Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2024-01

NJIT Technology Innovation Translation and Acceleration (TITA) Program

TITA-2024 Seed Grant Awards

The NJIT Technology Innovation Translation and Acceleration (TITA) Seed Grant program will enable faculty and students to successfully accelerate the translation of their innovation to enterprise development and business incubation. The TITA seed grant program will foster entrepreneurial pathways from research and innovation to business and value creation with the acquisition of intellectual property, market validation, and engagement of stakeholders towards commercialization. The TITA Seed Grants will increase awareness of the potential commercial benefits at earlier stages of the translation and market validation process and allow researchers and stakeholders to collaborate for entrepreneurial success. It will also help faculty to submit competitive translational research proposals to external grant funding opportunities.

We are pleased to award five TITA-2024 seed grants funded for $75,000 each in this cycle. The TITA seed grant program was initiated last year with four TITA-2023 seed grants with technology innovation translational research projects which are now transitioning to Phase-3 of the program for market validation towards entrepreneurial pathways. Thus, there are currently 9 innovative technologies funded for $75,000 each under the TITA program for translational research and market validation for potential tech transfer and commercialization activities. The TITA program that was initiated in Fall 2022 with the NJ State and institutional funding is now supported by the Accelerating Translational Research (ART) grant funded by the NSF Technology and Innovation Partnership (TIP) directorate for further enhancement and expansion through the NJIT Center for Translational Research which will be formally established in early Spring 2024.

TITA-2024 Seed Grants

Title of the Technology: n-Fast - A Nanotechnology Approach to Developing Fast Dissolving Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)

Proposers and Affiliations: Somenath Mitra, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, NJIT; Ms. Rachel Theka, Thive Consulting, Middlesex, NJ

Title of the Technology:  SonoNanoArgon – Destruction of Emerging Contaminants using Ultrasound and Argon Nanobubbles

Proposers and Affiliations: Jay N. Meegoda, PhD, PE, FASCE, Distinguished Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, NJIT; Marc Ottolini, Strategy and funding advisor, Portfolio of AIRLABS, RENSAIR, SUSURRO, NANOVISION, London, UK

Title of the Technology: Rapid, Robust, Cost-effective, Field-based, AI-integrated point-of-use Electrochemical Platform Technology for in-situ detection and quantification of PFAS in source water.

Proposers and Affiliations: Sagnik Basuray, Associate Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering, NJIT; Joshua Young, Assistant Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering, NJIT; Charmi Chande, co-founder and C.T.O., ESSENCE DIAGNOSTICS LLC., NJ 

Title of the Technology: “CidaGel: Injectable Gel for Dental Pulp Regeneration”

Proposers and Affiliations: Vivek, Kumar, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, NJIT; Corey Heffernan, PhD & Laura Osorno, PhD, NJIT; Emi Shimizu, DDS, PhD, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine; Carla Cugini, PhD, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine

Title of the Technology: Climate-Smart Electrocatalytic Membrane Technology Transforms Nitrate Pollution into Enhanced Ammonium Salt Fertilizer

Proposers and Affiliations: Wen Zhang, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Jianan Gao, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Ed Weinberg, P.E. President ESSRE Consulting, Inc.

For executive summaries of TITA-2024 seed grant funded projects, please see “Full Announcement”.

Congratulations to All TITA Seed Grant Awardees!

NSF: Planning Grants to Broaden Participation in the Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation Program; Enabling Access to the Semiconductor Chip Ecosystem for Design, Fabrication, and Training (Chip Design Hub); National Science Foundation - Future of Semiconductors (FuSe2); Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER); Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI); Collaborations in Artificial Intelligence and Geosciences (CAIG); Partnerships for Research Innovation in the Mathematical Sciences (PRIMES); Partnerships in Astronomy & Astrophysics Research and Education (PAARE); Partnerships for Research and Education in Physics (PREP); Emerging Mathematics in Biology (eMB); Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM); NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM)

NIH: Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant (R01); Centers of Excellence for Translational Research (CETR) (U19)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: FY24 Department of Navy (DON) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education and Workforce Program; Minerva Research Initiative - University Research; DEVCOM ARL HBCU/MI Research Partnerships; Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2024; The Department of Defense (DOD) Fiscal Year 2025 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP)

