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E V E R Y W H E R E
Tomorrow’s
University:
Advanc ing
I n form ation
E v e r y w h e re
Computing has become ubiquitous in 21st
century life, changing the way we work and
learn, and even the way we interact with each
other. NJIT researchers are working to create
the tools to help the digital world function and
to evaluate the impact of new technologies on
society.
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I N F O R M A T I O N
Studying New Media
A team of computer science researchers is
sensing of the physical world by leveraging the
cameras, microphones, GPSs, accelerometers,
and other sensors on the phones. Associate
Professor Cristian Borcea (below left), Manoop
Talasila (below center), doctoral student, and
Associate Professor Reza Curtmola (below right),
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carried by people can be used for large-scale
E V E R Y W H E R E
studying how the collection of smart phones
are collaborating with the University of
Bologna, Italy, to find ways to manage and utilize the mobile crowd-sensing process. In order
to verify that smartphone sensing is scalable,
reliable, and cost-effective, they built and
deployed McSense, a geo-social crowd sensing
platform for smart cities. McSense has been
deployed as an app for Android and is currently
being tested by student volunteers.
Julia Mayer (below), a doctoral student specializing in human-computer interaction, is researching social inference – the information that
can be deduced about an individual’s identity,
background, location
ences
and
from
preferdata
available in social
computing applications. She is working to evaluate the
risks and benefits of
social inference, and
to develop user interfaces that would help users
to manage social inferences. She is collaborating with Richard Schuler, PhD student in information systems, and Quentin Jones, associate
professor of information systems.
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I N F O R M A T I O N
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E V E R Y W H E R E
Andrzej Zarzycki (above), associate professor of
science, is studying image forgery, which
architecture and design, combines crowd sourc-
has been facilitated by advances in image-
ing with gaming to develop the concept of aug-
editing software. In collaboration with Gavin
mented reality. In a paper, “Urban Games:
Lynch, doctoral student, and researchers at the
Applications of Augmented Reality,” presented
Academia Sinica in Taiwan, he has developed
at SIGGRAPH Asia 2012, he described aug-
an algorithm to detect copy-move forgery –
mented environments that integrate history/
forgery in which one region of an image is
knowledge, tourism, gaming and everyday
copied to another area of the image in an at-
urban life. The project utilizes a mobile app
tempt to cover a potentially important feature.
called Mystery Spaces that encourages users to
Experimental results show the new method is
become urban explorers and discover the
effective in identifying the size and shape of the
mystery of abandoned public infrastructure by
duplicated region.
navigating through forgotten and underappreciated public spaces. The project “gamifies”
traditional sightseeing by awarding participants
experience and discovery points, and
encouraging authoring of the augmented
reality environment content.
Professor of MIS Katia Passerini (right) won a
Bright Idea Award sponsored by the Stillman
School of Business at Seton Hall University and
the NJPRO Foundation for her paper entitled,
“The Next Web Apps Architecture: Challenges
tion among large and small vendors, and the
for SaaS Vendors,” reviewing the dynamic evo-
sustainability of profits for multiple service
lution of the information technology industry
providers. She co-authored the article with
with the advent of cloud computing and high-
Stephane Gagnon and Veronique Nabelsi of the
lights key issues that will drive markets and busi-
University of Quebec, and Kemal Cakici of the
ness models on the cloud. Such issues are
International Finance Corporation (IFC).
beyond technical, and include the emergence
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of marketplaces for services, the advent of the
An expert in digital forensics and steganogra-
“utility” and on-demand model, the competi-
phy, Frank Y. Shih (right), professor of computer
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E V E R Y W H E R E
Advancing
Digital Design
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S
A
NJIT interior design students displayed their
work at the 2013 NeoCON Student Work
Exhibit in Chicago. Peter Fritzky’s Integrated Office Design (above); Mina Liba’s
designs (left) show a plan for a relocation of
the School of Art + Design; and Nora
Hamade’s take on the same project (below).
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Creating Business
Applications
For the third consecutive year, NJIT hosted one
of the international sites for Global Game Jam.
Design and information technology students
collaborated on interdisciplinary teams to create
11 games for various web and mobile platforms.
