New Jersey Institute of Technology

New Jersey Institute of Technology, also known as NJIT, is a public research university located in the University Heights neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, United States. NJIT is the science and technology university of the state of New Jersey. Centrally located in the greater New York metropolitan area, its campus is within walking distance of downtown Newark. New York City, 9 miles (14.5 km), and about twenty minutes away, is directly accessible from campus via the Newark City Subway and the PATH rapid transit system.

Founded in 1881 with the support of a cadre of Newark's 19th-century industrialists and inventors especially Edward Weston (334 US Patents), NJIT opened as Newark Technical School in 1884. Problem-solving and application oriented from inception, the school grew into a classic engineering college - Newark College of Engineering (NCE) - and then, with the addition of a School of Architecture in 1975, into a technology-oriented university that is now home to five colleges and one school: Newark College of Engineering; the College of Architecture and Design; the School of Management; the Albert Dorman Honors College; the College of Science and Liberal Arts; and the College of Computing Sciences.

NJIT opened with 88 students most of whom attended part-time. Today (fall 2012) the university enrolls 9,944 students about 1,500 of whom live on campus. Increasingly residential, NJIT recently broke ground on the Warren Street Village, a mixed-use, 3-acre (1.2 ha) project that will provide on-campus housing for an additional 600 students in 2013, including 360 Honors College students. The university's 45-acre (18 ha) campus was extensively re-landscaped in the past decade. Most of its 28 buildings are new or newly refurbished. Architecturally significant buildings include Eberhardt Hall, the Campus Center, and the Central King Building - the old Central High School of Newark in the Collegiate Gothic style.

NJIT offers 126 degree programs including 48 undergraduate (Bachelor of Science/Arts) majors, and 78 graduate (Masters and PhD) programs. The university is organized into 27 academic departments. Three departments, Biological Sciences, History, and Theater Arts, are federated with Rutgers-Newark whose campus borders NJIT's. With an undergraduate population that is almost 20% international, NJIT consistently ranks among the 10 most ethnically and culturally diverse national universities in the country. It has multiple study abroad options along with extensive co-op, internship, and service opportunities. The university awarded 2,118 degrees in 2012 including 1006 Bachelors, 1048 Masters, and 64 PhDs. According to PayScale NJIT ranks 15th among the Best Engineering Colleges in the United States by Salary Potential.

A leader in attracting first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students into STEM professions, the university has participated in the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program since 1999. NJIT has also developed several advanced/professional degree programs in collaboration with other universities in Newark. For example, through the Honors College it offers a program in medicine with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. It also offers an accelerated engineering + law dual degree (BS, JD) in partnership with Seton Hall Law School. Other joint programs, including ones with Rutgers-Newark, lead to graduate degrees in Public Health, Urban Systems, and History.

Research at NJIT has grown substantially in the past decade, exceeding $100 million in 2011. Areas of focus include: nanotechnology, material science, biomedical engineering (including stem cell research), signal processing, transportation planning, and solar physics. Regarding the latter, the school operates both the Big Bear Solar Observatory (optical), and the Owens Valley Solar Array (radio). A leader in applied mathematics, its Department of Mathematical Sciences is recognized as one of the most productive in the country. NJIT also focuses on economic development, a prime example of which is the Enterprise Development Center (EDC), an on-campus business incubator established in 1988 that currently houses 88 start-ups. An early leader in distance learning - it trademarked the term "Virtual Classroom" - the university offers a wide range of on-line courses and degrees. NJIT is a participating Internet2 member, and has been since 2005. In 2010 it joined the Open Courseware Consortium.

With 18 varsity and 7 intramural teams, the "Highlanders" compete in the Great West Conference (Division 1), the Atlantic Soccer Conference (Division 1), the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, and the Great Northeast Collegiate Hockey Conference (ACHA Division II). NJIT is a member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. It is also a sea-grant college, and a member of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

The recently resigned president, Robert A. Altenkirch, was inaugurated on May 2, 2003. He succeeded Saul K. Fenster, who was named the university’s sixth president in 1978. On January 9, 2012, NJIT Trustees named Joel Bloom president.