Contact:  Robert Florida
                Public Relations
                (973) 596-5203
                florida@njit.edu

NJIT Professors Available To Discuss Power Outage and Cell Phone Failure

WHAT: “The tripping of the transmission line could be caused by a lightning strike, sagging of the line and subsequent shorting out or the faulty setting of a relay.”
--Walid Hubbi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

“In the northeast, the grid is integrated so that if one area needs more power, another area gets less. The grid is based on that dependency and there is very little room for isolation. If one area gets overloaded, the system shuts off.”
--Atam Dhawan, Ph.D.,, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

“Cell phones failed Thursday because the network was overloaded with a high volume of calls. The networks are not designed to handle that load. The industry would have to build more antennae base stations to handle that volume, which is too expensive.”
--Symeon Papavassillou, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

WHO: Walid Hubbi earned his M.S.E.E. from Queen Mary College in London and his doctorate from the Queen’s University of Belfast. He has industrial experience in the telecommunications industry and joined NJIT in 1983. He has authored more than 20 publications in the areas of power system state estimation and load flow analysis. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)

Atam Dhawan, professor and chairman of the electrical and computer engineering department at NJIT, also oversees the operation of the Center for Wireless Networking and Internet Security. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Roorkee, India. He was a Canadian Commonwealth Fellow at the University of Manitoba, where he did his doctorate in the same field.

Symeon Papavassillou, a former senior technical staff member at AT&T Laboratories, has an expertise in wired and wireless networks. He is principal investigator for the New Jersey Center for Wireless Networking and Internet Security, as well as a researcher for the New Jersey Center for Wireless Telecommunications, both based at NJIT. He earned his master’s and doctorate in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University, Brooklyn.

WHEN: Today, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. After hours call Robert Florida at (201) 420-8844.

WHERE: They are available in their NJIT offices or for phone interviews. Walid Hubbi: (973) 596-3518; Atam Dhawan: (973) 596-3524; Symeon Papavassillou: (973) 642-7817.

NJIT is a public, scientific and technological research university enrolling more than 8,800 students. The university offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees to students in 80 degree programs throughout its six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. The division of continuing professional education offers adults eLearning, off campus degrees and short courses. Expertise and research initiatives include architecture and building science, applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering and science, information technology, manufacturing, materials, microelectronics, multimedia, telecommunications, transportation and solar astrophysics. NJIT ranks in Tier 2 of U.S. News & World Report’s list of national doctoral universities.