Digital design students Elvin Padilla, Rachel
Corres and Danielle Esmaya (above), and IT
student Louis Arcilla (standing) consult about
their game submission. 2-D characters, called
Lil Phobias (right), created by Rachel Corres.
Of the 278 images selected for exhibit in the
ACM/SIGGRAPH Curated Student Work Exhibit
in Los Angeles, 48 were from the College of
Architecture and Design, the work of 38 students.
Shown here are some samples of the work that
Developing
New Technologies and
Infrastructure
was displayed. Interior Design by Amana
Dewitt (above top) and Hsin Ting Hsieh (above
bottom); Digital Design by (right, top to bottom):
Brandon Simms, Elvin Padilla, Danielle Esmaya,
and Kwasi Amankona.
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risk identification and early warning, such as iron
analysts, and others. Once quantified, the results
and steel, real estate and equipment management
are used as explanatory variables in existing mod-
industries, and bank liquidity risk warning index
els of corporate/market behavior. In one study, in
system. His new book, Swindlers, Fools and Mani-
collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technol-
acs, looks at financial asset bubbles, crises, irra-
ogy, he examined whether “soft” information
tional investment behaviors and financial frauds
present in merger and acquisition announcement
in the 5000-year history of China.
press releases contains incrementally valuable
news relative to traditional hard data and analyst
Boil, Bubble, Toil and Trouble is the first book pub-
Ali Akansu (below), professor of electrical and
generated information. He found that expressions
lished by the Leir Center for Financial Bubble
computer engineering, studies financial applica-
of managerial optimism are inversely related to
Research, directed by William Rapp (above), Henry
tions for high performance signal processing. At
performance, discounted by the market, which is
J. Leir Professor of International Trade and Business.
the 38th IEEE International Conference on
meaningful information to investors.
An outgrowth of the 2nd Leir Conference on
Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing in
Bubbles and Government Policies, the book seeks
Va n c o u v e r,
to define a financial bubble and how to recognize
Canada, he
a bubble before it bursts. Contributing authors in-
gave a tutorial
clude Rapp, Assistant Professor Alan Yan, Professor
with Professor
Mark Somers, Danielle Viola, ’13 MBA, Professor
Ilya Pollak of
Rajiv Mehta, Assistant Professor Wei Xu, and Pro-
Purdue Univer-
fessor Michael Ehrlich, associate director of the
sity on “High
center.
Frequency
▼
warning for studying macroeconomic risk; industry
to analyze the writing of investors, management,
E V E R Y W H E R E
the center will focus on methodologies of early
(below) uses advanced computer methodologies
I N F O R M A T I O N
Assistant Professor of Management James Cicon
Tr a d i n g a n d
Associate Professor of
Signal Process-
Finance Zhipeng Alan
ing Models for
Yan (right) has estab-
the Microstruc-
lished the LIXIN-NJIT
ture of Finan-
Economic Risk Early
cial Markets,” and co-organized and chaired a
Warning Center with
special session on “Financial Signal Processing and
a grant from Shang-
Electronic Trading.” He presented two papers on
hai Lixin University of
portfolio risk analysis with his doctoral students,
Commerce. An interdisciplinary research venue,
Mustafa Torun and Onur Yilmaz.
Mengchu Zhou, distinguished professor of electri-
Distinguished
Professor
Doctoral student Zhiqian Wang (below right),
cal and computer engineering, will be leading the
Yeheskel Bar-Ness (left),
working in collaboration with Somenath Mitra
newly-established CSRZIC Laboratory for Rail
executive director of the El-
(below left), distinguished professor of chemistry
System Network and Information Technologies.
isha Yegal Bar-Ness Center
and environmental science, has developed a
for Wireless Communica-
lightweight, flexible
tions and Signal Process-
battery using carbon
ing Research, gained two new patents to improve
nanotubes
orthogonal space time codes and decode data
with printing meth-
along
transmissions. Co-inventors are his former doctoral
ods that offers the
students, Amir Laufer’11 and Kodzovi Acolatse ’10.
