections, which can help transform their creativity and talent into viable, real-world business ventures.

Yashwee J. Kothari, an Albert Dorman Honors College and computer science student from Parsippany, placed first among student competitors at this year’s New Business Model Competition for her innovative work supporting patients living with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The annual competition was hosted virtually by NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Acceleration Center Dec. 7, marking its twelfth year.

Research conducted 20 years ago by a former NJIT dean is being put to new use in the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.

Barry Cohen,  who was an associate dean of Ying Wu College of Computing, worked on the algorithm for bioengineering stable messenger RNA (mRNA), a key ingredient of the vaccine recently approved for emergency use by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration.

Every complex scientific field needs an ontology, and soon the primary one that covers COVID-19 will be easier for medication and vaccination researchers to understand, using new interpretive methods and software developed by experts at NJIT's Ying Wu College of Computing.

Sticking to the bodies of sharks and other larger marine life is a well-known specialty of remora fishes (Echeneidae) and their super-powered suction disks on their heads. But a new study has now fully documented the “suckerfish” in hitchhiking action below the ocean’s surface, uncovering a much more refined skillset that the fish uses for navigating intense hydrodynamics that come with trying to ride aboard a 100-foot blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus).