Q:  Please introduce yourself.

A:  I am currently in my 20th year as a computer science and software engineering faculty member at Monmouth University. I hold a PhD in computer engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China. I have been married for 34 years and have one daughter.

Q:  What do you like about being in the school of science?  What brought you here?

A:  I am grateful for the research support from the School of Science and the chance to collaborate with a distinguished community of scholars. I also highly value the opportunity to work and publish along­­side our undergraduate and graduate student research colleagues.

Q:  Tell us about your research.  What inspired you to be in a role that includes doing research?

A:  My research areas include artificial intelligence, software engineering, formal methods, discrete event systems, and service computing. The first research project I participated in was for my bachelors’ degree thesis design. During that period, I spent most of my time in the lab conducting experiments on an automatic control system to figure out its dynamics. The findings were presented at a national academic conference that same year. This minor success significantly heightened my interest in scientific research. I pursued my master’s and PhD degrees in China and taught classes there for six years. In 1997, I joined Florida International University in Miami as a research associate, where my research interests shifted to software engineering and computer science. Over the years, my research has resulted in the publication of four books and over 200 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.

Q:  Do you include collaborators including students?

A:  Yes. Since joining Monmouth in 2004, I have consistently involved students in my research efforts. This includes supervising master’s degree students in their thesis projects, hiring graduate research assistants, offering and advising the School of Science summer research projects, and hiring student employees. One thing I would like to emphasize is that I have greatly benefited from collaborating with students. They are often quicker at learning the latest software tools and AI technologies. Most of my publications include student co-authors. It is also immensely rewarding to see some of my student researchers advance to PhD studies after they graduated from Monmouth with master’s degree, or employed by world renown companies.

Q:  What are your research plans for the near future?

A:  In recent years, AI research has become a rapidly evolving field, exploring the development and application of artificial intelligence technologies to solve complex problems and enhance various aspects of human life. I have been working with my student assistants on AI topics, such as using deep reinforcement learning to find optimal evacuation routes in teaching buildings during emergencies and employing ensemble machine learning to predict patient hospital stay durations. In the near future, I plan to focus on AI applications in healthcare and emergency management.

Q:  Do you have any advice for students that are interested in doing research?

A: Participating in professors’ research can greatly benefit students in several ways: (1) Gaining hands-on experience in their field, which enhances their understanding of theoretical concepts; (2) Developing critical skills such as problem-solving, data analysis, technical writing, and time management; (3) Being exposed to cutting-edge topics and methodologies beyond standard coursework; and (4) Having opportunities to co-author papers and present work at conferences, thereby boosting their professional portfolio. Students are encouraged reach out to me or any faculty member at the School of Science to discuss their research interests and the available research opportunities at the school.

We are delighted to celebrate the graduation of eighty- eight undergraduates and 11 masters students on May 16th. Biology led with thirty-six, Chemistry with fifteen, Mathematics with twelve and Computer Science and Software Engineering graduated seventeen and eight respectively. Six students earned M.S. degrees in C.S. and two in S.E. We also graduated three students with Data Science M.S. degrees. Congratulations to all our graduates. Below please find a selection of photos of the ceremony.

As the spring semester comes to an end, we take the time to acknowledge the contributions and commitment of our colleagues who are retiring.  They will all be dearly missed and we wish them the best. Their names are presented in order of years of service to the university.

Dennis Rhoads joined Monmouth University as an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology in 1995.  He was promoted to Professor in 2009.

He served as Chair of the Biology Department for 15 consecutive years and Chair of the Undergraduate Studies Committee for 7 years.  Dennis was active in transforming the curriculum in the Department of Biology, playing a leading role in establishing the Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy major and introducing the Molecular Cell Physiology concentration to the Biology major.

Dr. Rhoads excelled in scholarship and mentoring of undergraduate research students, having over 65 students working in the laboratory, winning numerous external awards for their presentations, and having 24 students as co-authors on peer-reviewed publications.  Dr. Rhoads transformed research in the Biology Department by mentoring faculty to receive the first two major grants from the National Institutes of Health, establishing the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), and representing Monmouth University at the New Jersey Marine Science Consortium for 9 years.

