NJIT Magazine-Fall 2019

FA L L 2019

M A G A Z I N E

NJIT RANKED AS A TOP 100 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT NJIT ENGINEERS GET THE LEAD OUT

NJIT’S YING WU COLLEGE OF COMPUTING OPENS NEW LOCATION IN JERSEY CITY

E X EC U TI V E SUM M A RY

A MESSAGE FROM NJIT PRESIDENT JOEL S. BLOOM

TOP TIER

NJIT has continued its impressive climb up the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking of colleges and universities by joining the top 100 National Universities for the 2020 edition of the publication. Each year, U.S. News ranks institutions of higher education throughout the country based upon “outcomes, faculty resources, expert opinion, financial resources, student excellence, and alumni giving.” Joining the top 100 National Universities is a significant achievement for NJIT, and it is because of efforts that have yielded tangible and important results. NJIT’s rise in these rankings is indicative of progress, and U.S. News is just one of the places taking note of what is happening at NJIT. We are #1 in the nation for the upward mobility of students from families in the lowest income brackets, according to Forbes. We also are among the 131 most elite research universities in the nation after attaining R1 status in the Carnegie Classification. In addition, Payscale.com rates NJIT #53 out of more than 4,000 universities for the mid-career earnings of our graduates. This issue’s cover story illustrates how this most recent U.S. News ranking is a testament to the university’s upward trajectory in education and research on a national level.

At NJIT, our aspirations extend far beyond rankings success. We aim to make a positive impact on our community and society. NJIT’s civil engineers work on a range of infrastructure projects with the City of Newark, from intelligent transportation systems, to dam monitoring and assessment, to water systems. Our second feature in this issue, “NJIT Engineers Get the Lead Out,” describes how a research team is working with Newark to develop and test chemical methods to prevent leadshedding corrosion in service lines that stretch from the water main located beneath the city’s streets into dwellings.

We also are proud to announce that NJIT @JerseyCity welcomed its first students this Fall. Jersey City was chosen for this new Ying Wu College of Computing initiative because of the strong demand for data scientists in the area. Students at the Jersey City site will study modern computer science and be active participants in projects involving artificial intelligence, big data, analytics, data mining, visualization and machine learning. Most of the graduate students at NJIT @JerseyCity are working professionals attending the programs in the evenings and are professionals from companies and organizations such as Microsoft, IBM, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Prudential, BNY Mellon, TD Ameritrade, NJ Transit, Con Edison and City National Bank.

As always, I hope you enjoy reading these articles and welcome your feedback. n

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NJIT MAGAZINE Fall 2019

f e at u r e s

Joel S. Bloom President

NJIT Ranked as a Top 100 National University 8

Matthew Golden Chief Strategy Officer

NJIT has continued its impressive climb up the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking of colleges and universities by joining the top 100 National Universities for 2020.

Karen Hume Executive Director of Publications and Creative Services

Christina Crovetto Editor

Tanya Klein Editorial Assistant

Julie Jacobs, Jesse Jenkins, Tracey L. Regan Contributing Writers

Babette Hoyle

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Production Manager

Diane Cuddy Designer _______________________________________

Kenneth Alexo, Jr., Kevin D. Belfield, Atam P. Dhawan, Craig Gotsman, Louis Hamilton, Moshe Kam, Branko Kolarevic, Michael K. Smullen, Oya Tukel Editorial Advisory Board _______________________________________

NJIT Magazine Office of Strategic Communications University Heights Newark, NJ 07102-1982 crovetto@njit.edu _______________________________________

On the web:

magazine.njit.edu _______________________________________

Cover photo credit: Oscar Masciandaro

A research team of NJIT environmental engineers is working with the City of Newark to develop and test chemical methods to prevent lead-shedding corrosion in as many as 18,000 service lines that stretch from the water main located under streets into dwellings.

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The recent expansion to Jersey City enables NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing to continue growing its reputation as the largest producer of computing talent in the New Jersey/ New York metro region.

NJIT Magazine is published by New Jersey Institute of Technology, Office of Strategic Communications. Its mission is to foster ties with alumni, university friends and corporate partners and to report on relevant issues, particularly those in education, science, research and technology.

Please send letters of comment and requests to reproduce material from the magazine to:

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de pa rtm e n ts Abstracts 2 NJIT news in brief

Point By Point 5 Athletics update

Giving 6 NJIT development news

Alumni Circuit 21 Class notes and more

In Conclusion Inside Back Cover Leading-edge achievements by faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of NJIT

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A B S T R A C T S

2019 national scholarship and fellowship recipients (from left) Jenan Abu-Hakmeh, Samir Peshori, John Antley, Victoria Harbour, Sebastian Fine and Samantha Lomuscio

UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS FOR NJIT STUDENTS IN NATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP COMPETITIONS

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hether 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.

“It’s exciting to see so many NJIT students receiving national recognition,” said Lorna Ronald, associate director of prestigious fellowships and honors advising, Albert Dorman Honors College, who works with students on fellowship applications and led a reception at the college to recognize the recipients. “As a newcomer to the Honors College, I’ve been blown away by the caliber and motivation of NJIT students. I’m thrilled that our students have earned these

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awards, which will open doors and create opportunities for even greater success in the future.”

Boren recipient John Antley, an environmental science major and Dorman Scholar, will travel to South Korea for six months in spring 2020. There, he will learn the Korean language, with plans to then apply this new skill toward fostering bilateral partnerships that help address national security issues around pollution in the Pacific Ocean.

“It does feel really good,” he remarked about being the first at NJIT to be awarded a Boren Scholarship. “It’s going to be a really cool experience.”

Applied physics student Samantha Lomuscio, who shares Goldwater honors with biomedical engineering major Sebastian Fine, both Dorman Scholars, commented, “It feels surreal. Before college, I didn’t even really know about research too much, so I can’t believe the changes that have happened throughout my college career. I never thought I’d be in this position, winning an award like this.”

For the past year Lomuscio has studied the spatial and temporal origins of solar flares in NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, “trying to understand the cause of solar flares…why particles are accelerated in the solar atmosphere, [and] to figure out the mechanism behind that.”

Supported by her scholarship, she plans to pursue a doctorate in astrophysics starting fall 2020.

Samir Peshori, a Dorman Scholar and double major in computer science and information technology, studied at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore thanks to the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, which provides grants for American undergraduates to pursue academic studies or internships abroad.

“In Singapore, I’ll be taking entrepreneurship classes, exploring, and talking with people,” said Peshori, choosing Singapore at the suggestion of his father and for its reputation as a topnotch technology hub. “I think it will be a wonderful time.” n

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A B S T R A C T S

NJIT Dean Named Fellow of the American Chemical Society

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evin 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

the first NJIT faculty member 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 the society’s more than 157,000 members have earned the distinction.

Belfield joined 70 other newly named fellows this year, who were formally recognized for diverse accomplishments in education and research across the chemical sciences at the ACS National Meeting and Expo in San Diego, Calif., Aug. 26.

“I am thrilled and humbled, as it represents recognition from the major professional society in my field, which I’ve been a member of and participated in, in a

variety of capacities, continually throughout my career,” said Belfield. “It really is a true honor to be among the fellows.”

In the announcement, the society recognized Belfield for standout achievements that span his 30-year career as a researcher, educator and professional mentor, citing his “contributions to organic photonic materials, especially two-photon absorbing materials in 3D optical data storage and bioimaging, and continuous leadership in developing academic programs, departments and student mentorship.” The organization also cited his “sustained service to local sections, student affiliates chapters, public outreach, service in a number of roles and offices, and [efforts] as organizer for professional symposia and workshops.” n

faculty and staff on their behalf.”

NJIT also ranked No. 44 in the undergraduate game design ranking, according to The Princeton Review survey based on criteria that cover the quality of faculty, facilities and technology.

“I’m pleased that The Princeton Review has, for the fourth consecutive year, included us in

their list of top undergraduate schools to study game design,” said Glenn Goldman, director of NJIT’s School of Art + Design.

“It is a recognition of the strong collaborative program we have between digital design in the School of Art + Design and information technology in the Department of Informatics.” n

NJIT FEATURED IN THE PRINCETON REVIEW’S “BEST 385 COLLEGES” GUIDE FOR 2020 NJIT has been named a top college according to The Princeton Review in the newest edition of its college guide, The Best 385 Colleges, a designation only 13% of America’s four-year colleges have earned. NJIT also received honors as a top college in the Northeast region and a Best Value college.

