HELIX

HELIX Built for the discovery & advancement of next-generation, life-improving ideas.

Rutgers University’s Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) has been awarded a $13 million grant f...
12/11/2025

Rutgers University’s Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) has been awarded a $13 million grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) to pilot six heavy‑duty Hyundai Motor Company XCIENT hydrogen fuel‑cell trucks at Port Newark aimed at replacing diesel drayage vehicles with zero‑emission alternatives in everyday freight work.

These hydrogen‑powered trucks will handle short‑distance container moves from the port to local warehouses and rail yards. A task traditionally dominated by diesel engines that produce substantial air pollution. The pilot, starting early 2026, includes building out fueling infrastructure, deploying the fleet, and collecting performance and emissions data over a year.

Rutgers CAIT is leading research, tracking efficiency, costs, and operational performance, with partners like PSEG, the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE), Hyundai Motor Company, and the The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. This collaboration is intended to position New Jersey as a hub for clean transportation innovation and workforce development.

12/05/2025

The next era of global connectivity is being engineered right here in New Jersey.

Recently, the announcement of our plans for H-3 (the third HELIX building) included a new home for Rutgers WINLAB (Wireless Information Network Laboratory). With WINLAB joining the HELIX campus - alongside - we’re collectively establishing a powerful concentration of talent and research infrastructure dedicated to next-generation wireless networks.

A bit on both:

WINLAB, a pioneering force in wireless research since 1989, specializes in connecting people and devices at massive scale through advanced core technologies, analytics, and applications. Paired with the legendary innovation engine of Nokia Bell Labs, this duo transforms the HELIX into a global epicenter for research leadership across wireless networks, quantum computing, smart infrastructure, and more.

Nokia Bell Labs stands as one of history’s most iconic R&D institutions, driving breakthrough innovations for a century. Home to multiple Nobel Prize-winning discoveries including the transistor, information theory, and the CCD sensor, Bell Labs has fundamentally shaped modern technology. From inventing Unix and C programming language to pioneering cellular networks and fiber optics, its researchers have consistently transformed theoretical breakthroughs into world-changing technologies. Today, they continue this legacy with their work on AI-driven wireless networks, 6G systems, and even lunar communications.

This research is also deeply complementary to HELIX’s other core domains. The convergence of connectivity and the life sciences promise breakthroughs in digital health, telemedicine, connected devices, AI-driven diagnostics, and real-time biomedical data exchange across healthcare, biotech, pharma, and more.

11/25/2025

Confusing federal policy.
New investments from atypical sources.
The role of States in catalyzing scientific innovation.

CEO of , .l.flavin, touches on all of this and more in his appearance last week on Bloomberg’s ‘The Close’.

For all the reasons John mentioned, we’ve partnered with Portal to build a world-class destination for research, startup growth, and industry collaboration.

11/19/2025

Inside the piano, the hammer waits…

When you press a piano key, you’re actually setting off a tiny chain reaction of physics in motion. The key works like a lever. Your finger’s force pushes it down, which makes the small hammer fly up toward the string. Newton’s laws of motion explain this: your push gives the hammer acceleration, and when it hits the string, that kinetic energy turns into vibrations.

Those vibrations create sound waves, which we hear as musical notes. The faster and harder you press, the more energy and the louder the sound. The hammer’s soft felt helps control the tone, turning raw energy into the warm, rich sound of a piano.

The Art In Science // Episode 73 // The Hammer
Music: Carmen (Bizet) by Ohad Ben Ari

11/18/2025

Researchers at Nokia Bell Labs, led by , used an anechoic chamber to study what we normally can’t hear: heartbeats, nervous-system hums, and how voices behave without echoes.

An anechoic chamber is an ultra-silent room that absorbs nearly all sound. By stripping sound down to its pure form, the team could observe how humans perceive distance, loudness, and space.

Visit ’s YouTube channel to go inside this room with .

11/13/2025

We want our lobby - and public spaces across the HELIX campus - to feel a bit different.

