Newsletter Contents

• In the News
• Department Highlights
• Department Research
• Student Spotlight
• Faculty Highlights
• Alumni Highlights
• Extracurriculars
• Upcoming Events
• Recent Publications
• Recent Grant Awards
• Our Advisory Board
• Newsletter Credits
• Special Thanks

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Opportunities for Students

We collect information on various opportunities for students and alumni, such as internships, co-ops, scholarships and other job postings. Feel free to contact us at cee@njit.edu with any potential new openings!

On April 21, 11 senior Ph.D. students participated in the department’s Three-Minute Thesis Presentations, in which they put together a concise and comprehensive exposition of their thesis. This event was hosted by Professor Arjun Venkatesan, and the judges included Professors William Pennock, Oladoyin Kolawole, M. Ala Saadeghvaziri and Taha Marhaba. The winner of the competition was Mary Ngoma, with honorable mentions going to Targol Teymourian and Xi Hu. 

Ngoma’s thesis, titled “Mechanistic Study of Biocementation in Rocks,” focused on exploring biological media, such as microbes, enzymes, biopolymers and fungi, as sustainable alternatives to traditional cement-based methods for strengthening rocks. This biotechnology offers an eco-friendly solution to strengthen rocks and prevent infrastructure failures/disasters caused by geotechnical hazards such as sinkholes and rockfalls. 



She thought it was a great chance to practice presenting research clearly to a diverse audience. “This helped me be more intentional about tailoring my communication to diverse audiences,” Ngoma added. “I’m thankful for the opportunity, honored to receive the award and sincerely grateful to my professor, Dr. Kolawole, and the CEE department for their support.” 

The presentation by Teymourian, titled “Molecular Dynamic Study of PFAS Adsorption on Nanobubbles,” explored how nanobubbles can enhance the adsorption of PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances by using molecular dynamics simulations to support the development of more efficient water treatment technologies.

Communicating complex scientific research is something Teymourian thought would be good practice in a public speaking format, especially as someone whose first language is not English. “[Receiving the honorable mention] is a meaningful recognition of my efforts to connect science with broader audiences, and it motivates me to continue making my research accessible and impactful,” she said. “It also shows me that I can overcome language barriers and still share my work effectively, which is very encouraging for my future.”

Hu presented his thesis, titled “Digital Twins for Digitally Transforming Built Asset Management in the Civil Infrastructure Sector,” which addressed gaps in emerging technologies, such as digital twins, that hold great potential to transform built asset management by advancing preventative maintenance. His dissertation focused on the development of affordable and adaptive reality capturing technologies for supporting digital twin development. It proposed new digital twin-based frameworks by interfacing digital twins with other emerging technologies.



In addition to supporting his skills in public speaking and communicating complex ideas to general audiences, Hu was glad to increase visibility of his work and meet with other excellent researchers from various fields. “Receiving this award is an incredible honor that reflects the support and inspiration I’ve obtained from my Ph.D. advisor Dr. Rayan Assaad, mentors, peers and research community,” he mentioned. “It encourages me to keep pushing the boundary of imagination and reinforces my commitment to advancing knowledge in my field.”

The NJIT chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has been awarded the Certificate of Commendation by the national organization; this is a distinction reserved for the top 5% of student chapters across the country for exceptional performance as recorded in the 2024 Annual Report. 

The executive board overseeing this report included Larissa Cavalcante as president, Giovanni Olaya as vice president, Stephanie Herrera-Chavez as secretary, Bruna Wuitik as treasurer, Meglena Mileva as historian and Jordan Rich as event coordinator. Under their leadership, the chapter engaged in significantly more outreach initiatives focused on younger populations, including visiting high schools and volunteering at events such as Career Carnival for Kids, where NJIT-ASCE had a table with hands-on activities to explore aspects of the field at an elementary level.

“I personally love this type of outreach: providing tours of our civil engineering spaces on campus to high schools and giving classroom presentations,” Cavalcante mentioned. “We even made new connections through the additional volunteer opportunities,” noting that these partnerships are set to last for years to come. 

Support for events that the chapter participates in and hosts comes from several areas; the notable ones are company sponsors and NJIT’s civil and environmental engineering department. “CEE recognizes when we're putting the effort in, and sometimes we might need a little bit of help,” said Stephen George, faculty advisor of the chapter. NJIT-ASCE credits George along with its practitioner advisors Jakob Guido and Parth Rana for the mentorship and guidance the members received to have their chapter stand out. 

