counting down the days till spring break
We write Stevens history HOBOKEN, NJ | FEBRUARY 20, 2026
VOLUME CXXIII No. 17
The student newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology, and creator of Attila the Duck. www.thestute.com TikTok @thestute Instagram @thestute facebook.com/stevensthestute NEW STUTE EVERY FRIDAY • EST. 1904
Pursuing your artistic ambitions with Jay Weinberg
Stevens Receives NSF Grant on Ionogel Study BY NIHIRA PATHAK, STAFF WRITER Stevens’ associate professor, Pinar Akcora, has been named the lead of the National Science Foundation (NSF) supported study “Revealing Structure-Ionic Transport Relationship in Polymer-Ionic Liquid Ionogels.” Akcora and her team are focusing on how ions move within ionogels, with particular attention to the specific polymer chain conformations and ion distributions within the gels. Ionogels are formed by trapping an ionic liquid inside a 3D polymer matrix, giving them the shape of a solid but the internal properties of a liquid. Similar to a hydrogel, like jelly or contact lenses, while ionogels have properties of both liquid and solid, they do not evaporate. Current hydrogels are susceptible to air and heat, leading to dehydration. On the other hand, the ionic liquid in an ionogel makes the entire structure stable even at high temperatures. Ionic liquids are made up of both
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BY SOFIA STOECKEL, STAFF WRITER
BY HUGO HOLLAND, CONTRIBUTOR Stevens students put on William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the DeBaun Performing Arts Center this past weekend, the venue’s 13th annual production in its Shakespeare series. The production of Twelfth Night brought out the play’s music and humor, one of Shakespeare’s early romantic comedies. The play follows the various romances and hijinks that occur one winter in Illyria, a Mediterranean-inspired land ruled over by Duke Orsino (Christian Fodor) and Countess Olivia (Isabela Allen). Just as
Artificial intelligence is often framed as a future that engineers will eventually step into. At Stevens, students are already there: presenting, testing, and debating how AI should work in the real world, not just in theory. That momentum was on display at the iCNS AI Engineering and Science Symposium, where students, faculty, and industry researchers gathered to explore how artificial intelligence is moving from academic exploration to applied engineering practice. Hosted by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the event brought together campus researchers and external experts to examine both the opportunities and responsibilities that come with rapidly advancing AI technologies. The symposium, formerly known as DuckAI, featured keynote talks alongside student poster sessions and live demonstrations highlighting projects developed during the Fall 2025 semester. NEWS (2-3)
SCIENCE (6)
FEATURE (4)
Black History Month Discover the black-owned businesses in Hoboken and of their success!
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DeBaun PAC presents Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Rather than focusing solely on conceptual models, many of the student presentations emphasized implementation — building tools, evaluating systems, and addressing emerging technical challenges in areas such as large language models (LLMs), safety, and optimization. According to Min Song, Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the evolution of project topics reflects how quickly student work in AI is maturing. Students are moving beyond foundational discussions of bias and model training toward improving and securing the newest AI architectures themselves. The scale of participation underscored that shift. A total of 34 student teams presented posters and demonstrations, sharing research that connected classroom learning to real-world technical applications. The projects ranged from efficiency improvements in LLM deployment to questions of trust, transparency, and system-level reliability; issues increasingly central to how AI is adopted
Debaun Pac presents Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Learn more about the Debaun Pac’s version of the Twelfth Night!
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PHOTO COURTESY OF @DEBAUNPAC ON INSTAGRAM (SHOT BY JEFFERY VOCK)
Orsino is seeking to marry the countess, a shipwreck washes up on Illyria’s shores, leaving siblings Viola (Kai Raiola) and Sebastian (Ryan Grigoletto) stranded, each believing the other one dead. Viola, believing herself unable to survive alone as a woman, soon disguises herself as a man and joins Orsino’s court under the name “Cesario”. The comedy and the tension come when Countess Olivia, believing Viola a man, falls in love with her instead of Orsino, creating a love triangle that lasts to the end of the play. The story is much more than Orsino and Olivia, with the various members
Stevens student-led AIinnovation takes center stage at iCNS AI Engineering and Science Symposium BY NIHIRA PATHAK, STAFF WRITER
clothes. The court jester (Ayyoob Saeed) is particularly fiendish and humorous in the plot. Adorning a gray beard and low booming voice, the fool toys with Malvolio—now locked in a cage after his romantic advances—making him admit his wrongs. The music of the DeBaun production is an additional bright spot, laying the groundwork for both the story’s sentimentality and its comedy. The music takes center stage as Orsino—to the backdrop of the court guitarist’s strums and the singing of the en-
On Wednesday, February 11, Jay Weinberg ‘14, an alumnus of Stevens, came to speak on his experiences while he was a student, as well as his growth into a successful drummer, having toured with multiple bands during his time here and afterwards. He grew up in a musical family, with his father having played the drums for Bruce Springsteen in the E-Street Band, inspiring him to take up the drums himself at around 14 years old. Weinberg then talked about his experiences with bands in college, having started in 2008, by looking at MySpace and messaging any band in the New York area that needed a drummer at the time until he got a response. He started touring his freshman year with the E-Street Band, filling in for his father, who had schedule conflicts that night, which catapulted
Caffeine = no dementia? ACL injuries? Tear gas? Read about what’s going on in the world of science. PULSE (10)
Read answers from the Stevens community to our weekly Roving Reporter, plus solve our weekly puzzle and sudoku.