potential for high
throughput fabrica-
Abdallah Khreishah (right), assistant
tion/manufacture of
Funded by the CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive
professor of electrical and computer
printed batteries and super capacitors. These new
Research Institute Co., the center will utilize NJIT’s
engineering, studies the latest work
batteries have the potential to provide easy trans-
expertise in signal processing to develop wireless
in computer networking with an
portability and integration into small electronics,
communication and control technologies to allow
emphasis on improving the flow of
such as rollup displays, wearable devices, electronic
passengers traveling on high-speed trains to com-
information. With a grant from the National Sci-
identification tags, smart cards, and implanted
municate with each other and outside the trains
ence Foundation, he is working to improve the
medical devices. Their findings were recently pub-
via the Internet.
capacity and energy efficiency of wireless net-
lished in the Journal of Power Sources.
works with different processing capabilities.
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Out of Data
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E V E R Y W H E R E
Getting the Most
Mei Liu (left), assistant
Lian Duan, assistant professor of information
Doctoral student Ankur Agrawal (below) was nom-
professor of computer
systems (above left), with his graduate student
inated as a finalist in the student paper competi-
science, is developing
Yanchi Liu, conducts innovative research on large-
tion at the World Congress on Medical and Health
data-mining methodolo-
scale data mining, using correlated sets of arbi-
Informatics for his paper “Identifying Problematic
gies to uncover clinical
trary, rather than the more usual correlated pairs.
Concepts in SNOMED CT
knowledge from elec-
In a recent study, he applied his technique to elec-
Using a Lexical Approach,”
tronic medical records
tronic health records to collect information about
which presents an innova-
that improve the quality,
adverse reactions to drug therapies. His findings
tive lexical methodology to
safety and efficiency of
were published in the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and
identifying inconsistencies in
Health Informatics.
large medical terminologies
healthcare. In a recent study, she demonstrated that
electronic medical records can validate previously
such as SNOMED CT with
reported adverse drug reactions and report new
Jason Wang (below), professor of computer science
ease and efficiency. Agrawal
ones. “Comparative Analysis of Pharmacovigilance
and director of the Data and Knowledge Engineering
is part of the research team
Methods in Detection of Adverse Drug Reactions
Laboratory, develops software tools and search en-
led by Professor Yehoshua
from Electronic Medical Records,” published in the
gines to simplify — by analysis and classification —
Perl (right) that focuses on
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Associa-
large terminological data-
tion, examined the use of retrospective medication
bases. His work continues
orders and inpatient laboratory results documented
the team’s ongoing efforts to develop a simplified,
in medical records to identify adverse reactions.
compact semantic network to organize the large,
complex clinical databases used in hospitals.
Associate Professor of Mathematical Science Ji
Meng Loh (right) specializes in applied spatial data
Yi Chen (below), associate professor of manage-
analysis and visualization and
ment, focuses her research on semi-structured data,
the development of statistical
such as databases, documents, workflows and social
methodology to make better
huge amounts of biological data. A recent paper
networks. She has an NSF CAREER grant and a
inferences from spatial data. In
published by his research team in OMICS: A Journal
Google Research Award to develop high quality key-
a recent study, he examined
of Integrative Biology outlines a method to distin-
word search results on semi-structured data in XML,
visitor volume to Morristown,
guish between microRNA precursor transcripts
the ubiquitous mark-up lan-
NJ, on workdays, on weekends, and for the St.
which play an important role in biological
guage designed to store and
Patrick’s Day Parade, by analyzing cellular data. In
processes such as cell proliferation, tissue differen-
transport data. The goal is to
another study, funded by the Robert Wood John-
tiation, and embryonic development from simi-
enable the vast amount of in-
son Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research and
larly constructed pseudo pre-miRNAs. The project
formation in databases to be-
New Connections Program, he investigated the
is part of a long-term initiative to build a cyber in-
come “Google-able.” A second
spatial relationship between fast food and schools,
frastructure for RNA data analysis and mining that
NSF project, also funded by an
and the role of school and neighborhood segre-
would allow researchers to uncover patterns with
IBM Faculty Award, addresses mining and optimiz-
gation in shaping these relationships.
potential applications in the detection of genetic
ing ad hoc workflows such as those in customer
diseases, the classification of DNA sequences, the
service, problem solving and decision-making.
prediction of RNA and protein secondary and tertiary structures, and rational drug design.
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