George also commented about the work students put into maintaining the chapter: “They're putting in this extracurricular effort that isn't giving them credits or money. It’s just for the student teams, their community and fellow students, and I think it’s awesome that NJIT recognizes that and can back them up along the way.” 

While this recognition was based on the chapter’s activity in 2024, it was also noted that members were preparing to host the 2025 ASCE Metropolitan Student Symposium at NJIT. “As president for 2025, I look forward to working with my executive board, the chapter and the CEE department in the upcoming semester to make it one to remember and one worthy of recognition in 2026,” said Olaya. “I'm very excited to see what we can achieve this fall with the momentum, resources and support we gathered along the way.”

Center for Natural Resources:

Tackling Flooding in New Jersey Communities

On busy streets with long gaps between intersections, next to schools, retail strips and transit hubs, crosswalks in the middle of the block are meant to safeguard pedestrians. They are often hazard zones, however. Studies show that in some urban areas nearly 70% of collisions between people and cars occur in them.

“People crossing assume that drivers will yield, while drivers fail to anticipate or notice them. It’s a dangerous misunderstanding,” observes transportation engineer Joyoung Lee. He cites growing urbanization, inadequate crossing infrastructure, the distraction of mobile devices and the public’s ignorance of pedestrian rights as some of the contributing factors.

Beacons that emit bright flashing lights with the press of a button can reduce accidents significantly, but only if they’re activated. Many people don’t bother, and so Lee would like to automate them. His team is developing a system that connects LiDAR-based sensing technologies with AI-driven recognition software to trigger the alerts.

“Think of it this way: LiDAR is the human eye and the AI that interprets those images is the brain,” he explains. His system uses clustering algorithms and 3D geometry to identify pedestrian-like shapes based on predefined dimensions. A server then sends a notification to a microcontroller to turn on the flashing beacon as soon as a person is detected.

Lee and his team tested the technology last year on a city street that cuts across the NJIT campus. In real time, the system identified people in or approaching the crosswalk, including jaywalkers, in separate virtual detection zones they set up for the crosswalk and the sidewalk. It activated the beacon instantaneously.

Before he tested the system, they surveyed more than 100 students on their experiences at button activated crosswalks. Fewer than 20% said they pressed the button every time they crossed. Many reported that they were either unaware of the button, forgot to press it, or believed it did not impact their safety. This, in turn, Lee says, abets drivers who ignore the crosswalk.

He notes that 50% of the study respondents thought an automatic activation system would probably improve safety, while more than 41% thought it definitely would. Just over 5% of participants expressed uncertainty, and a smaller number thought it would probably or definitely not increase safety.

The team’s next steps will be to test the system’s efficacy and durability over an extended period of time under various environmental conditions, including adverse weather and fluctuating pedestrian volumes. They will likely seek out streets in Newark with a more diverse population than on the NJIT campus.

Lee says he began studying safety conditions at mid-block crossings following two fatal accidents, both involving campus members, on another busy street that bounds the campus.

“It’s important to address pedestrian safety as our cities continue to expand,” he says.

Perhaps wasps build a nest on your porch, or the kids bring home lice. Maybe mildew blooms in the basement, and dandelions spread through the lawn. Many of us readily apply pesticides to clear up infestations like these at home. But it’s unclear what their use means for our health.

“Pesticides are toxic, they are produced to kill other organisms, so obviously exposure could have negative consequences,” says Arjun Venkatesan, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. “We need to know: Should we be concerned?”

Working with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Venkatesan’s team is collecting samples of wastewater flowing into about 10 of the state’s treatment facilities, where it is cleaned. They will identify the most used pesticides and look for chemical evidence that these substances have entered the human body — a critical step toward understanding the implications for health.

While researchers have a comparatively good handle on the use of pesticides in agriculture, they know much less about what’s happening in and around homes and businesses.

Extracting these chemical clues, an approach known as wastewater-based epidemiology, is the basis for a national program to monitor COVID-19 infections. While this surveillance program relies on viral material shed by infected people, Venkatesan and colleagues have also analyzed wastewater for traces of medications used to treat COVID-19. Other studies have looked for evidence of plant-based diets and alcohol and nicotine consumption, anticipated opioid overdoses and evaluated human exposure to toxic contaminants. With this study, he takes on a new issue: pesticide exposure.

