Stevens Establishes School of Computing to Lead the Next Era in AI and Technology Education and Research

New school launching fall 2026 will prepare the next generation of technology leaders through interdisciplinary programs that integrate AI across disciplines.

A Stevens First: $1.3 Million Keck Grant to Pursue Physics’ Most-Wanted Particle

Geoffrey S. Inman ’51 Assistant Professor Igor Pikovski received the prestigious foundation grant to boldly detect gravitons, the quantum building blocks of gravity long assumed impossible to measure.

Harnessing Light to Leverage Quantum Physics and Transform the Future

Professor Svetlana Malinovskaya develops new ways to control quantum entanglement, with hopes to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

Advanced X-Band Radar Strengthens Flood Monitoring and More

New radar system, operated by the university’s Davidson Laboratory, will provide high-resolution precipitation data to enhance real-time forecasting and community preparedness across the region.

What’s in Your Water? Using AI to Make Public Drinking Water Safer

Assistant Professor Tao Ye has been recognized with an NSF CAREER award for work that applies artificial intelligence to public water treatment.

Studies Investigate How AI Can Aid Clinicians in Analyzing Medical Images

Associate professor Onur Asan and Ph.D. candidate Olya Rezaeian found that AI can improve clincians’ image assessments when certain conditions are met.

A Robotic Hand Designed for the Battlefield and Beyond

Assistant Professor Long Wang is leading a collaboration with Corvid Technologies to develop a specialized robotic hand capable of safely assisting with casualty care in combat environments.

A New Direction for Stevens Research

This spring, I am pleased to share Stevens Impact 2032, our new Research and Innovation Strategic Plan — one that organizes our work not around academic disciplines, but around the complex, interconnected challenges that define our era. These Grand Challenges and Opportunities are north stars for our entire campus, orienting every discipline toward problems so demanding that solving them requires working across traditional boundaries. They reflect where our faculty are already leading, and where Stevens is positioned to have the greatest impact.

The federal research landscape is shifting. Stevens is meeting that moment with clarity and purpose, diversifying our funding, deepening our partnerships and pressing forward on the work that matters most.

The research in this issue reflects exactly that. From a first-of-its-kind graviton detection effort and new frontiers in quantum control, to AI that makes drinking water safer and a robotic hand designed for battlefield care — and anchored by the launch of our new School of Computing — this is what a research enterprise organized around enduring societal challenges looks like in practice.

Edmund Synakowski
Vice Provost for Research & Innovation

Recent Recognition & Awards

Raju Datla, research associate professor at the Davidson Laboratory, has been named a NAVSEA Professor of Naval Engineering by the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command — placing Stevens among a select group of institutions, including MIT and the University of Michigan, chosen to build the nation’s next generation of naval engineers.

Edmund Synakowski, Vice Provost for Research and Innovation; Jennifer Kang-Mieler, George Meade Bond Endowed Professor and Director of the Semcer Center for Healthcare Innovation; and Marouane Temimi, Gallaher Chair Associate Professor in Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, were named 2026 INNOVATE100 honorees, recognized among New Jersey’s top innovators.

Xueqing (Susan) Liu, assistant professor of computer science, received an NSF CAREER Award to develop automated approaches to software vulnerability discovery, localization and continuous monitoring.

Antonia Zaferiou, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Ashley Lytle, associate professor in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, received NIH funding to investigate music-based biofeedback as a tool to improve balance control in adults with Parkinson’s disease.

Ting Liao, assistant professor of systems engineering, received an NSF CAREER Award to model trust dynamics and system adaptation in human-AI collaboration in engineering design.

Yu Gan, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, received a USDA award to advance food quality evaluation and prediction using multi-modal deep learning and digital twin technologies.

Recent Publications

Professor Amro Farid co-authored “American Multi-Modal Energy System” in Energy and AI, introducing a new method of estimating how energy flows across interconnected systems such as electricity, gas, oil and coal, providing policymakers and engineers with tools to make smarter infrastructure decisions.

Assistant Professor Bei Yan co-authored “Syncing Minds and Machines: Hybrid Cognitive Alignment as an Emergent Coordination Mechanism in Human-AI Collaboration” in Academy of Management, arguing that humans and AI must form an evolving cognitive alignment to work efficiently together.

Associate Professor Ying Wang and Ph.D. candidate Ishan Aryendu co-authored “AURA-GreeN: Aerial Utility-Driven Route Adaptation for Green Cooperative Networks” in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, designing a network of drones that can act as flying cell phone towers and be rapidly deployed when ad-hoc connectivity is needed.

Assistant Professor Pin-Kuang Lai co-authored "Molecular modeling and machine learning for predicting high-concentration antibody viscosity" in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, introducing a computational approach that allows researchers to develop biologic medicines faster and more efficiently.

Associate Professor Yi Bao and Ph.D. candidate Jinxin Chen co-authored “Multi-agent coordination of data-driven and physics-based models for automated design of ultra-high-performance concrete beams” in Advanced Engineering Informatics, describing a new approach to designing building structures by combining AI with traditional engineering physics.