across industries. Among the projects recognized during the symposium’s Elite Poster awards was LLM-Powered Agentic Systems and Applications, led by Ph.D. candidate Yupeng Cao, which explored AI agents capable of planning, reasoning and executing complex tasks beyond traditional chatbot behavior. Second place went to DEMI: A Reinforcement Learning Agent that Embodies Collective Intelligence to Minimize Attrition, developed by Drishti Parekh, Eden Charles, and Meetkumar Gajera, applying reinforcement learning to address retention challenges. A third recognized project, Trustworthy Models and Data by Sabbir Ujjal, focused on ensuring AI systems remain reliable, secure and free from bias. Industry voices added another dimension to the conversation. Speakers from organizations such as opAIda, Prescient Design (Genentech), and NVIDIA discussed how AI is being applied in areas ranging from business strategy to
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of their courts providing both comic relief and significant subplots of their own. The play sees most of Countess Olivia’s court plotting against Malvolio (Hissam Effendi), a servant famously described as being “sick of self-love.” The group of courtiers makes Malvolio believe that the countess is in love with him, planting a fake letter from her with the intent that he read it and make a fool of himself — and make a fool of himself he does. Dressed in bright yellow stockings, Malvolio follows the advice from the letter he believes is from the countess, disgusting her with his romantic advances and neon
NATIONAL NEWS Super Bowl halftime show 2026 BY JOSHUA BODENSTEIN, ASST. BUSINESS MANAGER
Bad Bunny took center stage at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, delivering a performance defined by high energy, vibrant visuals, and a strong emphasis on cultural identity and togetherness. The Puerto Rican artist, one of the world’s most-streamed musicians, became one of the few Latin artists to headline the globally watched event. The performance followed a major milestone in Bad Bunny’s career, as just one week before the Super Bowl, he earned multiple Grammy Awards, most notably, Album of the Year. This, along with his dominant performance on music streaming services such as Spotify, where he was the world’s most-streamed artist, helped heighten anticipation for his halftime performance. The performance opened with an immediate burst of sound and movement, setting the tone for a production built around rhythm, choreography, and visual storytelling. Accompanied by a large ensem-
ble of dancers, Bad Bunny moved through a medley of hits that highlighted his signature blend of reggaeton, Latin trap, and pop influences, with Lady Gaga joining him as a guest performer. Rather than relying on elaborate stage gimmicks or surprise-driven spectacle, the show leaned heavily on coordinated dance sequences and colorful set pieces. The staging evoked scenes of community and celebration, with visuals that emphasized social connection and shared experience. A notable aspect of the performance was Bad Bunny’s decision to perform primarily in Spanish. While multilingual performances are not uncommon at large-scale events, a Spanish-dominant halftime show remains relatively rare. The choice reflected Bad Bunny’s consistent approach to maintaining his artistic identity on international platforms. The choreography and production design reinforced themes of unity and joy. Dancers filled the stage with synchronized movements, and the visual palette featured bright colors and dynamic tran-
sitions. The performance maintained a continuous pace, with minimal breaks between songs. In addition to its beautiful visual palette, the show explored many themes of Puerto Rican culture and heritage. The set featured grassy fields, a bustling (and real) Latino wedding, and a Spanish Mercado. Each of these elements was purposefully and intentionally placed to invoke a feeling of Puerto Rican culture and make Latinos at home and around the world feel recognized. Thematically, the show emphasized positivity and inclusion. The tone remained celebratory throughout, with visuals and staging that suggested togetherness rather than dramatic tension. The closing moments featured imagery centered on connection and shared humanity, with the quote “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” displayed around the stadium. Reactions to the halftime show were mixed but widely engaged. Many viewers praised the performance’s energy, choreography, and
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