Written by: Andrew McMains and Tracey Regan
Revealed: Tuesday, August 5, 2025
The Analysis & Improvement Council of New Jersey is recognizing medical know-how developed at New Jersey Institute of Expertise and Stryker govt Robert C. Cohen’s management in surgical system and robotics innovation.
Cohen, who holds three levels from NJIT and chairs its Board of Trustees, is president of digital robotics and enabling applied sciences at Stryker. He and NJIT can be honored on the council’s annual Edison Patent Awards ceremony in November.
Printing biomaterials
The NJIT recognition, for Expertise Switch, can be accepted by a workforce of inventors that cast a novel know-how that enables producers for the primary time to 3D print a category of biomaterials utilized in bone and tissue restore.
One potential utility is cell-friendly, degradable tissue scaffolds that may assist restore torn tendons. At present, the components utilized in these procedures have to be injected into molds, cured, handled and machined.
The patented innovation allows somebody to take a digital picture and straight print and deal with it in a single course of. It additionally permits for the shaping of supplies into advanced, patient-specific units that are actually tough to create in molds.
The patent has been licensed to Acuitive Applied sciences, which makes use of it to 3D print specialised thermally curable polymer composites for orthopedic functions, together with rotator cuff restore.
The inventors are Affiliate Professor Murat Guvendiren, Chya-Yan Liaw and Andrew Home. Liaw and Home labored as researchers in Guvendiren’s lab and now are an assistant professor at Nationwide Chung Hsing College and an utilized analysis scientist at Acuitive, respectively. Home additionally earned two levels at NJIT: a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and a bachelor’s in bioengineering and biomedical engineering.
“We pursued this know-how to unravel a longstanding problem in additive manufacturing — learn how to 3D print thermoset polymers with precision and consistency,” stated Guvendiren, director of the Supplies Engineering Program at NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering. “Our aim was to develop a platform that allows high-performance, biocompatible supplies to be printed straight into advanced, practical buildings, particularly for medical functions the place accuracy and materials integrity are important.”
Gadget and robotics innovation
Robert Cohen innovates to enhance well being care.
The Cohen recognition, a Science & Expertise Medal, celebrates an impactful profession that features two medical know-how startups in New Jersey and contributions in know-how management roles at giant, multinational medtech corporations — all with a concentrate on innovation for the betterment of well being care.
In a letter in regards to the award, council Government Director Kim Case stated that Cohen has “led the profitable translation of cutting-edge analysis into broadly adopted, market-ready options,” including, “These applied sciences aren’t solely enhancing surgical precision, but additionally decreasing restoration occasions and enhancing outcomes for sufferers world wide. Your trailblazing work is a shining instance of how New Jersey-based innovation is making a worldwide influence.”
“That a company of its stature and mission thinks I’m worthy of this recognition, it is rather humbling. I’m sincerely grateful,” stated Cohen, who has welcomed college students from NJIT’s Heart for Pre-Faculty Packages to tour Stryker’s medical know-how and manufacturing facility and heighten their interest in STEM careers. “The council’s championing of collaboration between New Jersey academia and trade can solely speed up analysis that advantages society. Additionally, in step with a ardour of mine, the development of STEM training and growing the variety of graduates permits small and huge corporations to unravel extra challenges and invent.”
The statewide award follows Cohen’s election into the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Inventors — among the many highest skilled distinctions in engineering. Via his revolutionary work, Cohen, who holds 29 design and methodology patents, has considerably superior the sector of orthopedic joint substitute surgical procedure, enhancing affected person high quality of life and implant survivorship longevity.
Cohen turned chair of NJIT’s Board of Trustees in 2020. He additionally serves on the Board of Administrators of NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Institute, which fuels efforts to commercialize analysis, and, for the previous 17 years, the Board of Guests of its Newark Faculty of Engineering. At NJIT, Cohen earned each a bachelor’s and grasp’s in mechanical engineering and a grasp’s in engineering administration.
“I did coursework, initiatives and a thesis on whole joint substitute, together with hip, knee and shoulder substitute. The thesis work and training in orthopedics, design, biomechanics, supplies and biology made me very fascinating for employment in quite a few corporations within the Northeast that specialised in orthopedic joint substitute,” Cohen stated. “To today, I stay actually grateful for the chance I needed to be taught and mentored by some wonderful NJIT professors. I can actually say that I’d not be at this juncture in my profession if it wasn’t for this college.”