“NJIT’s recognition by The Princeton Review as one of the country’s finest institutions of higher education in their 2020 edition of The Best 385 Colleges is a testament to the strong and supportive learning environment we provide for our students,” said Fadi Deek, provost and senior executive vice president of NJIT. “We are gratified by the comments of NJIT students surveyed about their campus experiences, as well as their acknowledgment of the work done by our

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A B S T R A C T S

NJIT BREAKS RECORDS FOR INCOMING FRESHMAN CLASS: A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS

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his fall semester, NJIT welcomed 1,369 freshmen to campus, an increase of 6% over last year and a university record to boot. NJIT also realized a record in the total number of freshman applications received, up 11% as compared to 2018, with 9,047 students seeking enrollment at the university.

Other best-ever figures include this year’s freshman class average SAT score of 1297 and average GPA of 3.60. Thirty-one percent of the students ranked in the top 10% of their high school class, 10 were valedictorians and 6 were salutatorians.

Executive Director of Admissions Stephen Eck noted of the increases at NJIT, “We are excited to welcome the largest freshman class in NJIT’s history.

With the highest academic caliber in terms of SAT and GPA, these students are truly well qualified to achieve their goals. We attribute the larger class to the demand for NJIT’s outstanding academic programs, coupled with the university’s proven track record of student success.

NJIT provides students with numerous opportunities that open doors, which in turn change lives.” n

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P O I N T

B Y

P O I N T

PHOTO: OSCAR MASCIANDARO

The Latest News About NJIT Sports njithighlanders.com

HIGHLANDERS OPEN MULTIPURPOSE FACILITY NJIT Highlander Athletics entered a new era this fall after the completion of its highly anticipated outdoor multipurpose facility, Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium. The state-of-the-art facility will be the home for NJIT men’s and women’s soccer and men’s lacrosse programs.

When paired with the Wellness and Events Center, it gives the Highlanders one of the elite athletic venues in the Northeast.

The women’s soccer team was the first of the three teams to play on campus since November 7, 2015, when it hosted UMBC on August 22, 2019.

“It has been a long time coming, but we are very excited to have this field project come to fruition,” Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan commented. “As the recently opened WEC enhanced the campus and benefited the entire NJIT community, this

athletic field will do the same. Not only does it give our varsity lacrosse and soccer teams a proper on-campus home field, it will also serve as a new home for our intramural and recreation programs.”

Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium features FieldTurf ’s CORE surface, the world’s first multi-layer dual-polymer fiber for sports turf that is reinventing the playing field and redefining the player experience. CORE’s proprietary design optimizes the system’s performance, delivering a more realistic, textured, grasslike shape with optimal durability and resiliency.

Features of Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium include: a digital videoboard capable of displaying live video, animation, player headshots, graphics and statistics; a scoreboard; Musco LED field lighting; and field-level seating for spectators. The

facility also meets broadcast standards for potential NCAA Regional hosting opportunities.

An enclosed spacious press box with high-speed internet access and seating for media and radio broadcasters, as well as athletic training and locker rooms, are located next to the field inside NJIT’s Wellness and Events Center, which opened in November 2017.

Both soccer teams began their fourth season of competition in the ASUN Conference, while the men’s lacrosse team will begin its first season in the Northeast Conference after competing as a Division 1 Independent for the past four seasons. In addition to intercollegiate athletics, the multipurpose turf field will be used by intramural and club sports, as well as for student activities. n

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL EARNS SIXTH STRAIGHT AVCA TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD For the sixth consecutive season, the NJIT women’s volleyball team was honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) with one of its annual AVCA Team Academic Awards for the 2018-19 academic year.

The Highlanders were one of 189 Division 1 women’s volleyball programs to achieve the Team Academic distinction and joined six other ASUN programs on the list.

To be eligible for the AVCA Team Academic Award — which was created in 1992-93 — a program had to maintain a 3.30 cumulative grade point average on a 4.0 scale. n

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G I V I N G

Dr. Dorman’s Generous Support of NJIT Continues with New Gift

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urrent and future Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) Scholars will benefit directly from the continued generosity of Albert A. Dorman ’45, ’99 HON, his wife Joan, and their family.

After graduating from NJIT, Dr. Dorman earned a master’s in civil engineering from the University of Southern California in 1962. He went on to become Founding Chairman and first CEO of AECOM Technology Corporation in Los Angeles, today perhaps the largest architecture and engineering and related services firm in the world with over 90,000 employees.

Dr. Dorman has been recognized by his peers with many commendations.

Among other honors, he was elected as both a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, possibly the only individual ever so recognized.

The alumnus and benefactor’s most recent substantial gift will fund the Dr. Saul K. and Roberta Fenster Honors Faculty Fellowship in Engineering (the “Dorman-Fenster Faculty Fellowship”); the Dr. Joel and

Dr. Diane Bloom Honors Faculty Fellowship in STEM Leadership (the “Dorman-Bloom Faculty Fellowship”); and an annual Presidential Leadership Colloquium as part of the existing and very successful ADHC Colloquium initiative.

“The establishment of the Albert Dorman Honors College was a transformational moment for NJIT and has helped catapult this university on an upward trajectory that has been remarkable,” noted NJIT President Joel S. Bloom. “We owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Dorman and his family, as they continue to show their generosity and commitment to NJIT as well as its students and its faculty, both of which will benefit directly from this latest gift.” He added that Laura Dorman, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Dorman, “now serves as a very engaged member of the Honors College Board of Visitors, despite her ‘other coast’ residence in California.”

The Dorman-Fenster Faculty Fellowship in Engineering will enable the ADHC Dean to select and support outstanding faculty from Newark College of Engineering in developing and offering honors-only engineering courses for ADHC Scholars, and will supply them with the resources they need for such courses. The DormanBloom Faculty Fellowship in STEM Leadership will do the same but without an exclusive focus on NCE. Instead, it will support the development and teaching of ADHC courses by all NJIT faculty who are actively engaged with industry through their research and service.

This year’s Fenster Faculty Fellow is Dr. Shawn Chester, Assistant Professor of Dr. Albert Dorman ’45, ’99 HON

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Joan Dorman and Dr. Albert Dorman ’45, ’99 HON in front of a display honoring his life and legacy in the college that bears his name.

Mechanical Engineering, who is himself a 2005 graduate of the Dorman Honors College and a year later earned a master’s degree from NJIT. Professor Chester’s course, “Mechanics of Soft Materials,” will present an overview of multiple contemporary topics related to the deformation and failure behavior of solid materials. The Bloom Faculty Fellow for academic year 2019-20 is Dr. Michael Lee, Assistant Professor of Informatics, who will teach, “Design Thinking to Address Structural Inequality.” The course will focus on developing design thinking skills in the domain of information and computing while supporting community partners in the City of Newark.

The final component of the Dorman family gift will fund an annual colloquium on leadership in the 21st century for ADHC Scholars, to be led by Dr. Bloom.

“For over a quarter of a century, the Albert Dorman Honors College has been educating engineers and leaders in all STEM fields in the state of New Jersey,” said Louis Hamilton, Dean of NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College. “This second transformational gift from Dr. Dorman ensures that the Honors College will be able to advance innovative coursework and engaged learning opportunities at NJIT for these excellent Honors Scholars. It is a truly remarkable gift that recognizes the talented faculty we have at NJIT and their commitment to working at the forefront of STEM education.” n n j i t .e du

CHOOSE YOUR SEAT.

The chairs in the Wellness and Events Center will have stories to tell: Gift of

The Eberhardt Family

In Honor of

Dr. Angelo Perna

In Memory of

Herman A. “Doc” Estrin

For additional naming details, please contact Sean Morrison, Director of Athletic Development, at 973-596-3440 or sean.p.morrison@njit.edu.

CREATE A LASTING LEGACY. njit.edu/athletics

NJIT RANKED AS A

TOP 10 0 NJIT has joined the U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 National Universities for 2020

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NJIT

has continued its impressive climb up the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking of colleges and universities by joining the top 100 National Universities for 2020. Now ranked #97 in the nation, NJIT has risen nearly 50 places during the last two years. NJIT also is ranked #41 overall on the publication’s “Best Value Schools” list and #43 overall among “Top Public Schools.” Additionally, NJIT is ranked within the top 100 undergraduate engineering programs in the nation.

“What’s most notable about NJIT’s rapid climb in the U.S. News ranking is that it is directly attributable to measures of student success,” noted Fadi P. Deek, NJIT’s provost and senior executive vice president. “The primary drivers of our ranking gains have been graduation and retention rates, resource allocations that support students and faculty, and NJIT’s success in attracting highachieving students. These empirical measures show that NJIT is putting student success at the forefront of all that it does.”

Each year, U.S. News ranks colleges and universities throughout the country based upon “outcomes, faculty resources, expert opinion, financial resources, student excellence and alumni giving.”

Now in their 35th year, the rankings compare bachelor’s degree-granting institutions from across the U.S. on 15 diverse measures of academic quality.

Schools are grouped into 10 different ranking categories based on their academic missions.

Within each category, the sum of weighted, normalized values across 15 indicators of academic quality determines each school’s overall score, and by extension its overall rank. Only thoroughly vetted academic data from surveys and reliable third-party sources are used to calculate each ranking factor.