So, we partnered with and to transform highly technical research into immersive visuals. This is all about honoring the science while creating a uniquely engaging public installation.

“HUSH envisioned a system that translated molecular structures and scientific theories into immersive visuals recognizable by the researchers themselves. By leveraging Adobe AI technology, HUSH created a living visual narrative system capable of translating complex scientific ideas into public-facing art. The result is a generative installation that expresses the soul of the research within, making invisible work visible and sparking connections between scientists and the public. The final outputs are floor-to-ceiling digital displays throughout the lobby, with immersive visuals ranging from swirling molecular structures to abstracted data visualizations — transforming research into a visual language the public can feel.” - , Adobe Firefly

“We wanted scientists to feel understood and respected — to literally see their work reflected back at them. We’re using the same type of technology that they are using in their research... it shows that we get it.” - , CEO of HELIX NJ



Video credit: Adobe Firefly

11/04/2025

Is ushering in the age of the Solar Farm?

Rutgers University’s Agrivoltaics Program (RAP), led by David Specca clinched the “Solar Farm of 2025” award from the North American Agrivoltaics Awards for merging farm productivity and solar power generation.

Why is RAP’s work important?

Farmers face tightening margins, rising energy costs, and pressure to adopt sustainable practices. Traditional solar installations often displace agricultural land, challenging farmers who want to both farm and generate renewable energy.

What are the implications of RAP’s work?

RAP’s work demonstrates how solar panels can be installed above crops and grazing areas, enabling a “dual-use” model that preserves agriculture while generating power. This award highlights its potential for wider adoption in farm policy, renewable energy planning, and land-use strategy, especially in regions aiming to combine climate mitigation with agricultural productivity.

11/03/2025

What can orangutans teach us about our own adaptability & climate resilience?

A 15-year study of wild orangutans in Borneo, led by Professor Erin Vogel, reveals something remarkable: when food is plentiful, they feast on fruit. When famine hits, they shift to leaves, bark, and seeds. They change not just what they eat but how they live. They travel less, rest more, and let their bodies burn stored energy with precision.

This flexibility [called metabolic resilience] lets them survive dramatic ups and downs in their environment. Humans, by contrast, live in constant “feast mode,” surrounded by easy calories and minimal change. The result? Our bodies lose some of that adaptive flexibility, contributing to modern health issues like obesity and diabetes.

The orangutans’ story is a bit of a mirror for humanity. Resilience, it turns out, isn’t just mental. It’s about adjusting our biological rhythms and behaviors. It’s about breaking our constant “feast mode”.

Rutgers just launched a world-circling autonomous ocean robot.In this first-of-its-kind project, Rutgers University engi...
10/28/2025

Rutgers just launched a world-circling autonomous ocean robot.

In this first-of-its-kind project, Rutgers University engineers have launched Redwing, an advanced autonomous underwater glider built to circle the globe and collect continuous ocean data.

Developed in partnership with Teledyne Marine, the sleek submersible left the East Coast in early October, beginning a mission that could redefine how scientists monitor the world’s oceans.

Equipped with cutting-edge sensors, Redwing will measure temperature, salinity, and current patterns, feeding data into global climate models and improving forecasts for weather and ecosystem change.

Beyond the science, Redwing underscores Rutgers’ emergence as a leader in marine robotics and climate innovation, and accentuates New Jersey’s growing stake in ocean-tech research.

The mission’s success could open new pathways for environmental monitoring, maritime security, and sustainable ocean management, showing how a single university-built robot can help the planet better understand its most vital and mysterious system.

10/21/2025

This is about standing behind the bold & important research born within our university communities. Research, specifically across the life sciences, that has great potential to improve lives. A lot of lives.

As John Flavon, CEO and co-founder of , has stated - promising science needs a place to go, a place that provides infrastructure & resources, a place that helps transform their research into next generation companies. We agree. Therefore, we aim to create this place, together, right here, in New Brunswick, NJ.

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