His group will work with NJDEP to identify the most abundant pesticides in water flowing into treatment facilities that primarily serve homes. They will analyze samples for these substances and their metabolites, the compounds generated when the body breaks down pesticides.

A widely used class of insecticides known as pyrethroids are likely to turn up. Pyrethroids kill bugs by attacking their nervous systems. For humans, short-term exposure to high levels can cause symptoms that range from dizziness to loss of consciousness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research also indicates contact with pyrethroids may have subtler, long-term consequences. For instance, a 14-year study in the Journal of the American Medical Association – Internal Medicine linked high levels of the pyrethroid metabolite 3-PBA in urine to an increased likelihood of death, including from cardiovascular disease.

The human body can produce many metabolites such as 3-PBA from a single pesticide. As part of the project, Venkatesan hopes to identify the best metabolites to indicate exposure to the most abundant pesticides.

To distinguish exposure to agricultural pesticides from those derived from, say, weed killer applied to a lawn, Venkatesan plans to look at changes across seasons. With data from the samples, he will calculate how much of these substances the average person uses, and how much generally enters the body.

“The hope is that everything is below detectable levels,” he says. “But if we detect something concerning, then we will need to understand how widespread that exposure is, which could mean expanding to more sites in New Jersey and maybe other states.”

For long-haul truck drivers, the search for a place to stop at the end of a tiring day can be its own arduous journey. With a dearth of space in authorized lots, they sometimes pull over at entrance ramps to truck parking facilities or along the shoulders and exit ramps at major highways.

“Federal regulations mandate rest periods, but truckers report often driving around for miles in search of parking. They risk running out of time if the search extends for an hour or more,” says Branislav Dimitrijevic, a transportation engineer. “Parking on ramps and shoulders presents a danger for both the drivers and other motorists, especially in locations that are poorly lit.”

Dimitrijevic doubts there will be a surge in capacity any time soon. Local communities, he notes, are often reluctant to allow these facilities in their neighborhoods. Instead, he’s focusing on improving drivers’ chances of finding a spot. He and collaborators are developing a machine learning model that will track parking availability in designated lots to inform drivers ahead of time where they can park at a desired time.

Imaging technologies installed at some lots currently provide updates on availability. LiDAR sensors and video cameras for example, count vehicles as they enter and leave or monitor the entire lot. They sometimes mislabel objects as trucks or fail to identify them, however, when visibility is low. In-ground sensors detect a vehicle’s presence but have a limited service life.

“These devices can tell you how many spots are open, but they can’t tell you for how long,” he notes. “More than knowing parking vacancies at a given moment, truck drivers are interested in the number of available spots when they get there — in 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour.”

By detecting the ebb and flow at a parking lot, such as how it fills up and empties over the course of a day and over weeks, his model is designed to let drivers know whether they’re likely to find a spot there at 8 p.m., for example. To understand these patterns, the data they gather from monitoring systems is processed by a hybrid neural network model that analyzes sequential data.

“Occupancy experiences at lots follow similar patterns that repeat daily and seasonally, so the long short-term memory (LSTM) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) models we picked are a good fit for predicting availability considering past trends and more recent fluctuations in status,” he says, adding, “Because lots are different, we may need to train models for specific parking locations.”

Team members presented the results of a first test of their model, based on monitoring data from a single lot, at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting in January. They showed that the technology was able to predict occupancy rates between 15 minutes and one hour ahead with a mean error of about 3% to 6%.

Their next step is to develop software that will make continuous predictions of parking occupancy at various lots. The ultimate goal is to integrate it into a truck parking information management system that will disseminate it through mobile apps, in-cab communications and electronic logging devices on board the trucks, or via message signs along major truck routes.

Landslides are one of the most devastating hazards that can lead to loss of life and damage to infrastructures. Globally, rainfall and earthquakes are among the major factors that can cause landslides, and the influence of these factors is researched extensively in areas such as tropical regions which experience heavy rainfall and strong earthquakes. Landslides are also a significant issue for non-tropical coastal areas such as New Jersey, which receive moderate amounts of rainfall and earthquakes with smaller magnitude. Data recorded in New Jersey show that about 50% of landslides in the state were triggered by the effects of rainfall, but New Jersey also has earthquakes, as indicated by the 4.8 magnitude tremor on April 5, 2024. There is a significant knowledge gap in the mechanisms that can cause landslides under the combined influence of rainfall and earthquakes in non-tropical coastal areas like New Jersey. 