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SOCIAL/ECONOMIC MOBILITY

Within the outcomes measures, NJIT has seen noteworthy rises in both retention and graduation rates in recent years and has performed as a national leader with regard to the social/economic mobility of its students, such as the persistence and success of students from low-income families. NJIT is proud to be #1 nationally, according to Forbes, for the percentage of those students who rise from the lowest quintile of family income to the highest quintiles of income 10 years after graduation.

FACULTY RESOURCES

In terms of faculty resources, NJIT has hired 150 new faculty members in recent years and has dramatically enhanced its 10

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research enterprise. NJIT now conducts $170 million in annual research activity and is rated an R1 research university by the Carnegie Classification, which is the highest possible ranking. NJIT also has increased the percentage of classes with 20 or less students and has reduced the percentage of classes with more than 49 students.

STUDENT EXCELLENCE

With regard to “student excellence,” NJIT has seen applications for admission jump from 4,300 in 2013 to more than 9,000 this year, and the accomplishments of those applying also have grown. The credentials of NJIT’s nearly 1,400 first-year students this fall rival those of students at the most prestigious universities in the nation. NJIT’s

current first-year students have an average high school grade point average (GPA) of 3.6 out of 4.0 and achieved average SAT scores of 1,297 out of a possible 1,600. For the 154 students entering NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College, the average high school GPA is 3.95 and the average SAT reaches 1486.

NJIT additionally has realized improvement in its “expert opinion” score and in its financial resources ranking during the last two years.

AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE

“Joining the top 100 National Universities represents an important milestone for NJIT,” said NJIT President Joel S. Bloom. “It’s not a matter of perception. It’s where we belong based on the investments we have made in n j i t .e du

The credentials of NJIT’s nearly 1,400 first-year students this fall rival those of students at the most prestigious universities in the nation.

“JOINING THE TOP 100 NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES REPRESENTS AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE FOR NJIT. IT’S NOT A MATTER OF PERCEPTION. IT’S WHERE WE BELONG BASED ON THE INVESTMENTS WE HAVE MADE IN THE SUCCESS OF OUR STUDENTS AND FACULTY.” - NJIT President Joel S. Bloom C E L E B R AT I N G 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N C E

the success of our students and faculty. I’m particularly gratified because this recognition is the direct result of efforts that have yielded tangible and important results. NJIT’s rise in these rankings is about substance, and U.S. News is just one of the places taking note of what is happening here. We now are rated R1 for research by the Carnegie Classification; we are ranked #1 in the nation by Forbes for the upward economic mobility of our students from the lowest brackets of family income; and Payscale.com ranks NJIT #53 out of more than 4,000 universities for the midcareer earnings of our graduates.” n Author: Matthew E. Golden, Ed.D. is Chief Strategy Officer in the Office of Strategic Initiatives at NJIT.

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NJIT Engineers Get the Lead Out

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As Newark races to replace thousands of lead-based pipes that feed drinking water into homes, the city faces a second urgent challenge: stopping the heavy metal from leaching into the water supply while the massive remediation effort is underway.

And that’s where NJIT’s environmental engineers come in. To mitigate exposure over the life of the project, which is expected to take up to 30 months, a research team is working with the city to develop and test chemical methods to prevent lead-shedding corrosion in service lines that stretch from the water main located under streets into dwellings.

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s environmental engineers widely acknowledge, our understanding of the complexities around pipe corrosion and the release of metals continues to evolve.

And so must our treatments,” said Taha Marhaba, chairman of NJIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a specialist in drinking water quality and analytical techniques for pollution detection.

“Our team of faculty and students is developing a more precise, real-time picture of Newark’s water system, in which variable water quality conditions affect the release of lead, and optimizing treatments for this dynamic environment.”

Lead in pipes can become soluble and transportable if oxidized by flowing water, particularly in aging infrastructure that dates back to the middle of the 20th century and earlier in some cities, including Newark. For 25 years, corrosion-prevention in the city’s largest service area, which draws water from reservoirs in the Pequannock River system, consisted of injecting a chemical, silicate, into the water supply. It formed a protective layer of material over the interior surface of the pipe to prevent lead from mobilizing.

But testing determined that silicate was no longer effective.

Using X-ray diffraction analysis, the NJIT team found that in addition to elemental lead, lead oxides were the compounds most present in the pipe scales. Scanning electron microscopy also revealed iron, aluminum, silicon, magnesium and calcium deposits.

“With the introduction of new sources of water, conditions changed. Water quality, including pH, temperature, and organic and inorganic material in runoff, among other factors, plays a big role in the effectiveness of anti-corrosives,” said Lucia Rodriguez-Freire, an assistant professor of environmental engineering who studies the transformation of contaminants and their migration pathways. Some water samples have shown lead levels that exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threshold for action.

Aided by her graduate students, RodriguezFreire launched a study this past summer of excavated service lines to determine the efficacy of a new corrosion-control chemical with an affinity for metal surfaces, orthophosphate, which was introduced into

Boran Wang (seated) and Maedeh Soleimanifar, environmental engineering graduate students preparing to analyze lead service lines at the EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati.

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the water system last May. While widely used as a corrosion inhibitor in other water systems, where it has successfully stabilized lead, its introduction is not in and of itself an optimal solution, the researchers say.

“Because every water system is different, we have to take other factors into account, such as chemicals in the water, varying seasonal temperatures and weather conditions that can increase runoff,” notes Rodriguez-Freire. “Surface water quality is complex and dynamic. As we continue with our research, we are gaining a better understanding of how seasonal changes, for example, can affect water composition and quality.” The NJIT team is working with the city’s consultant, engineering and construction firm CDM Smith, on the pipe analysis.

“Ultimately, we will try to pinpoint the best treatment strategies as water conditions change. Specifically, we can study how environmental factors such as pH and temperature affect lead-leaching kinetics under variable doses of orthophosphate in water,” added Wen Zhang, another member of the team and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, who develops water treatment technologies such as chemically reactive membrane filtration to combat existing and emerging contaminants.

OPTIMIZING TREATMENT DISTRIBUTION The team is setting up a lab on campus to continue testing for the presence of lead in excavated pipes and to determine how well

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“OUR TEAM OF FACULTY AND STUDENTS IS

From left: Lucia Rodriguez-Freire, assistant professor of environmental engineering; Taha Marhaba, chairman of NJIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka; and David Smith of CDM Smith.

DEVELOPING A MORE PRECISE, REAL-TIME PICTURE OF NEWARK’S WATER SYSTEM, IN WHICH VARIABLE WATER QUALITY CONDITIONS AFFECT THE RELEASE OF LEAD, AND OPTIMIZING TREATMENTS FOR THIS DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT.” - Taha Marhaba, Chairman of

NJIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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orthophosphate is building up in the service lines to block corrosion, an electrochemical process. Team members traveled this fall for training at the EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, which is currently the only lab in the country to perform these tests.

The engineers also will determine whether the chemicals should be injected at different points in the distribution system other than at the water treatment plant. “We need to optimize treatment distribution as well,” Marhaba noted.

Following training and certification this fall by inspection professionals, NJIT undergraduate and graduate students will evaluate pipe replacements to make sure they are being done correctly.

“We have a strong interest and involvement in lead-mitigating programs in our city, Newark,” said Moshe Kam, the Dean of NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering. “At the same time, we use this city-wide effort to educate the next generation of engineers.

Graduate and undergraduate students from the College will experience through this project the critical societal impact of engineering; the strong connection between theoretical studies and lab experiments on one hand, and real-life challenges in the urban environment on the other; and the responsibility that engineers owe to the welfare and health of their communities.”

NJIT’s civil engineers work on a range of infrastructure projects with the city, from intelligent transportation systems, to dam monitoring and assessment, to water systems.

Lead in drinking water is associated with serious health effects in people, especially children, causing damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing and impaired formation and function of blood cells, the team noted. The EPA’s goal is to eliminate it from drinking water entirely.

“As an older, urban community, Newark has outdated lead service lines, and we look forward to modernizing our infrastructure and reducing risk for Newark’s families,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said this past March, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the pipe replacement program. Locations throughout Newark were prioritized based on the level of risk and the presence of at-risk populations, such as children. n Author: Tracey L. Regan is an NJIT Magazine contributing writer.

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NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing Launches New Location in

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ith the start of the fall semester, dozens of

students embarked on graduate-level academic programs in data science at NJIT’s new location, just steps from the Exchange Place PATH station in the Waterfront district of Jersey City.

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NJIT@JerseyCity is located at 101 Hudson Street on the Jersey City waterfront and, in addition to an ultra-modern learning environment, also provides an expansive view of the iconic Manhattan skyline.

NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC) offers a master’s degree in Data Science as well as graduate certificates in Big Data and Data Mining at NJIT @JerseyCity.

YWCC plans to add a graduate certificate in Data Visualization in spring 2020 and further expand next fall to include Cyber Security graduate programs. Non-credit data science accelerator programs will begin later this year.

Jersey City was chosen for NJIT’s new location because of the strong demand for data scientists in the area. Most of the graduate students at NJIT @JerseyCity are working professionals attending the programs in the evenings, hailing from companies and organizations such as Microsoft, IBM, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Prudential, BNY Mellon, TD Ameritrade, NJ Transit, Con Edison and City National Bank.

Roberto Rivera, a business major working as a market research professional for New Jersey Transit, said he’s excited about the new program at NJIT@JerseyCity. “I do a lot of market analysis on the NJ Transit data

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using traditional tools. I will be pursuing the Certificate in Data Mining to enhance my skillset and match the recent initiative of NJ Transit, investing in technology that makes our business smarter, faster and better. I am fortunate to have the strong support of my managers in this endeavor. They value a combination of quality education with practical skills.”

“My employer collects an enormous quantity of data from its customers on a daily basis, and we are constantly looking for ways to put it to good use and improve our service,” added Evo Yaset, an electrical engineer and student at NJIT@Jersey City.

Earning an M.S. in Data Science is a unique opportunity for me to obtain the skills I need to do precisely that. On top of that, the location is very convenient, since I live in Jersey City.”

GENERATING TECH TALENT For a number of years, data scientist has ranked as one of the top jobs in the U.S. in terms of salary and market. “The demand is especially significant in the fast-growing New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, and this has been reflected in the incredible interest we have witnessed in our Jersey City

ABOVE: NJIT students showed support for the launch of NJIT@JerseyCity and raised awareness of the new location by volunteering to spread the word at events such as Project: EATS, a summertime festival in Jersey City.

programs. It is our duty and our privilege to generate the tech talent to meet this demand,” said YWCC Dean Craig Gotsman.

In practice, not all technical professionals working with data perform the same job and there is a need for a variety of different skills.

NJIT@JerseyCity offers multiple programs to meet the variety of skills needed.

The certificate in Data Mining is designed for data analysts, professionals who work with large data sets with a focus on data access, reporting, basic analysis and visualization.

The certificate in Big Data Essentials is for the data engineers, professionals responsible for managing the infrastructure for big data storage, rapid access and pipeline processing of large data sets and preparing the data for analysis.

The most comprehensive program is the M.S. in Data Science. That program is for those who want to pursue careers as data

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“NJIT’S EXPANSION TO JERSEY CITY WILL CREATE NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW JERSEYANS AND MAKE OUR ALREADY HIGHLY EDUCATED WORKFORCE EVEN MORE ATTRACTIVE TO EMPLOYERS AND ENTREPRENEURS.” - Tim Sullivan, CEO of New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority (NJEDA)

scientists, who create and apply machine learning models and predictive methods to large data sets to extract actionable and valuable information.

One bonus for those pursuing one of the certificate programs is that they can “upgrade” their education down the road and apply certificate courses taken toward an M.S. in Data Science.

CUTTING-EDGE INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Distinguished Professor David Bader leads the faculty at the Jersey City location. He also is the director of NJIT’s new Institute for Data Science. The Institute focuses on cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and

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development in all areas pertinent to digital data.

Bader teaches the Intro to Big Data course at NJIT@JerseyCity and is joined by Pantelis Monogioudis, who teaches Data Mining. In addition to his work at NJIT, Monogioudis is also head of Applied Machine Learning Research at Nokia Bell Labs.

Andrew Pole, of NJIT’s department of Mathematical Sciences, teaches Applied Statistics and Keith Williams of YWCC’s Department of Informatics, teaches Web Systems Development. Williams is a seasoned software development professional, with many years of instructional and entrepreneurial hands-on experience in the field.

Students at NJIT@JerseyCity will develop a deep knowledge of modern computer science and be active participants in projects involving artificial intelligence, big data, analytics, data mining, visualization and machine learning.

Beyond the academic degree programs, NJIT @JerseyCity will offer non-credit Data Science Accelerator programs later this fall. In contrast to the typical boot camps offered by others, these intense, deep-tech five-week programs are designed for working

professionals who want to hone their data science skills in a fast-changing marketplace.

The expansion to Jersey City enables NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing to continue growing its reputation as the largest producer of computing talent in the New Jersey/New York metro region, enrolling more than 3,000 students and graduating more than 800 computing professionals each year. NJIT has been recognized as a Top 100 National University, by U.S News & World Report, is rated by Forbes as #1 nationally for student upward economic mobility and ranks in the Top 2% Nationwide in Payscale.com’s College Salary Report.

Tim Sullivan, CEO of New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), said “Reclaiming New Jersey’s position as the State of Innovation through targeted investments in students and workers is a pillar of Governor Murphy’s plan for a stronger and fairer New Jersey economy.

NJIT’s expansion to Jersey City will create new opportunities for New Jerseyans and make our already highly educated workforce even more attractive to employers and entrepreneurs.”

For more information on all NJIT @JerseyCity programs, please visit jerseycity.njit.edu. n Author: Brian Malina is the Director of Communications and Marketing at NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing.

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A GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

When Rudy Dehn graduated from Newark College of Engineering in 1941, he had no idea his career path would involve baking cakes – and lots of them. Yet Rudy and his fellow General Electric scientists would do just that as part of their ongoing efforts to develop the modern-day microwave oven.

Today, Rudy recalls that time of scientific discovery and collaboration with fondness, and is grateful to NJIT for encouraging his spirit of innovation and hard work. To support that creative drive in future generations of NJIT students, Rudy has established a charitable gift annuity, a deferred gift that has provided him with a consistent life income stream for more than 20 years. Rudy considers it a gift that keeps on giving.

“I give to NJIT because I am thankful for the many professional and personal opportunities my schooling afforded me. Establishing a gift annuity has allowed me to invest in the university, while providing me with a steady source of yearly income.”

- Rudy Dehn ’41

To learn more about the benefits of charitable gift annuities – or to receive information on including NJIT in your estate plans – contact us today.

Beth Kornstein Associate Vice President of Planned Giving 973-596-8548 elizabeth.s.kornstein@njit.edu

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MAL & FRIENDS NJIT Magazine invites new correspondents to join Mal Simon in sharing news about class members and alumni organizations. Professor emeritus of physical education and athletics, Mal was director of physical education and athletics, and men’s soccer coach, for 30 years. In 1993, he received the Cullimore Medal for his service to the university.

If you would like to be a regular correspondent, don’t hesitate to send an email to the editor of NJIT Magazine: crovetto@njit.edu First, the latest news from Mal –

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eatured in this column are a group of alumni, some whom I have not heard from in 50 years.

Three of these “lost and found” alumni are BOB ROSENCRANCE ’67, JOHN RAPSOMANIKIS ’68, and PAUL KOEBEL ’60. And now, thanks to Paul, I can say almost 120 years as his story includes his grandfather, CHARLES LEROY FENNIMORE, who graduated from the Newark Technical School in 1910. Others included in the column are FRED STICKLE ’54, GARY HAMILTON ’73, JACK HEATH ’78, ROY KNUTSEN ’62, BOB WELGOS ’62 and JIM ENGLES, our former NJIT men’s basketball coach.

It is always nice to hear from NCE alumni who remember the good old days. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear from BOB ROSENCRANCE, who remembered being in my physical education class.

Alumni from those Bob Rosencrance in his NCE graduation photo

early days will recall the small gymnasium on the third floor of Campbell Hall and the locker room in the basement where the students changed into their required uniform of a red T-shirt and shorts and then ran up four flights to the gym.

Bob writes that he remembers his first physical education class and my polite lecture about learning sports other than C E L E B R AT I N G 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N C E

basketball. He said that the class waited patiently while I described some of these activities and as soon as I finished, everyone raced to play basketball.

Bob attended Paterson Eastside High School and graduated from Hawthorne High School. Not having to study to get good grades in high school, he was shocked in his freshman year at NCE to learn he would have to really study just to get by. He joined Sigma Pi fraternity and says having his fraternity brothers help with his schoolwork was a Godsend. To help pay his school costs, Bob was a lifeguard at the NCE pool.

After graduation, he took a job with Combustion Engineering in Windsor, Connecticut, designing boilers. It was there that he met his wife-to-be, Sandy.

Bob says, “It was love at first sight,” and they have been married ever since.

Two years later, he decided sales was more to his liking and began this venture in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, California. He moved to selling but after a few years, he and Sandy decided to take a break of 18 months traveling around the west in their tent trailer. They rented their home in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Bob and Sandy stayed with friends during the winter at Lake Tahoe where they were on the ski patrol. They returned to southern California where Bob got a job with General Electric as Western Regional

Sales Manager for cogeneration sales.

