With the start of the hurricane season and the current upswing in new home construction across the nation, it’s never too late to think now about research-proven building and roof designs for regions susceptible to hurricane force winds.  >>

Sarah Brownell, co-founder of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), will share a more positive vision for Haiti when she speaks at NJIT on Feb. 24, 2010, 3-4:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Atrium.  The talk is a presentation of NJIT’s Technology and Society Forum Series.  >>

Students, faculty and staff at NJIT have spent the first day of the new semester organizing a variety of events and programs to help the people of Haiti.  As one of the first efforts, a Vigil for Haiti to offer hope and support for the people of Haiti both locally and abroad will be held tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the Jim Wise Theater on the NJIT campus.  (ATTENTION EDITORS: For more information, contact Sheryl Weinstein, 973-596-3436.)  >>

Better building practices for structures in hurricane-prone regions will be the focus of a paper next month in Caribbean Construction Magazine by NJIT architecture professor Rima Taher, PhD.  Taher has written extensively about best building design and construction practices to reduce wind pressures on building surfaces and to resist high winds and hurricanes in residential or commercial construction. >>

A new and better way to predict earthquakes and avalanches may soon be available to forecasters thanks to mathematical research underway at NJIT.   Using mathematical modeling, researchers are investigating how forces and pressures propagate through granular materials.  >>