This raises two critical questions: Can the rainfall and earthquake events in New Jersey trigger landslides, and what are the underlying mechanisms that may cause this?

To address these questions, Dr. Oladoyin Kolawole and his Ph.D. student Prabhakar Khadka from the Geomechanics for Geo-Engineering and Sustainability (GGES) Lab in the CEE department at NJIT conducted slope stability analysis on two slopes around the northeastern shore of New Jersey. The slopes were simulated using computer modeling under the combined influence of heavy rainfall and earthquake, adopting both the Limit Equilibrium Method (LEM) and the Finite Element Method (FEM), to assess the mechanisms that can cause them to fail and result in a landslide, and to propose an innovative slope protection strategy. Rainfall records were extracted and applied on the slope for two months, utilizing the highest rainfall recorded near the selected slope, while a moderate earthquake was utilized as seismic loading in the slope. After the slope stability analysis, the LEM and the FEM indicate a safe slope if the Factor of Safety (FoS) and Strength Reduction Factor (SRF) values are greater than one.

Results and analysis indicated that the FOS and SRF were reduced when subjected to combined earthquake and rainfall conditions compared to slopes without these effects. The steep slope showed a noticeable reduction in the SRF (-31%) leading it towards failure, while the gently inclined slope showed a small reduction in the SRF. Slope instability and the chance of landslides in New Jersey are increased by the combined effects of earthquakes and heavy rainfall, which causes higher saturation of soil mass due to water infiltration and leads to reduced soil strength. The water infiltrating into the slope can increase the pore water pressure, which causes the shear strength of the soil to decrease. Moreover, the slope had an increase in the strain within slope mass, which formed a potential slip surface if the slope were to fail, causing a landslide. The similarity in slope failure mechanisms between non-tropical and tropical areas under identical conditions infers that the underlying processes driving slope instability may be consistent across diverse climatic conditions.

The research group proposed an innovative slope protection mechanism. A pervious concrete pile-based protection (PCPP) was utilized to overcome the complex failure mechanism, which integrated a new hydro-mechanistic-based approach that offered both strength and drainage capability required to stabilize the slope against the combined effect of rainfall and earthquake. The proposed method for slope protection works in non-tropical coastal regions and yielded an improvement in SRF of up to +16% for weak slopes. Additionally, a more extensive approach to addressing slope instability in non-tropical coastal regions can couple their proposed method with other strategies to monitor ground movement, enforce hazard zoning, and provide early warning to minimize geohazard risks.

Figure: Schematic representation of the proposed slope stabilization method: (a) initial slope condition: depicting the original slope configuration with the initial slip surface identified through analysis; (b) environmental stressors applied: illustrating the slope under the combined influence of rainfall and earthquake loading; (c) post-stressor effects: showing the altered slip surface and elevated groundwater table resulting from the conditions in (b); and (d) stabilization outcome: demonstrating the installation of the proposed slope protection method which can effectively eliminate the slip surface and lowers the groundwater table, thus mitigating the destabilizing effects observed in (c).

Each year, the Professional Engineers in Construction of New Jersey presents a scholarship that is dedicated to the memory of Sol Seid, P.E., as a way of recognizing his contributions to the industry and organization. This award provides young engineers, aware of their responsibility and obligations, to develop and adhere to their own set of ethical values and to support organizations that seek to improve their standing in the community and society as a whole. 

Nominees come from a number of schools, including Rowan University, The College of New Jersey, Rutgers University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Princeton University and, of course, NJIT — represented by junior civil engineering student Kyle Blom this year. 

In 2024, Jason Lin earned a scholarship from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New Jersey (ACECNJ) presented and sponsored by Michael Baker as a senior civil engineering student. This year, as a first-year master’s student in civil engineering, Lin was awarded another ACECNJ scholarship presented and sponsored by Steven Wong — the T&M Associates Foundation Award. 

Lin is proud to have balanced many commitments throughout his time at NJIT, as both an undergraduate and graduate student. A recipient of the CEE Junior Excellence Award, he has been both a Dean’s List and Albert Dorman Honors Scholar, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. 

As a member of NJIT’s chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, he was part of the Concrete Canoe Team for a year as well. CEE values his efforts as a student ambassador, including speaking many times to prospective students about the curriculum and opportunities that come with being an NJIT civil engineering student. 

“This award goes to show my hard work is paying off,” Lin mentioned. “The time and commitment I have put into developing and improving myself had a positive effect resulting in these opportunities, and I consider myself very lucky to have received this scholarship.”

