Is the Fountain Of Youth Obsolete?
New Jersey Institute of Technology Engineers Make It Easy To Age Gracefully

NEWARK, Jan. 3--Aging baby boomers in search of Ponce de Leon's elusive magical waters will welcome the breakthroughs of NJIT's biomedical engineers. Much of their research is designed to improve the lives of people with acute and chronic illnesses associated with aging.

After a stroke, it can take years for a patient to complete physical therapy, often with limited results. A new therapy using computer games and a specially designed glove has proven more successful at rehabilitating hand muscles than traditional therapy.

For those stroke patients suffering from spasticity, there's a new device called a vertical vertibular table that literally shakes a patient while he or she lies on it, taking advantage of the anecdotal evidence that people with spasticity move better after activities causing the body to move up and down, like horseback riding and boating.

Physical therapists used to measuring spasticity with the Ashworth Scale, a subjective method requiring the therapist to judge how hard a patient can push a given set of muscles, will be interested to learn of the brand new pendulum knee drop measuring system. It uses a mathematical equation and sensors on the leg to objectively measure spasticity.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE...

• Facing the opposite challenges of retaining top students in a boom market and ensuring a technologically skilled workforce able to withstand the pressures of any financial conditions, NJIT has implemented N.J. I-TOWER (New Jersey Information-Technology Opportunities for the Workforce, Education and Research). Editor Johanna Ginsberg examines this $2.5 million IT push inspiring technological innovation in every area of the university, from small business incubators to human-computer interaction to virtual experimentation.
• Traffic congestion in New Jersey needs no introduction. Kenneth J. Hausman offers a solution to the state's perennial problem.

EDITORS: Articles from NJIT Magazine may be reprinted with the permission of the editor. To request a copy of the publication and/or reprint permission, please call Sheryl Weinstein, media relations director, at 973.596.3436 or email weinstein@njit.edu.

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. Yahoo! Internet Life magazine cites NJIT as a "perennially most wired" university.

Contact Information:

Sheryl Weinstein Robert Florida Public Relations  (973) 596-3433