Daniela Rosca joined the Monmouth University faculty in 1998 as an Assistant Professor, later earning tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2004.  During her time here she has served as Department Chair (2018 – 2024) and was actively involved in  supervising Masters theses and undergraduate practicum projects, many of which have earned awards of excellence.  Rosca published nearly 40 papers in prominent international and national journals and conferences. She received the Best Paper Award at the 2016 International Conference in Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE 2016) and the Best Paper Award at the same conference in 2001.

In addition, Dr. Rosca has led two major curriculum restructurings for both the Computer Science and the Software Engineering accredited programs, and led the preparation of the successful ABET re-accreditation visits for the BSSE and BSCS Programs in 2022-2023. 

Biyue (Betty) Liu joined the Monmouth University faculty as an Associate Professor of

Mathematics in 2000, received tenure in 2004 and was promoted to full Professor in 2007.  Dr. Liu is an internationally recognized scholar with expertise in numerical

solutions of partial differential equations and has developed mathematical models to simulate and study the blood flows in human arteries with stenosis, publishing over 40 journal articles, and received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Association for Women in Mathematics, and the Simons Foundation. 

Dr. Liu has provided exemplary service to her department, school, and university, serving as co-chair of the Mathematics Department, a Peer Observer, as well as Faculty Council, the School Personnel Committee, the University Qualifications Committee and the General Education Oversight Committee.

William Schreiber jointed the Monmouth University faculty as a Lecturer in 2006 after nearly 30 years as an industrial chemist.  Dr. Schreiber served as Department Chair from January 2014 through June 2022 led two American Chemical Society recertification reports and helped to introduce many new courses for non-science majors, among them Climate Science, Science of Food and Cooking, Forensic Science, Geology, Drug Discovery and Medicinal Chemistry for majors.  Dr. Schreiber has excelled in his service as chair of the Undergraduate Studies Committee and most recently representing the School of Science on Faculty Council, serving as Governance Secretary and on its Executive Committee for the last two years.

Gil Eckert joined the Monmouth University faculty as an Instructor in 2014 and later became a Specialist Professor in 2017. Gil was actively involved in curriculum development and assessment.  Gil is most noted for his work with students, mentoring several Summer Research Projects and creating several introductory courses in Computer Science and Problem Solving.

The Monmouth University Climate Education Collaborative (MUCEC) was developed by Drs. Michelle Schpakow (Education), Catherine Duckett (Science), and Peter Jacques (Political Science) in collaboration with Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, and Monmouth Conservation Foundation.  With a competitive grant of over $311,000 from the NJ DOE our goal is to build a program to train  and better prepare NJ K-12 teachers to teach climate change at grade appropriate levels across all subjects. Monmouth Conservation Foundation and NJ Sea Grant Consortium and the Urban Coast Institute will help us provide a place-based curriculum.  Our programs are open to all public school teachers in New Jersey, with preference being given to teachers in collaborating districts in Monmouth, Mercer and Union Counties. We will serve central NJ teachers starting in June and going through March 2025.  Teachers will be compensated for their time for professional development programing delivered outside of school hours and funds for substitute teachers are available.

We are proud to be one four New Jersey Universities to receive a Climate Education Collaborative grant, and Monmouth University is the only private university to receive funding from this program.

You can reach us at MUclimateeducation@monmouth.edu

A schedule of upcoming professional development events for teachers can be found on the MUCEC project website.

We are thrilled to welcome Virgilio Gonzalez as our new vessel captain.  Virgilio is a 2016 graduate of East Carolina University and comes to Monmouth with a wealth of experience.   He will serve as the captain and primary operator of university vessels and oversee operation, maintenance, servicing and repair of university vessels, vehicles, and trailers. Virgilio will be instrumental in providing technical support to our students, faculty, and institutes such as the UCI on research projects, training activities, and grants and contracts.

He will take over the operation of the R/V Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe, a 49-foot former NOAA vessel, the R/V Seahawk, a 27-foot May-Craft, the R/V Little Hawk, an 18-foot Parker.  Virgilio is already taking the lead in the final stages of securing the new university vessel, a 32-foot H & H Marine Company Ormond Beal design vessel which will be outfitted to support projects in areas such as wind energy and coastal research. For more on our vessels please see our vessel page.