Cogeneration or ‘cogen’ is a term used for producing two products from one fuel, namely electricity and steam, that is used for many purposes. A company would install a cogen plant and sell the electric power to the local utility at a lower price than the utility itself could produce.

They used the steam from a waste heat boiler for whatever their steam need was.

When Bob worked in San Francisco for Combustion Engineering, he primarily called on Bechtel and Kaiser Engineers. At General Electric, it was Ebasco Services, later bought by Raytheon and Fluor Global. At the age of 50, when given the choice of moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, with GE or become a GE consultant, he decided he could make more money as a consultant. A few years later, Sandy and Bob moved to Bend, Oregon, where they still live.

Out of the blue, I received a nice letter from PAUL KOEBEL and even more surprising, his letter included a picture of his grandfather, CHARLES LEROY FENNIMORE, and other graduates of the 1910 class from Newark Technical School.

Prior to NCE, Paul decided not to wait

Bob Rosencrance and his wife, Sandy, in Seoul.

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Paul Koebel ‘60 and family

to be drafted, so he volunteered for the United States Army where he served as a Medical Corpsman stationed mostly at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Coincidentally, President Eisenhower was fishing at Granby, Colorado, when he suffered a heart attack and spent 1-2 months recuperating at Fitzsimmons. Paul just happened to be at the front door when “Ike” was discharged as a patient and he shook the hands of Paul and another sergeant and thanked them for his care as he left the hospital. A benefit from his military service was the GI Bill, which enabled him to attend NCE. At NCE, Paul was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and president of the Ski Club. After graduation, Paul went to work doing design work for Combustion Engineering in Windsor, Connecticut.

In 1963, he took a job with General Electric Knoils Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, New York. In 1965, Paul transferred to the GE large Steam Turbine Generator Department in Schenectady, New York, where he worked with utility customers installing and integrating GE generators into the utility customers’ power plants. Ten years later, he changed jobs and went into the Large Steam Turbine Product Service Department working with customers trying to resolve turbine generator design and outagerelated problems.

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grandparents on a farm in Millington, New Jersey. After they passed away, he moved to Newark, New Jersey. Roy, as he was called, attended Newark Technical School. After graduation, Roy went to work for Elliott Steam Turbine where he designed turbine generators. He also worked in manufacturing building turbine generators. When his company moved to Pennsylvania, Roy went to work for Otis Elevator Company in Yonkers until he retired.

Now for JOHN RAPSOMANIKIS ‘68, the third of our “lost and found” alumni.

John was on the 1960-63 soccer teams that had a 32-5-4 record including the 1960 NAIA National Championship and the 1961 NAIA National Runner-up. He was captain of the 1963 team and selected to the All N.J.-Del.-Pa. teams in 1961 and 1963, and All-American team in 1963.

John scored 21 goals, placing him tied for 10th place on NJIT’s All Time career scorers’ list.

The last time I had seen John was the semester after the 1963 soccer season. He was drafted into the United States Army and served in the 1st Armored Division 82nd Airborne. When he returned to NCE to earn a degree in electrical engineering, my family and I were in the Peace Corps, so I was unaware of his return. By the time I returned to NCE, John had graduated and

was working for Lockheed in Germany.

Unfortunately, we lost contact with each other until recently, thanks in part to good old “Google.” This winter, the 20th reunion of the Florida Soccer Alumni was held in Coral Springs, Florida, and a special effort to locate missing alumni was being made. One who finally replied was John, who lives part of the year in Merritt Island, Florida.

John attended the 20th annual reunion where he was welcomed with open arms into our group. Originally claiming to be a reserved, private individual, he was soon as gabby as everyone. We learned that, after 30 years of marriage, his wife had died and he was grieving and lonely. It was good that he finally decided to meet with his former college classmates. It turned out to be a win-win occasion for everyone. We got to know John as a friendly, intelligent, sensitive, world-traveled person who brought a different perspective to our group. And, not only did John come out of his self-made shell to enjoy himself, but he continues his new relationship by meeting on Sundays for church and lunch with Fabian ’74 and Jeanie Hurtado, who live in nearby Cape Canaveral, Florida.

John worked for Lockheed, which took him to Germany and other locations in the U.S. until his retirement. He was hesitant to talk about his projects, but did hint at some “cloak-and-dagger” operations for the U.S. Armed Services and a “black ops” company working

John Rapsomanikis ’68, Mal Simon and Joe Alves ’77

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primarily for the Pentagon. In addition to Lockheed in Munich, Germany, Burbank and Sunnyvale, California, his shortterm consulting was for Litton Industries in Chatsworth, Rockwell International in Los Angeles and Hughes Aircraft in Anaheim, California, Unisys in Salt Lake City, Utah, Raytheon in Waltham, Massachusetts, Northrup Grummond in Melbourne, Florida, General Dynamics in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Detroit, Michigan, and the U.S. Navy in New Orleans, Louisiana.

John also lives part of the year in Sandpoint, Idaho. When I asked him why, he tells me that “Sandpoint men are as handsome and ferocious as the Vikings, the women are as beautiful and strong as the Amazons, the children are as intelligent and angelic as the cupids.”

However, it may be just coincidental that Sandpoint sits on the north edge of a lake said to be as large as the island of Oahu.

The lake is so deep that it has been a U.S. naval research station since WWII. This naval station had developed and tested the first-ever U.S. stealth submarine.

Finding John was a lucky and perhaps fated occasion. I look forward to getting to know him better.

FRED STICKLE ’54 was a classmate of mine at Leonia High School. He notes that the last time he saw me was on the soccer field in the fall of 1963. Fred was playing for NCE and I was playing for Panzer College, now Montclair State University. Shortly after graduation from NCE in 1954, Fred married Doris Kopp, another Leonia classmate. Fred was in the NCE Air Force Reserve Officers Corps, was commissioned a pilot and flew in the United States Air Force for three years.

After leaving the Air Force, Fred went to work for American Cyanamid in New Jersey, was transferred to Cleveland and Cincinnati in Ohio, then back to New Jersey and finally ended his career in Chicago, Illinois, where he now lives.

GARY HAMILTON ’73, who is my C E L E B R AT I N G 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N C E

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Jack Heath at Oxford

cousin, retired in September 2016 after 43 years working for Lummus in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He finished up working for Chevron Lummus Global, a joint venture between Chevron and Lummus technical divisions, designing refinery facilities and licensing clean fuels technologies worldwide. He spends his retirement years spiffing up his 1966 Ford Mustang for car shows, taking art classes, singing in the church choir and as a volunteer cook at the Keansburg, New Jersey, soup kitchen.

JACK HEATH ’78 is a rare politician; he actually paid his own way when traveling to another country to represent his constituents. As City Council President of Salisbury, Maryland, he paid his own way to sister cities Salisbury, England, and Tartu, Estonia. Along with the city mayor and administrator, they were invited to visit their sister cities. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, they each paid out of pocket and made the trip. They participated in the “Mayor Making” (swearing in) in Tartu and meetings concerning common interests in Salisbury, England. Jack commented that even though we were on different continents, the issues facing our communities were very similar.

Jack has been an active member of the Salisbury community for many years as a

Volunteer Fire Officer, member of the Rotary Club Board of Directors, and Chairman of the Mayor’s Council in Support of Individuals with Disabilities and member of Salisbury University Varsity Club Board of Directors. Jack played varsity basketball at NJIT and is an active supporter of NJIT athletics.

I will end this column with the good news that ROY KNUTSEN ’62 and I, after six years of consecutive losses, the seventh proved lucky for us as we defeated BOB WELGOS ’62 and Jim Engles, NJIT’s former basketball coach, by one stroke in our annual golf match. The match went down to the wire with Roy’s creative score keeping on the last hole proving the win.

I must say that Bob and Jim took the loss like true gentlemen.

It was fun hearing from the “old timers,” so let’s hear from more of you. n

The 20th reunion of the Florida Soccer Alumni was held in Coral Springs, Florida.

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LEFT: 2019 marked the 30th year that awards were given to deserving graduates by the NJIT Alumni Association. From left: NJIT President Joel S. Bloom; Samir Saini ’97H; Michael Donnelly MMBA ’02; Áine O’Dwyer ’08H, ’08 M.S.; Philip Rinaldi ’68, ’77 M.S. ’17 HON; Kenneth Colao ’77; and Anita M. Rubino ‘83, NJIT Alumni Association board member.

LEFT: The gala dinner was held in the Wellness and Events Center, which was fully transformed and decorated for the occasion. BELOW: NJIT President Joel S. Bloom addressed alumni gathered at Alumni Weekend. RIGHT: Dr. Junmin Shih, associate professor of the Martin Tuchman School of Management, received the prestigious Robert W. Van Houten Award for Teaching Excellence.

