Atam P. Dhawan, Ph.D.

The NJIT campus will be buzzing with undergraduate research teams this summer as students take advantage of the break from lectures and homework to focus on in-depth projects in fields ranging from the life sciences, to biomedical engineering, to mathematical computation. Still others will be advancing their novel business concepts at the NJIT Summer Lean Innovation Accelerator Program held at the Enterprise Development Center (EDC).

The Provost’s Summer Research Program alone is providing more than $100,000 to support 31 research projects over a 10-week period this year. Twice as many students applied for the opportunity to work closely with their professors in laboratories across campus, and many have been urged to try again next year.
“This is the largest number in total that we have ever funded, and there were many other qualified proposals that I wish I could have included. We are hoping to increase support for next summer,” noted Atam Dhawan, distinguished professor of electrical engineering and executive director of NJIT’s Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI) program.

Atam P. Dhawan, of Randolph, a distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NJIT, has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBA) for contributions in medical imaging.  Dhawan, who also serves as the Executive Director of Undergraduate Research and Innovation at NJIT, will be inducted into the College of Fellows at the National Academy of Sciences during the AIMBE annual event, March 23-25, 2014 in Washington, DC.

NJIT Distinguished Professor and electrical engineer Atam Dhawan hits the lecture trail again this summer as a distinguished speaker for an IEEE life sciences lecture series.  His focus will be how “Point of Care Healthcare” can reduce illness, improve the quality of life, and stop spiraling healthcare costs.  Dhawan, who will stop at conferences in Japan, Colombia and Croatia, tells audiences about the following.

If you aren’t already using a “wearable” sensor—whether it’s a watch that reads your blood pressure or a temperature strip for your child’s forehead—you soon will be.  Such devices offer a fast, inexpensive and efficient mobile health information communication system plus used the right way they can become application-based smart decision support systems for patients and healthcare providers.  They provide quality healthcare at affordable costs in developing economies and for developed economies, they can avoid or reduce extended hospitalization and in-patient costs to reduce sky-rocketing healthcare costs.  For managing quality healthcare in epidemics and disaster situations, they could be critical in providing vital medical attention to those first, who need the most, he said.  

A closer look at personalized or point-of-care healthcare was the focus of a recent international conference in India organized and chaired by NJIT Distinguished Professor Atam Dhawan.  The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) International Special Topic Conference  in point-of-care healthcare technologies, broadcast around the world, focused on topics ranging from 21st century medicine with new smart cross-and trans-disciplinary technologies to how wireless communications will change how physicians care for patients.

“The last century witnessed a technology revolution in medicine and health through instrumentation, computer and information and communication technologies,” said Dhawan, an electrical engineer.  “This revolution has continued into the 21st century innovations re-defining the relationship between patient and healthcare providers.” 

NJIT Distinguished Professor Atam Dhawan has been named co-editor of the Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, a publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) http://www.embs.org/news/203-embs-announces-co-editors-for-the-journal-of-translational-engineering-infhealth-and-medicine. Clifford Dasco, MD, of Baylor College, Houston, will be co-editor.  The journal will be an open access product to bridge the engineering and clinical medical worlds, focusing on detailed descriptions of advanced technical solutions for clinical needs along with clinical results and healthcare relevance.