Chair's Message

"I believe MIE faculty & students at NJIT are particularly well-positioned to achieve regional impact as well as global recognition in three areas: coastal resilience, healthcare, and energy systems."

Thank you for placing your trust in me to serve MIE as the new Chair. I hope all the students, staff and faculty are off to a great start to the Fall semester.

Fall 2026 is an important milestone because this is the first large batch of incoming freshmen born in 2008, during the year of the global financial crisis. A lot has changed dramatically in the world since then. To me, this Highlander batch represents hope and resilience that we can collectively embrace to usher in a new generation of ideas, dreams, possibilities, and impact for all our students.

We all take joy and pride with NJIT being ranked #1 in the US for upward economic mobility of our students upon graduation. NJIT has also been estimated to annually contribute nearly $3 billion to the NJ economy. My vision is for MIE faculty and students to build on this success by exploring opportunities that help us grow in the way we learn, the way we teach, and the way we conduct research. I believe MIE faculty & students at NJIT are particularly well-positioned to achieve regional impact as well as global recognition in three areas: coastal resilience, healthcare, and energy systems. Accordingly, we will establish Coastal, Healthcare, and Energy Systems Space (CHESS) that will achieve a disruptive transformation on many aspects of product design, manufacturing, materials, supply chain and workforce in the next decade. 

The CHESS co-creation hub focusing on design and system integration will be located in the Mechanical Engineering Center adjacent to the fabrication capabilities at NJIT Makerspace for greater access and visibility for our work. I expect CHESS will be a pathway for MIE students to leverage our faculty expertise and use their academic experience to collaborate between disciplines, devise high impact ideas, build successful careers, and help NJIT build national leadership in learning, research and innovation. We invite faculty and student perspectives during the Fall semester to prioritize next steps.

I am eager to learn more about each of you and see how we can work together to build a team and a mission that we can all be excited and proud to be a part of. Go Highlanders!

Sundar V. Atre

Chair, MIE