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n June 1, 2019, more than 600 alumni and guests trekked to campus to make this Alumni Weekend the most successful in NJIT’s history.

The Weekend played host to traditional events, like campus tours, President Bloom’s Address to Alumni, the third annual Greek Reunion, the Lunch and Wine Festival, and the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Awards Ceremony.

2019 marked the 30th year that awards were given to deserving graduates by the Alumni Association, and this class of awardees was more inspiring than ever.

“Don’t ever stop investing in what excites you,” said Michael Donnelly, C E L E B R AT I N G 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N C E

MMBA ’02, former Senior Vice President at MasterCard, as he accepted his award.

“And make the best of every day that you can.”

Speaking about their professional and personal success, the awardees credited parents, friends, and teachers, and made a point of recognizing the quality of education they received at NJIT. “NJIT represented the opportunity of a lifetime for me,” said Ken Colao ’77, President of CNY Group. “It was important that I made the most of it throughout my life and career.”

“The steps that the university is taking, especially in innovation and technology,

are amazing,” said Áine O’Dwyer ’08H, ’08 M.S., CEO of Enovate Engineering.

“Coming back to campus, standing in the Central King Building, it’s wonderful to see the transformation at NJIT.” Also honored were Samir Saini ’97H, former IT Commissioner for the City of New York, and Philip Rinaldi ’68, ’77 M.S., ’17 HON, Dr. Junmin Shih, associate professor of the Martin Tuchman School of Management, received the prestigious Robert W. Van Houten Award for Teaching Excellence.

The Weekend concluded with a gala dinner in the Wellness and Events Center, fully transformed and decorated for the occasion. In addition to the usual dinner and dancing, the evening also celebrated the 100th anniversary of Newark College of Engineering. Both NJIT’s President, Dr. Joel Bloom, and Alumni Association President Dennis Ciemniecki ’82 offered remarks in celebration of more than 300 alumni and guests in attendance.

Save the date for Alumni Weekend 2020: May 29-31, 2020!

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The Making of “Mr. NJIT”: STEPHEN DePALMA ’72

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n his first day of college, Stephen DePalma ’72 and his classmates received blunt words about their daunting engineering curriculum from then-President Robert Van Houten, clearly intended as a form of “no nonsense” motivation: “Look to your left and look to your right – one of those people will not be there at graduation.”

“Sink or swim – that was the standard then,” recounts DePalma. He decidedly swam, going on after graduation to help build Schoor DePalma Inc., an engineering firm that reshaped – yes, literally – the New Jersey landscape. He attributes his success in navigating those turbulent waters as a green 18-year-old to his own determination, the organizational skills he quickly acquired and the support so readily offered by his fraternity brothers at Pi Kappa Phi. There was Ted Cassera ’72, for example, who introduced him to civil engineering.

He jokes that he was glad he met him on “the second day of college.”

“Ted did surveying on the weekends to make extra money and invited me along.

It was interesting work – and outdoors – and I related to many aspects of it, from the physical to the structural. I was a mechanical engineering major at the time, which was more abstract, but I switched to civil my junior year, doubled up on courses and managed to still graduate in four years.”

And his first year out of college, another fraternity brother introduced him to Howard Schoor, who asked him: “Where do you want to be in five years?”

“I want to be at your desk, interviewing people like me,” was the bold response that helped secure the job. He spent the next five years “learning everything from management, to marketing, to finance, to solving technical problems.”

The firm’s primary work was, as he puts it, “local infrastructure, the projects that affect quality of life: land development,

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environmental studies, water and sewer systems, traffic and transportation.”

But there were also the landscapechanging megaprojects, from the creation of a new interchange on the New Jersey Turnpike to connect shoppers to the Jersey Gardens Mall to what became known as the Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, a 2.5-mile expressway, including a tunnel, from the Atlantic City Expressway to Steve Wynn’s Borgata casino.

The latter project brought them up against a fierce competitor who tried to stop it – Donald J. Trump. The expressway builders prevailed, however, “and I think everyone benefited,” DePalma recounts.

He clearly made a dent at the firm, as it was renamed “Schoor DePalma Inc.” just a few years after he arrived. As CEO for 15 years, revenue grew tenfold and the firm was recognized by Engineering NewsRecord as among the “Top 40 Largest USA Engineering Design Firms.” By the time he retired as chairman and CEO in 2007, the firm employed more than 1,250 employees in 25 multi-state offices. He now runs his own engineering consulting group.

DePalma was such an adept manager that he was recruited by about a dozen state and national civic organizations for his diverse skills and willingness to plunge into high-profile projects. They include the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Alliance for Action, Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity (where he served as national president and was the recipient of the Mr. Pi Kappa Phi award, the organization’s most prestigious, Ronald McDonald House, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National and New Jersey Association of Home Builders, the New Jersey League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Utility and Transportation Contractors Association, the Young Presidents Organization/World Presidents Organization (New Jersey chapter), and NJIT, where he has served

Stephen DePalma ’72, chair of the NJIT Board of Trustees (center), receives the NCE Outstanding Alumnus Award from Newark College of Engineering Dean Moshe Kam (left) and Patrick J. Natale (right), chair of NCE’s Board of Visitors.

on the Board of Overseers, from 1989 until 2003, and the Board of Trustees, since 2003.

He is currently the chairman of the board.

DePalma’s school days clearly still resonate, as he singles out a project he took part in for the Chamber of Commerce, conducting surveys to determine what makes some schools successful at teaching STEM skills and others less so. “It comes down to the passion of the people – who are your teachers and principals,” he notes.

And he is informally known as “Mr. NJIT” for his longstanding involvement with his alma mater, which began shortly after he graduated at the behest of Herman “Doc” Estrin, a renowned professor of English, who persuaded him to come back to campus to talk to students about the real world. In April, he was honored as an NCE Outstanding Alumnus by his NJIT college, Newark College of Engineering, at its annual Salute to Engineering Excellence.

“I really enjoy creative, college-age students,” notes DePalma, of his years on the Board of Trustees, where he has once again found himself part of a hard-working, mutually supportive NJIT group. “This is such a great board that is so dedicated to the school for all the right reasons. It has been nice to see so many transformations on campus over the past 10 years, but also in the city of Newark. It has been very rewarding to be a part of it.” n Author: Tracey L. Regan is an NJIT Magazine contributing writer.

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Playing His Cards Right: KALPESH G. KAPADIA M.S. ’97

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hen he was 22 years old, Kalpesh G. Kapadia immigrated to the United States from Bombay, India. A commuter student who lived in Kearny, Kapadia attended NJIT on a full scholarship, with cooperative work at the pharmaceutical company ScheringPlough. His scholarship also entailed teaching students at Eastside High in Tenafly about computers. However, like many other international students, he struggled to establish his credit profile.

Thus, the inspiration to offer a means by which international students can obtain and build credit was derived from his own personal experience with the credit system in the U.S. “I came here to study in 1995 fresh from India and I had trouble getting access to loans and credit in the U.S., and many of my family members and friends over the years have come and they have faced similar problems,” Kapadia recalled. “The population has gone up tenfold of students coming from overseas, particularly at a university like NJIT, and they all faced the same problem. There were three regulations that were passed over the years that made it increasingly harder for people to get access. I thought the system was broken and was leaving out a lot of good people as it was designed and I wanted to change that, so that’s why I started the company.”

GATEWAY TO CREDIT

That company is Deserve, Inc., of which Kapadia is the founder, chief executive officer and director. Between 50,000 and 100,000 Deserve MasterCards have been issued to date by the company, with almost 500 students at NJIT who now C E L E B R AT I N G 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N C E

own a card. International students must be 18 years or older; neither a prior credit history nor a Social Security number are required.

Deserve offers two products that it is launching for NJIT: The Edu credit card for students and the Pro credit card for alumni. Both the Edu and Pro cards have no annual fee. The Edu card provides a sign-on bonus for a one-year subscription to Amazon Prime Student and the credit limit rate is $500-$5,000. The Pro card has no foreign transactions fee and offers 1% cash back on all purchases, 2% cash back on restaurant and food delivery such as Uber Eats or DoorDash, and 3% cash back on travel and entertainment that includes subscriptions to Netflix, Spotify and Fandango. And, with a $1,000 spend on the Pro card in the first 90 days, cardholders will receive a one-year membership to the Priority Pass Global Airport Lounge Network.

Alumni and students can show their NJIT pride (while building their credit histories) with the NJIT Deserve Card.

The university and Alumni Association will benefit from each NJIT Deserve credit card issued.

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH HIGHER EDUCATION

Kapadia’s career spans 20+ years in the U.S. and Asia, primarily in technology and finance. Prior to co-founding Deserve Inc., he was one of the foremost analysts/ investors in Wall Street’s tech sector. In 2004, he was ranked the No. 1 analyst in the U.S. across all sectors by The Wall Street Journal. One year later, he founded Equanum Capital and successfully managed it through 2012. In 2007 and

Kalpesh G. Kapadia M.S. ‘97 is the founder, chief executive officer and director of Deserve, Inc.