We are also celebrating the retirement of our former vessel captain, Jim Nickels, as much as we are sad to see him go. Jim Nickels has been a permanent fixture around Monmouth University.  Officially, he has held the position as Marine Scientist in the Urban Coast Institute for nearly 16 years. Among the many responsibilities Jim had was that of vessel captain playing a pivotal role in contract and grant work as well as a mainstay in taking classes out on the water for hands on experiences. With the growing fleet, workload/demand, and Jim’s retirement on March 1, the duties of vessel captain have now transitioned into a full-time position that works directly with the Dean’s office in the School of Science. With careful planning, the school was able to fill this new position in time for a brief, but productive overlap prior to Jim’s departure. 

April 12, 2024, 10 a.m., Edison 201

The 22nd Annual School of Science Student Research Conference showcased 31 research projects by teams of students and their faculty mentors. The keynote address was delivered by Kevin Dillon ’15, Ph.D., a faculty member who participated in student research at Monmouth University and presented at the Student Research Conference in 2014. Sample project titles include: Microbial Community Composition Analysis In Coastal Lakes Of New Jersey As An Indicator Of Harmful Algal Bloom Formations; Unlocking Student Engagement: Exploring Autonomy, Competence, And Relatedness In The Stem Flipped Classrooms; A Machine Learning Approach To Mitigate Injuries In Collegiate Tennis Players; and Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Monmouth University’s Math Placement Exam. The full agenda and all abstracts can be found here.

Wednesday, March 6, 7:30 p.m. | Pollak Theatre

The Film “Youth Unstoppable: My Decade in the Youth Climate Movement” (formerly “An Inconvenient Youth”) captures the vibrant untold story of the global youth climate movement. Decisions made today are shaping the world they will live in, and they are no longer willing to sit idly as the planet is degraded for the short term gain of the older generations. Director Slater Jewell-Kemker has been interviewing celebrities and politicians about the environment since the age of 10. Now, she is telling the stories of these remarkable young people on the front lines of climate change. The feature documentary also gives life to a thriving online community, already forming, that will continue as a youth focused environmental social network. This is the story of the youth of today fighting for their planet, their future. This event is free and open to the public.

There will be a post screening Q&A hosted by Professor Marina Vujnovic with special guest speaker Professor Catherine Duckett.

This is a collaborative presentation with the Pearson World Cinema Series who is the primary sponsor.

A presentation by Peter Jacques, Ph.D.

March 28, 2024, 4:30–5:50 p.m. | Edison 201

In 2023, fifteen percent of surveyed Americans did not think climate change was happening, and 28 percent responded that warming was not caused by human activities. 22 percent were doubtful or dismissive of climate change. Why is this when over, according to a 2021 survey of climate experts found that 98.7 percent of them said the climate is warming and humans are driving this global environmental change? Between confirmed climate experts who published 20 or more peer reviewed papers on climate change between 2015 and 2019,  there was 100% agreement that the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity. At least part of this disconnect is because there has been a US-centered counter-movement organized to cast doubt on climate change science and climate scientists. This effort is organized by policy elites in conservative think tanks who have guided some of our narratives and these narratives have turned an elite-led counter-movement to one that is populist. This discussion will attend to the social science surrounding this climate change counter-movement (CCCM). 

Peter Jacques, Ph.D., is the Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine & Environmental Law and Policy at Monmouth University and a member of the Climate Social Science Network which studies climate-related misinformation among other topics. More information on his climate denial research can be found in an interview with Monmouth Magazine.

This past Friday, Monmouth’s IEEE/ACM Club hosted the annual High School Hawk Hack.  In only its second year post-pandemic, this event grew significantly to include over 50 students from 12 schools across the state.

More than a dozen IEEE/ACM club members organized, instructed and proctored the competition that has students compete in teams to solve a series of programming challenges. The results are then tallied by HackerRank, a platform with Computer Science problems,  used by many employers to assess the coding skills of potential candidates.

Computer Science Professor Rolf Kamp, the IEEE/ACM club advisor, has been integral in creating this event that introduces high school students, interested in computer science, to a collegiate setting. Kamp states “It is clear the high school students, their teachers and  club member thoroughly enjoyed the event. Hosting this event is an excellent opportunity to get students interested in Monmouth’s offerings”.

At the conclusion of the event, the members of each winning team received technology-based prizes.

The 2024 High School Hawk Hack  winners:

First place – Middlesex High School

Second Place – Dwight-Englewood School

Third Place – Lakeland High School

The IEEE/ACM club and the Computer Science & Software Engineering department hope that this event continues to grow for high school students pursuing a career in technology.