He also feels fortunate to have been involved with ACECNJ, which provided a networking event. “Talking with industry professionals and gaining insights from them that they have developed throughout the years was extremely beneficial for me to plan for my future,” he said. “They are extremely kind people, and I look up to them as role models of what I can pursue in the years to come.”

Bishnu Pandey Earns a 2025 Elmeryl Davies Memorial Scholarship from NJ LSRPA

Second-year Ph.D. student in environmental engineering Bishnu Pandey has been selected as a recipient of the 2025 Elmeryl Davies Memorial Scholarship from the New Jersey Licensed Site Remediation Professionals Association (LSRPA) — a highly competitive award that supports graduate students pursuing impactful careers in environmental remediation and sustainability.

Pandey’s doctoral research addresses per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of synthetic chemicals widely used in industrial and consumer products and known as forever chemicals for their environmental persistence and links to adverse health outcomes. He brings a unique perspective to his research, having worked in the environmental industry before beginning his doctoral studies. This hands-on experience allows him to connect academic research with real-world application—designing solutions that are both scientifically sound and practically implementable.

Guided by advisor Dr. Arjun Venkatesan, Pandey is developing innovative treatment technologies aimed at removing and managing PFAS contamination in water systems. His research tackles one of the most urgent and complex environmental challenges of our time—one with direct implications for public health, policy and infrastructure. 



The Elmeryl Davies Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to graduate students in accredited science or engineering programs across New Jersey, encouraging them to pursue careers in the environmental field. In addition to financial support, it connects students with the LSRPA’s professional network—providing a launchpad into internships, mentorship and career opportunities in site remediation and environmental consulting.

Golon took students from his courses CE 210: Construction Materials & Procedures and CE 485: OSHA in Civil Engineering to a Garden Homes site and Lake Cushetunk Dam for hands-on applications of class material. 

Students from both classes traveled to the Garden Homes site on March 18, receiving a tour of all the building types and detailed information about the site plans.

Golon's CE 210 students visited Lake Cushetunk Dam on April 12 to review design documents for the dam's original renovation and inspect the whole dam using the annual reports submitted to the New Jersey Department Environmental Protection - Dam Safety Division. Students took a survey of the auxiliary spillway along with a hydrographic survey of the lake while also investigating on-site infrastructure. They operated the sluice gate and valves to regulate the lake surface elevation of the dam.

Setting up the dive station and equipment to perform a dive inspection of the underwater structures and the face of the concrete spillway

Professor Matthew Adams Provides Insight for Residence Hall Construction

NJIT is rebuilding its second oldest residence hall to meet a burgeoning demand for housing at the growing public university. Parts of the construction, including the ground floor slab, will utilize a new low-carbon code developed by Dr. Matthew Adams, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

DeNichilo, PE, F.ASCE, Hon.D.WRE, NAC is a former president and CEO of Mott MacDonald, North America

How has the transportation industry changed over your 50 years in the field?

When I graduated from college in 1973, we still had drafting tables, did calculations by hand and showed clients black-and-white drawings. Forty years later, we used building information modeling (BIM), which digitally plans, designs and tracks a project from start to finish, as well as virtual and augmented reality, to plan railway line and station upgrades in cities such as Boston and Los Angeles. These technologies streamline the process, allowing us to visualize and coordinate enhancements to communications, safety control, track alignments and peripheral retail space in many cases. Stakeholders can put on a pair of goggles and walk through the stations and surrounding areas to experience improvements the way passengers will. 

How are these technologies shaping outcomes?

When planning, constructing and operating a highway or transit system, we can now create a digital twin that shows its entire operation in real time, from the formation of potholes, to traffic control signaling, to accidents. With machine learning, we can anticipate problems and proactively correct them. If there are repeated potholes in an area, for example, maybe the asphalt is not the problem but the subgrade beneath it. AI provides data from other projects of possible unforeseen events and how to respond proactively. We can anticipate issues such as water intrusion from a river or contaminated ground sources into the bore hole of a tunnel. These technologies really raise the bar for risk management.

How is this changing client relationships?

New design and planning tools make a huge difference in the collaborative aspects of a project. Using immersive visualization, clients are involved in the planning stage and help shape it. This gives political officials, community leaders and asset owners immense trust in what a project will look like. It gives us the ability to make adjustments before a structure is built. This saves time and money, helping us avoid change orders, among other inefficiencies.