2009, Equanum Funds were one of the best-managed global equity funds in Barrons.com and Asiahedge rankings.

In addition to his M.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from NJIT, Kapadia earned an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, where he is a member of its Alumni Board and a proud member of the W.L. Mellon Society.

His personal and charitable interests focus on empowerment and upliftment through higher education. He is a member and supporter of organizations such as the Cato Institute, Santa Fe Institute, Foundation for Excellence and the American Himalayan Foundation. He also is a member of the Bay Area chapters of the Commonwealth Club and the Churchill Club.

Has his NJIT degree helped him in his career?

“Tremendously. It gave me a full scholarship when I came here for a master’s in engineering, which was at the time $10,000 a semester: $5,000 in tuition and $5,000 in living expenses,” Kapadia said. “I got three job offers: one was from Schering-Plough Corporation, one was from Lucent, and one was from Sara Lee Corporation. I had my full-time job, and I saved up and I went to business school after that. So it gave me a great launching pad.”

For more information about the NJIT Pro and Edu Credit Cards, visit deserve.com/NJIT. n Author: Christina Crovetto is editor of NJIT Magazine.

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1950’s

’54 FREDERICK JOHNSON Mechanical Engineering) received a certificate from Stevens Institute of Technology in May 2018 in computational fluid mechanics and heat transfer.

1970’s

’74 HARRY ROMAN (Electrical

Engineering, M.S. in Environmental Engineering ’74) published an e-book entitled Transitioning from Student to Engineer. Roman, who recently finished a three-year term serving on NJIT’s department of physics advisory board, wrote about that experience in the book’s foreword.

’74 GLENN McGUILL (Industrial Engineering) was awarded the Morris County Distinguished Military Service Medal in recognition of his service in the U.S. Army. McGuill served from August 1967 to July 1970 and in the New Jersey National Guard in 198485. He was awarded the Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Two Overseas Bars, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and awards as Expert M14 and Marksman M16. ’76 JOSEPH FLEMING (Civil Engineering) was promoted to first executive vice president of PS&S. Fleming also serves as the principal-in-charge of all land services at PS&S which includes environmental permitting and remediation, utility services, surveying, landscape architecture and civil engineering. ’78 General (Ret.) ELLEN PAWLIKOWSKI (Chemical Engineering, Honorary Degree ’13) was appointed Judge Widney Professor at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering. Pawlikowski, who is currently a member of the Raytheon 28

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1980’s

1970’s

2010’s

Company board of directors, served for over 40 years in the military, reaching the rank of four-star general, only the third woman to achieve the highest rank in the Air Force.

1980’s

’81 KENNETH FOX (Architecture) was

chosen by The Boy Scouts of America, Patriots’ Path Council to receive the Morris County Lifetime Achievement Award for 2019. Fox was also honored by the Metropolitan Builders and Contractors Association of NJ to receive the 2018 NJBA Ironman Award. ’83 BRIAN FUCHS (Mechanical

Engineering, M.S. ’87, Ph.D. ’97) was appointed senior research scientist for insensitive munitions with the U.S. Army. Fuchs is also an adjunct professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology and a faculty member of the Armament Graduate School at Picatinny Arsenal.

’83 WILLIAM KILLEEN (Construction & Construction Engineering Technology) was recently reappointed to the 2019-2021 term of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA)

by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. Killeen has been CEO of Acrow Bridge since 2017. ’84 SATISH MENON (M.S. in

Mechanical Engineering, M.S. in Computer Science ’85) was named SVP, chief technology officer of product platforms at Pearson. Most recently he was accountable for product platform technology at Shutterfly and previously held roles at UV Labs and Apollo Education.

’85 STAVROS KAMILARIS (Civil

Engineering) was promoted to vice president at Dewberry. He is a professional engineer in New Jersey and New York and a professional planner in New Jersey.

1950’s

’86 JEFFREY BECK (Mechanical Engineering) was elected to the inTEST Corporation board of directors and will be serving on the audit and compensation committees. Beck also currently serves as an operating advisor with Artemis Capital Partners. ’86 DEBORAH VENTZ-MIGNECO

(Industrial Administration) joined New Hanover Regional Medical Center in North Carolina as the hospital’s first director of organizational excellence and patient experience. ’87 ROBERT FOLEY (Civil Engineering)

was promoted to senior associate at Dewberry. Foley is a professional engineer in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and 7X24 Exchange.

1990’s

’90 MATTHEW JARMEL (Architecture) recently became one of six new board of directors of the Metropolitan YMCA of the Oranges. Jarmel, an owner and principal of Jarmel Kizel Architects and Engineers, Inc., has extensive expertise in building child care centers. ’90 KEVIN NESBITT (M.S. in

Environmental Science) joined Unitemp Dry Kilns and Player Design Inc. as national sales manager. Nesbitt has over 24 years of capital equipment sales in air pollution control and dryers.

’91 MICHAEL PASSARO (M.S. in Environmental Science) joined Unitemp Dry Kilns and Player Design Inc. as national sales manager. ’91 DAVID SLAGEN (Architecture) joined D&B Engineers and Architects, P.C. as an architect. He was previously a project manager for DF Gibson Architects in New York City. n j i t .e du

1950’s 1990’s

1960’s

’92 KENNETH SPAHN (M.S. in Engineering Management) was promoted to senior associate at Dewberry. Spahn is a licensed project management professional and a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and North Atlantic Ports Association (NAPA). ’93 MANUEL DA SILVA (Civil

Engineering, Minor in Management) was named acting chief executive officer of the Schools Development Authority (SDA)

by Gov. Phil Murphy. Da Silva joined the SDA in 2010 as a senior manager in the engineering section. He went on to serve as program director of program operations and in 2017, he was named vice president of construction operations.

’94 VENKAT KRISHNAMOORTHY

(M.S. in Computer & Information Science) has been appointed CTO at Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd. Previously, he was CTO at Coleman Research. ’94 QUOVELLA SPRUILL (Engineering

Science) was appointed police leadership mentor in the Highland Park Police Department. Spruill recently retired from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office where she served as the first female chief of detectives.

’96 BRIAN LAROCHE (M.S. in

1940’s

1930’s

2000’s University of Delaware’s College of Arts and Sciences. Pelesko previously served as associate dean for the natural sciences of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2016-18, after being interim associate dean for a year. ’98 GUNJAN DOSHI (M.S. in Computer Engineering) was appointed chair of the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology by Gov. Phil Murphy. Doshi is the founder and CEO of technology consulting firm InRhythm and sits on the boards of several companies including Booker.com and Yodle, Inc. ’98 RICHARD SCHAEFER (Civil Engineering) has joined New Jersey Transit as chief engineer in the capital planning and program department.

Previously Schaefer worked at HNTB Corp., where he spent more than 18 years in various roles, most recently serving as associate vice president and chief bridge engineer. ’98 CHRISTINA SEO (M.S. in

Management) was selected for the Empowered Woman of the Year Award for 2019 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP). Seo is the director of colorectal surgery for Holy Name Medical Center.

’99 JEFF ASHACHIK (Electrical

Computer & Information Science) was appointed vice president and chief operating officer of Cubic Corporation’s Cubic Mission Solutions business division.

Before joining Cubic, he held leadership positions at Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, Inc.

Engineering) joined HireSparks AV Recruiting as vice president of recruiting.

Previously Ashachik was director of training and technology at Crestron Electronics, as well as a certified Crestron master platinum programmer.

’96 ERIC VAN DER SLUYS

’99 AVINASH PRASAD (M.S. in

(Architecture) was promoted to associate at FXCollaborative. He joined the firm in 2001 and is a designer and project manager working primarily on educational, cultural and institutional projects. ’97 JOHN PELESKO (Ph.D. in Mathematics) was appointed dean of

C E L E B R AT I N G 1 0 0 Y E A R S O F N C E

Civil Engineering, M.S. in Engineering Management ’02) was named Fellow of The American Society of Civil Engineers.

Prasad is an engineer and land surveyor with more than 25 years of professional experience in civil engineering and management.

1950’s

C L A S S

N O T E S

2000’s

’00 DAVID HARDING (Industrial Engineering) was appointed director of facilities for the Princeton Public Schools.

Previously, Harding was director of facilities for the Bernards Township public school district. ’00 TODD YANOFF (Civil Engineering,

Surveying Engineering Technology in ’06) joined Dewberry as a vice president and department manager of the water/ wastewater construction services group in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Yanoff is a member of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) and New York Water Environment Association (NYWEA).

’01 AMY PATEL (Master’s in

Architecture) is a senior associate at FXCollaborative. She joined the firm in 2018 and is working on 3 Hudson Boulevard – one of the firm’s largest projects.

’03 ALEXANDRA POLLOCK

(Architecture) was promoted to principal at FXCollaborative. She has been with the firm since 2013. ’04 KEITH LUDWIG (Surveying Engineering Technology) was promoted to senior associate at Dewberry. Ludwig is a member of the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors, National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), and Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), where he serves as the board president of the SAME, Philadelphia post. ’08 IKEMEFUNA AGBANUSI

(Mathematical Sciences) was appointed assistant professor of mathematics and computer science at Colorado College.

Previously he was a visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Colgate University.

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N O T E S

’08 RADEK TRAVNICEK (M.S. in

Civil Engineering) was appointed senior associate at Gannett Fleming. Travnicek has a long history working with MetroNorth Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, Amtrak and other transit-oriented agencies.

2000’s

1980’s

1970’s

2010’s

NJIT Mourns Passing of Alumnus Vincent Naimoli ’62, ’09 HON

2010’s

Vincent and Lenda Naimoli pictured at the Naimoli recreational facility naming ceremony in 2011.

’10 BILAL KHAN (Information

Technology) was hired as New Jersey Transit’s chief technology officer for infrastructure and operation. He most recently served as the technology executive of SHI International.

’10 LISA PETERSON (Surveying

Engineering Technology) was promoted to business unit manager at Dewberry.

Peterson is a member of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS), American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors. She was named a 2018 Top Young Professional by Engineering News-Record New York and a Woman to Watch by South Jersey Biz in its February 2019 issue.

IN MEMOR I A M Herman Rich ’49, ’61 Leon Eggers ’51 Vincent Palmo ’52 Edward Pohlmann, Jr. ’53 Lewis Jacobus ’57 Charles Maguire ’57 Harold Sarvetnick ’57 Martin Dvorin ’58 William Grabler ’58 Dudley Smythe ’58, ’66 Joseph Daly ’59 John Hudak ’59 Frank Chillemi ’61 Theodore Berger, Sr. ’62 Vincent Naimoli ’62, ’09 HON

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1950’s

The NJIT community mourned the passing of Vincent Naimoli, a 1962 graduate of Newark College of Engineering and namesake of the Naimoli Family Athletic and Recreational Facility.

He was 81.

Naimoli attended Notre Dame as an undergraduate on a Navy ROTC scholarship before earning double master’s degrees at NJIT and Fairleigh Dickinson University. He later launched a successful career as CEO of Anchor Glass and served other Fortune 500 corporations in various capacities. Naimoli became a turnaround specialist transforming struggling organizations into successful entities. He is most often recognized for his success in bringing to fruition Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays as the original owner of the expansion team in 1995. Naimoli also served as chairman or participant on several financial, athletic and academic committees, was named Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in 1995, received a “Bridging the Bay” Award in 1996, was named a Champion of Higher Independent Education in Florida, was the recipient of NJIT’s outstanding alumnus award, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from NJIT, among other recognitions.

Thomas Grygotis ’63 Warren Jessop ’63 Ihor Senyk ’64 Donald Freeman ’65 Robert Mielnik ’65 George Simonson ’65 Ronald Stang ’65 Ronald Bromirski ’69 Anthony Babula ’70 Frederick Burbank ’70 Joseph Garfall, Jr. ’70, ’82 Russell Jockel ’70, ’78 John Parsons ’70, ’86 Michael Iskra ’71 Raymond Barbiere ’72 Robert Keymetian ’72

John Conrad ’73 Luis Tavares ’76, ’85 Susan Borg ’77 John Tosco ’77 John Oshust ’81 Frank Rice ’81 Michael Sheehan ’81 Steven Buckner ’85 Susan Gieser ’85 Joseph Meehan ’88 Joanne Pepe ’88 James Wallace ’94 Manuel De Brito ’97, ’01 Alex Peña ’97 Alexander Babia ’18

n j i t .e du

A TOP 100

National University - U.S. News & World Report

C A L E N D A R

O F

E V E N T S

N.J. Alumni Holiday Party December 14, 2019 Red Bull Arena Harrison, N.J. 5:30-8 p.m.

Scholarship Brunch April 3, 2020 NJIT Campus Newark, N.J.

Athletic Hall of Fame Ceremony May 16, 2020 NJIT Campus Newark, N.J.

Alumni Weekend 2020 May 29-31, 2020 NJIT Campus Newark, N.J.

Register Online njit.edu/alumni/events

By Phone

973-596-3441

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I N

David Isbitski ’98, chief evangelist for Amazon Alexa and keynote speaker at the 2018 VOICE conference, returned to campus in July to reprise his role at the world’s largest gathering of voice developers and executives.

DAVID ISBITSKI ’98, CHIEF EVANGELIST FOR AMAZON ALEXA, ON THE POWER OF VOICE

F

our years ago, David Isbitski ’98 was the first person hired by Amazon for its newly created Alexa skills kit group. Today – tens of thousands of skills later – he is the voice-activated technology’s chief evangelist. In July, he gave a keynote address at the July VOICE 2019 Conference. Held on NJIT’s campus for the second year in a row, the conference is the world’s largest annual gathering of voice technologists, developers and executives. Below, Isbitski describes his early embrace of technology and his belief in its power to restore human interactions increasingly lost in a mobile, fast-paced world.

Q: HOW DID NJIT PIQUE YOUR

INTEREST IN TECHNOLOGY AND ENABLE YOUR CAREER? A: I was always excited about technology from a very early age, but when I was a freshman at NJIT, the Internet was just starting to form. Most jobs in technology were either related to computer engineering or computer science. By my junior year, a new area of study started to arrive called “Information Systems.” By switching into the Information Systems major, I was able to get a background in business and combine it with technology to solve problems beyond just computer chips and theoretical algorithms. Today, we see technology used across all sorts of industries and job roles, but at the time of my matriculation, that future wasn’t always clear. I was thankful I had the opportunity to combine business with technology at such an early stage in the tech world and its help serves me well to this day.

Q: HOW DID YOU BECOME A

I’ve been very interested in whatever new technology came my way. So I was always very excited about new things and needed to tell people what they had to have! But I was a business consultant for many years before I applied in 2007 for a job as a developer evangelist for Microsoft. I was then able to use my “developer personality” to educate people on how to think about and use web- and mobile-based technology. In 2015, I was the first employee of the Alexa skills kit group.

I remember sitting around a table talking about our first 10 skills. We recently reached 100,000.

Q: HOW IS VOICE TECHNOLOGY A

DISRUPTOR, BOTH PRACTICALLY AND SOCIETALLY? A: I don’t think it is. I see time as the disruptor. As it goes by, things change, while I see voice technology as timeless.

I think it actually returns things to us we’ve lost. For example, I use Alexa’s Drop In feature to talk to my mother.

She doesn’t have to get up to answer the phone – my face just appears on the speaker, creating an ad hoc family connection that’s missed when people are far away. We put Alexa in retirement homes and a 93-year-old man once told me that just hearing another person’s voice – in his case, that of his son and daughter-in-law – got him through the day. And for me personally, once a day I say, ‘Alexa, thinking time,’ and she dims the lights by 20 percent, turns them sky blue and turns on classical music. This helps me with creative work, and especially my writing.

TECHNOLOGY EVANGELIST?

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF ALEXA’S

first computer, the Commodore VIC-20,

A: What’s really changed in text-to-

A: Since grade school, when I used my

C O N C L U S I O N

GROWING PAINS?

speech technology is an understanding not just of intention, but of context.

It’s called NLU – natural language understanding. And here’s one of the challenges for that technology: learning that human conversation takes place within a specific culture – it’s not just about programming written code, but building models based upon real conversations. In Japan, for example, you don’t interrupt people. We’ve held forums to see what Alexa gets wrong and crowdsourced answers. Alexa’s understanding is phonetic, but she also learns voices and individuals’ language choices over time. When I ask for Top 10 hits, it’s very different from when my teenage daughter asks. Alexa gets smarter every day, and learning context is part of that.

Q: HOW IS VOICE TECHNOLOGY

CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT MACHINES? A: Rather than teach people to talk to machines, we’ve taught machines to understand people. The most exciting thing for me is that people have conversations with their technology.

That Alexa can now understand intention is huge. That’s the sea change. But I think it’s also changing our connection to ourselves and other people, as well as the way we use conversation. I imagine the future as very much like the holodeck in “Star Trek,” where the crew was able to bring back digital personalities like Einstein. I want my children to not just be able to say, ‘I know Dad felt very strongly about this issue,’ but to see me before an audience defending my beliefs. n Author: Tracey L. Regan is an NJIT Magazine contributing writer.

New Jersey Institute of Technology University Heights Newark, NJ 07102-1982 njit.edu

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