Each spring around Commencement, NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts holds its very own celebration, awarding its standout student and faculty stars from across the college’s diverse academic spectrum of art, history and humanities to physics, biology and chemistry.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues upending life for countless people around the world, threatening public health while disrupting everything from basic home and work routines, to air travel and financial markets. But what has the global slowdown meant for the environment and sustainable living, and what could it mean if some of the radical changes in our everyday lifestyles and consumption habits persisted long-term?
While Spring Commencement is on the horizon for the Class of 2019, the first wave of year-end celebrations has already begun for a special group of award-winning seniors at NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA).
In the face of both natural and man-made threat to city infrastructure, greater pushes have been made toward the planning and design of “resilient cities” — cities positioned to protect and enhance urban life through development of components necessary to respond to terrorism, earthquakes, coastal flooding, solar flares, as well as infrastructure adoption of sustainable energy.
Known as a chemical manufacturing by-product of many cosmetics and home cleaning products, the industrial solvent 1,4-Dioxane is now considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be an “emerging contaminant” and “likely human carcinogen” that can be found at thousands of groundwater sites nationally — potentially representing a multi-billion dollar environmental remediation challenge.
Traditionally, many engineers and developers of solar cell technology have turned to crystalline silicon — a tried and tested material absorber capable of efficiently converting solar radiation to electricity at just four times the thickness of a strand of hair.
At up to a 100th the thickness of a hair strand, nano-thin metal films offer an even more cost-effective and flexible material alternative, holding promise in the future development of everything from solar power to sensor technology.
While not featured on most product ingredient labels, the organic chemical stabilizer and manufacturing byproduct, 1,4-dioxane, can be found in countless everyday household items — from shampoos and cosmetics to laundry detergents and antifreeze.
Partly due to its widespread use over many decades, the chemical has now been implicated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an “emerging contaminant of concern” at groundwater and drinking water sites across the U.S., with no effective method for its removal yet established.
Paulette Salomon distinctly recalls April of 2016 as a critical point in her school district’s journey to provide the right digital learning resources and opportunities to the students of East Orange, New Jersey — a district where she has been an educator for 22 years, and has served as the educational technology supervisor to approximately 600 teachers and 10,000 students since 2010.