How do these technologies help you rehabilitate aging infrastructure?

We rely on these innovations. We also use drones with laser scanners to survey entire structures, including areas that aren’t accessible. Imagine putting up scaffolding on and under a bridge — this is so much safer. The drone uploads the information to BIM and the 3D model shows us the extent of deterioration. It helps us figure out how to retrofit infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels in a safe and efficient way, while maintaining the asset in active service.

What new project really impressed you?

Increasingly, we manufacture parts off-site and fit them in like Lego parts. I’m on a national jury for Engineering News-Record’s annual ”Best Projects” award. I’ll describe just one project that deployed modular construction. An energy plant built a new furnace that was 130 feet tall, 140 feet long and weighed 2,800 tons. It was constructed off-site in preassembled modules and delivered — like a rocket to a launch pad — on a massive self-propelled modular transporter. There was no room to safely construct those components on-site. Over the course of the project’s 650,000 man-hours, there was not one reported accident.

On March 21, NJIT saw 14 high school teams put their minds and tools together to design and build 3D-printed bridges following a specific set of guidelines. There were several categories that each team was judged for: structural accuracy, design, presentation, construction time, stiffness and largest load. Full results from this year can be viewed here.

Pictured is the overall first place team: Governor Livingston High School

From April 25-27, NJIT hosted the annual American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Metropolitan Student Symposium. The event featured six competitions, with over 200 participants from 13 universities traveling to campus to put their civil engineering skills to the test. Student members from NJIT’s chapter of ASCE along with administrative staff at CEE worked for months to plan and make arrangements for the three packed days of competitions, showcases, and presentations on NJIT’s campus and at White Meadow Lake in Rockaway, New Jersey. 

The full sheet of competition results can be viewed here.

Volunteers worked tirelessly to make sure all the attendees were properly informed of schedules, locations and procedures to keep the events running smoothly. The planning and execution of the event was spearheaded by the chapter’s faculty advisor and CEE Associate Director of Undergraduate Programs Stephen George, symposium lead and former NJIT-ASCE president Larissa Cavalcante and current president and co-lead Giovanni Olaya. CEE’s Director of Labs for Education Thomas Hickey served as the symposium’s safety officer, ensuring that all safety protocols were executed and followed thoroughly during the three days.

At the banquet and awards ceremony, Cavalcante received a plaque recognizing her organizational efforts from Brad Summerville, Region 1 Governor for ASCE. 

Calibrating Microscopic Traffic Simulation Model Using Connected Vehicle Data and Genetic Algorithm

Abolfazl Afshari, Joyoung Lee, Dejan Besenski, Branislav Dimitrijevic, Lazar Spasovic

Applied Sciences

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Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the Impact of Functional Head Groups and Chain Lengths of PFAS Degradation Using Ultrasound Technology

Bruno Bezerra de Souza, Jitendra A. Kewalramani, Richard W. Marsh, Jay Meegoda

Water

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Modeling the Interdependencies between the Risk Factors Contributing to Preconstruction Delays in Construction Projects

Ghadi Charbel, Rayan H. Assaad, Tulio Rodriguez Tejada, Fadi Karaa

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

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Hydrothermal valorization of cellulose tuned by non-corrosive Lewis acids and bases

Jiahui Hu, Kaile Li, Yongqing Xu, Qinghai Li, Yanguo Zhang, Wen Zhang, Hui Zhou

Chemical Engineering Journal

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Deciphering the N1-substituent effects on biodegradation of sulfonamides: Novel insights revealed from molecular biology and computational chemistry approaches

Jiahui Hu, Ruiyang Li, Jiayu Zhang, Lijia Cao, Huaxin Lei, Renxin Zhao, Lin Lin, Xiao-yan Li, Wen Zhang, Bing Li

Water Research

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Alkylamine-Modified Dialdehyde Cellulose Nanofibers for PFAS Adsorption

Duning Li, Rasel Das, Yi Zhang, Size Zheng, Miral Oltulu, Arjun K. Venkatesan, Benjamin S. Hsiao

ACS ES&T Water

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Robustness of Urban Rail Transit Networks Considering Cascade Failure under Attacks: A Case Study of Nanjing, China

Zhuanglin Ma, Dawei Hu, Steven I-Jy Chien, Jie Liu, Yue Liu, Ke Wu

ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering

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Biodigesters for Sustainable Food Waste Management

Jay N. Meegoda, Charmi Chande, Ishani Bakshi

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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Taking bio-induced precipitation to the field for sustainable geo-energy storage: Experimental and numerical studies of leakage mitigation

Olufemi Olorode, Oladoyin Kolawole, Chibuzor Igweonu, Harun Rashid

Journal of Energy Storage

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Assessing Baffle Minor Loss for the Design of Hydraulic Flocculators

Andrew P. Pennock, William H. Pennock, Monroe Weber-Shirk

Journal of Environmental Engineering

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Simulation of subsurface mechanical dispersion (SSMD) of oil by a water jet

Zhaonian Qu, Tanvir Al Farid, Scott Socolofsky, Timothy Steffek, Michel Boufadel

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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Accumulation and trophic transfer of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in estuarine organisms determined via stable isotopes

Kevin W. Shaffer, Xiayan Ye, Cheng-Shiuan Lee, Oliver N. Shipley, Carrie A. McDonough, Arjun K. Venkatesan, Christopher J. Gobler

Science of The Total Environment

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NJ Dept. of Transportation

ePROMPTS Hosting, Maintenance & Support

Principal Investigator: Branislav Dimitrijevic

Co-Principal Investigator: Taha F. Marhaba

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Friday, April 19, 2019 to Wednesday, December 31, 2025

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council/New York State Department of Transportation

Project Information Management System 2.0 (PIMS 2.0) Enhancements

Principal Investigator: I Jy Steven Chien

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Thursday, October 5, 2023 to Saturday, October 4, 2025

China Petrochemical Technology Company Limited

The Synergistic Effect of Electric Field-Material Interaction on Oil Droplet Coalescence and Its Application in the Treatment of High-Oil Wastewater

Principal Investigator: Wen Zhang

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Thursday, February 13, 2025 to Friday, February 12, 2027

EDCORP Project Solutions Pty Ltd

Assessing the Leachability of PFAS From Synagro/RemBind Products

Principal Investigator: Arjunkrishna Venkatesan

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Tuesday, February 18, 2025 to Tuesday, February 17, 2026

NJ Dept. of Transportation

Implementation of Advanced Reinforced Concrete Materials for Transportation Infrastructure

Principal Investigator: Matthew J. Bandelt

Co-Principal Investigator: Matthew P. Adams

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 to Wednesday, March 25, 2026

National Science Foundation

I-Corps: Translation Potential of Destroying Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) using a Combination of Ultrasound and Argon Nanobubbles/NDF I-Corps PFAS destruction

Principal Investigator: Jay N. Meegoda

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Tuesday, April 1, 2025 to Tuesday, March 31, 2026

National Science Foundation

I-Corps: Translation Potential of an Innovative Pre-treatment for Enhanced Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) remediation with Granular Activated CarbonInnovative Pre-treatment for Enhanced PF

Principal Investigator: Arjunkrishna Venkatesan

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 to Tuesday, March 31, 2026

US Dept. Of The Army

Application of hydrophobic ion pairing to capture poorly adsorbed PFAS by granular activated carbon

Principal Investigator: Arjunkrishna Venkatesan

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Duration: Thursday, May 1, 2025 to Friday, April 30, 2027

Maurice Rached, P.E. (Chair)

Colliers Engineering & Design

Ted Cassera, P.E., ‘72

Omland Engineering Associates

Anthony Castillo, P,E., '95, '02

SESI Consulting Engineers

Andrejs Delle, P.E.

Schiavone Construction Company LLC

Muhammad Elgammal, P.E., P.M.P, '12, '15

Stantec

James Giurintano, P.E., P.P.,CME, '94

Colliers Engineering & Design

Andre Grebenstein, LEED AP '95

HITT Contracting Inc.

Gareth C. Middleton, P.E, '93, '04

Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.

Dennis Motiani

Kimley-Horn Associates

Áine O’Dwyer, P.E., ​'07, '08

Enovate Engineering

Chrissa D. Roessner, P.E., '02

NJ Transit

Kenneth Sisk

The Rinaldi Group

Joseph Stanley, P.E., '78, '85

Hatch Mott MacDonald

Wei Wang, Ph.D., '95

Urban Tech, Inc.



Editors & Contributors

Taha F. Marhaba

Tracey Regan

Sylvana Brito-Rodriguez

Yukthi Sangoi

Special Thanks

NJIT Office of Strategic Communications

NJIT Office of Alumni Relations

Contributing Faculty, Staff, Students & Alumni