New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Aliza Mujahid, a senior biomedical engineering student, along with mechanical engineering Ph.D. student and research assistant Mohammad Jafari, reached the final round-of-eight in the 2025 U.S. Hult Prize competition for social-minded startup founders.

The duo, with Assistant Professor Farid Alisafaei and colleagues at Washington University, represent a new company called DermaMech that aims to better understand the science of human skin grafting and develop technology that will reduce infections, rejections and scarring.

A robotic alarm clock that hides from you, so you have to get out of bed anyway if you wish to silence it, was the star Highlander entry in the spring 2025 edition of the MakeNJIT hardware hackathon.

The clockmakers earned third place overall among 47 teams from several universities. Members of Team Daniel knew that many tinkerers have built such devices, but they designed their own version just for the fun and education of it.

As Acewin Tam prepares to cross the graduation stage at NJIT, she reflects not just on the culmination of five years of rigorous study, but on a deeply personal journey of growth, discovery and purpose. An architecture student whose work straddles the line between the technical and the poetic, Tam has made her mark not only through design excellence but through a commitment to community, justice and innovation.

Seeing her father struggle through rehabilitation exercises after a stroke made Marina Samuel '25 think, why can’t therapy be more personalized, effective and efficient for the patient?

So, with a central focus on patients, she pursued a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology and after graduation in May, will seek a Ph.D. in the same discipline at NJIT. Her research as an undergraduate fueled this pursuit.

For Digital Designer Megan Krutz, graduation from NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design isn’t just a milestone — it’s a full-circle moment that reflects years of growth, discovery and the kind of artistic transformation she never anticipated. As she looks ahead, Krutz can’t help but reflect on how much NJIT helped her grow into the designer and educator she’s today.

NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) hosted its Design Showcase, the college’s flagship fundraising and networking event, which provides a chance for members of the Hillier College community to connect and discuss the exhibited work done by HCAD’s architecture and design students over the past year. This year’s event took place in the Jewel Box of One Gateway Center in downtown Newark, a flagship space in Gateway’s $50 million investment plan.

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. 

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.

NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College held its First-Year Seminar Biodiversity Initiatives colloquium, in which six student-led proposals were presented to increase and sustain biodiversity through a campus planting. This year’s plan focused around a renovation near Faculty Memorial Hall. 

These student-driven initiatives allow for the Urban Ecology Lab (UEL), ADHC, the Real Estate Development and Capital Operations (REDCO) and the Office of Sustainability to team up together to make NJIT’s campus into a more sustainable and biodiverse community.

Growing up in Union City, Shanell Encalada ’26 spoke Spanish at home with her parents, helping them out by translating important documents. She points out that her bilingualism has enhanced her resume and allowed her to gain friendships in the various jobs she’s had. Encalada, a fintech major at the Martin Tuchman School of Management, recently helped establish NJIT’s chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA).