Abstracts
Abstracts
Scientists Uncover Aurora-Like Display
In a study published in Nature Astronomy, astronomers from NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR) detail radio observations of an extraordinary aurora-like display — occurring 40,000 km above a relatively dark and cold patch on the Sun, known as a sunspot.
The rare radio emission shares characteristics with the auroral radio emissions commonly seen in planetary magnetospheres such as those around Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, as well as certain low-mass stars, according to researchers.
The discovery offers new insights into the origin of such intense solar radio bursts and potentially opens new avenues for understanding similar phenomena in distant stars with large star spots, according to the study’s lead author and NJIT-CSTR scientist, Sijie Yu.
“We’ve detected a peculiar type of long-lasting polarized radio bursts emanating from a sunspot, persisting for over a week,” Yu said. “This is quite unlike the typical, transient solar radio bursts typically lasting minutes or hours. It’s an exciting discovery that has the potential to alter our comprehension of stellar magnetic processes.”
Photo: Sijie Yu
NJIT Earns Hispanic-Serving Status from U.S. Dept. of Education
A year earlier than targeted, NJIT has earned the federal distinction of being a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI).
A goal outlined in NJIT’s 2025 strategic plan, the status is key to the university deepening its diversity and better serving its home city of Newark and the nation. Supporting the goal was the launch of the university’s Hispanic and Latinx Leadership Council, which seeks to fuel the enrollment of Hispanic students and deepen relationships with Hispanic and Latinx alumni, businesses and organizations.
These efforts helped NJIT grow its Hispanic undergrad population from 20% to 25% by the fall of 2022 and enabled the university to reach the eligibility threshold for HSI status. The Office of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education confirmed the status in a letter to NJIT.
“This designation makes us eligible for federal grants that can expand educational opportunities for Hispanic and Latinx students and improve their outcomes,” President Teik C. Lim said. “It also reaffirms our commitment to diversify our student body and deliver a holistic education that creates economic opportunity for all of our graduates, particularly first-generation students.”
The HSI achievement came five months after the university welcomed its largest and most diverse class ever — with historically underrepresented students comprising half the class — and a year after it earned the federal designation of being a minority-serving institution that serves Asian Americans and Native American Pacific Islanders.
Photo Caption:
David E. Jones, far right, NJIT’s chief diversity officer with students and staff at
the opening of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Transforming Public Space in Austria
Associate professors at NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design, Gernot Riether and Andrzej Zarzycki, led a group of 16 students who studied abroad in Austria, where they worked on the redesign of a public space that connects the art venues of the Kunstmeile (art mile) in Krems.
The Kunstmeile offers a mix of contemporary art and culture through museums and galleries. Krems is the cultural capital of Lower Austria and a gateway to the Wachau region, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Tourism is big there, especially in the summer, but the city wants the 24,000 locals to enjoy the public space of the Kunstmeile year-round.
Before arriving in Krems, the students spent a week in Vienna, where they experienced its architecture and learned about contemporary urban developments.
Students experimented with new technologies to design an urban space for a digital culture, a performative space that can be programmed in multiple ways, and a gathering space that becomes a destination in itself.
“We need to find ways to better connect the existing art venues to the public space and find out what the needs of the community are. You can only do that through a dialogue with the community and all stakeholders,” Riether explained.
LEFT PHOTO CREDIT: Rendering: Isabella Gil, Valeria Gomez, Karla Vazquez
RIGHT PHOTO CREDIT: Photo: Gernot Riether
Helping Asian Americans and Native American Pacific Islanders Transition into College
With $1.94 million in federal funding, NJIT launched a new program that will help Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander (AANAPI) students navigate the academic, social and emotional challenges of transitioning into college.
The initiative, known as Improving AANAPI Student Outcomes Through Opportunities for Engagement, or ISOTOPE, begins this summer with academic and experiential orientation for 175 first-year AANAPI students.
ISOTOPE comes amid NJIT becoming an AANAPI-serving institution and with 21% of the university’s first-year class being Asian American or Native American Pacific Islander. The threshold for that federal distinction is 10%.
The new program is modeled after NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), which supports scholars with limited financial means. Collectively, ISOTOPE, EOP and pre-college primers like the Math Success Initiative, Forensic Science Initiative and STEM Boot Camp create pathways for underrepresented minorities to thrive at NJIT. Each is designed to raise retention and graduation rates through a multifaceted support system.
That demonstrated need and NJIT’s track record of surrounding students with a web of support services were key to securing the funding from the U.S. Department of Education, according to Ashish Borgaonkar, co-project director and summer experiential learning coordinator of ISOTOPE and an assistant professor of engineering.
Forensic Team Helps Overturn Wrongful Convictions
A crime scene reconstruction by a faculty and student forensic team at NJIT has helped clear the names of two wrongfully convicted men who spent a combined 37 years in prison for murder.
A long-awaited moment of vindication came for Armond McCloud and co-defendant, Reginald Cameron, when their convictions were vacated by a state Supreme Court judge in Queens, N.Y. after a joint motion was filed by the New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University, the New York City Legal Aid Society and the Queens District Attorney.
Both men had maintained they were coerced into falsely confessing to the murder of 22-year-old Kei Sunada on the night of Aug. 4, 1994, after they were held for 13 hours under interrogation without legal counsel. Their case received a lifeline after the Innocence Project got involved in 2020.
In January 2022, the group contacted members of NJIT’s Forensic Science Program to revisit the crime scene and piece together the chain of events that unfolded on the night of the shooting.
“The Innocence Project sought our help conducting a crime scene reconstruction to see if the proffered statements [filed in the initial police investigation] were physically possible,” said Kevin Parmelee, an NJIT forensic science professor of practice and former Somerset County, N.J. detective who led the reconstruction.
“In the end, the physical evidence and reconstruction proved all the statements erroneous, and we provided the true shooting scenario.”
Risks and Rewards of Applying AI to Gaming
Researchers at NJIT and University Carlos III of Madrid wanted to know if mixed-reality games could be improved by handing control to artificial intelligence software in the form of conversational language applications. Well, they can, but the results may put players in danger.
The question stemmed from an annual tradition of serious-yet-silly experiments led by NJIT Assistant Professor of Humanities Niccolo Pescetelli and Professor Manuel Cebrian of University Carlos III of Madrid’s statistics department and the Santander Big Data Institute.
In a working paper, the researchers defined alternate reality as narrative-driven experiences using the real world as a platform and augmented reality as the overlaying of digital information onto the real world. In a series of tests, they prompted their language model to develop a game narrative for real-world situations.
The model “proved adept at crafting cohesive narratives, puzzles and challenges that responded in real-time to participant actions,” but at times it lost its train of thought and when instructed “this is not a game,” it sometimes took the guidance too seriously, the researchers found. What’s more, the model “may lack sufficient understanding of ethics, legality and social norms to guide responsible [alternative and augmented reality] game development alone,” the researchers wrote. “This necessitates proper oversight and fail-safes by accountable humans with contextual judgment. It also underscores the need for AI creators to prioritize ethics and human well-being.”
Illustration: DALL-E AI software