Department of Energy: Notice of Intent: Fiscal Year 2024 Technology Integration (TI) Funding Opportunity Announcement; Early Career Research Program; Solar Energy Evolution and Diffusion Studies 4 (SEEDS 4)

NASA: ROSES 2023: A.6 Carbon Monitoring System

National Endowment of Humanities: Collaborative Research; Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence

4 steps to prepare for the coming quantum onslaught: When it comes to the cyber and tech landscape, a storm is brewing — one that threatens to dismantle the very fabric of our digital security. This storm is known as Q-Day, shorthand for the impending quantum computing era, when the capabilities of quantum computers will render even the most sophisticated encryption algorithms obsolete.  This quantum revolution is approaching at an alarming pace, possibly within the next few years, and it is imperative for governments and organizations across sectors to begin adapting and preparing in 2024.  The magnitude of this issue extends far beyond the confines of cyberspace — it poses an existential threat to the protection of our most critical national security secrets and systems. The scope of the problem reaches into the heart of our nation's security. Protecting critical assets such as infrastructure, healthcare systems, advanced weapons and intelligence assets becomes nearly impossible in the face of quantum advancements. It's not just about safeguarding data; it's about securing the very pillars that uphold the security and functionality of our society. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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3 Government and technology predictions for 2024: Technologies are moving ahead at warp speed.

Generative artificial intelligence will change the world in 2024:

As impressive as 2023 was for the development of AI, and specifically generative AI, all of that will pale in comparison to what happens next. Unlike other emerging technologies like quantum computing that are taking years to develop, generative AI burst onto the scene and hit the ground running this year like almost no other technology ever has before. AI was also able to help develop new antibiotics this year which may be able to better treat infections, a sure sign that more medical breakthroughs could be just around the corner. 

NOAA and NASA are working with AI to not only monitor potentially damaging solar storms, but to actually predict them before they happen. And robots driven by AI are even being thought of almost like real people in some cases, and getting more lifelike all the time. It seems like every week we learn of something new and incredible that has been accomplished using AI.

Government and the military will further embrace and master 5G 

Perhaps not growing quite as quickly as AI, 5G wireless technology is nonetheless making serious inroads in government service. The military in particular is leading the charge into 5G, actively pursuing its 5G Strategy Implementation Plan for all of the services. In the past, many 5G networks were actually made up of software implementations running overtop of 4G networks. But that is changing fast. In 2024 we will see the rapid expansion of the US DOD Joint All Domain Command and Control program, which exists as a pure 5G network that combines applications and sensors from all military services in one unifying infrastructure. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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First CHIPS Act award signals start of U.S. semiconductor push: The Commerce Department chose a major defense hardware maker as recipient number one of CHIPS For America grant money, which certainly will go across multiple industries that are of importance to public sector. t admittedly is not science to categorize companies in the government technology market, but in the bigger picture I tend to think of them in three buckets. One of course is the contractors whose majority of revenue is in direct government work. A second being companies that are global and commercial in nature, but have a significant portfolio of direct government contracts. The third is vendors in the channel largely without prime government contracts, but whose primary customers are in the first two categories and implement technologies for government environments. Few technology areas cut across all three of those categories like computer chips, given how just about everything of importance in the world runs on them. That shortage is why the Biden administration and Commerce Department in particular are undertaking the $52 billion "CHIPS For America" program to revitalize semiconductor research, development and manufacturing in the U.S.

BAE Systems Inc. is official recipient number one of those grants, having been awarded $35 million this week to modernize a microelectronics center in Nashua, New Hampshire, that produces chips for big-ticket defense programs such as the F-35 fighter jet.

IBM, Micron, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron and others are involved in a separate $10 billion initiative to build a new semiconductor R&D complex in Albany, New York. That facility will be a centerpiece of New York state's push to get some of the funding.

All three categories of companies, including and especially the vendors, are represented in both of those announcements. That is a reminder of how important chips are to the economy and society, plus highlight the industrial capacity many believe is needed to boost production. More information is posted on the NextGov website.