New Jersey Institute of Technology
NJIT's history spans the Industrial Revolution to the Information Age. Newark was a factory town when the tuition-free evening school was founded in 1881 to support local industries. The first 90 students - including machinists, draftsmen, carpenters, printers, electricians and clerks - studied algebra, geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, physics and drawing. The range of courses offered is testimony to the fact that, from the beginning, NJIT's programs have provided a broad-based foundation to prepare students for success in the workplace. From those early days, science and technology have been the engines fueling the university's development.

Over time, the university both anticipated and responded to change by expanding its curriculum and mission. Most notably, in 1919 the university established baccalaureate programs in three engineering fields. By 1975, NJIT offered a broad range of undergraduate and graduate degrees including architecture, engineering, computer science, management and other science-oriented programs. All of these programs included significant research and public service components with the goal of providing an academic environment that fostered intellectual depth and breadth, as well as social responsibility.

Today, continuing a fourfold mission of instruction, research, economic development and public service, NJIT is among the leading comprehensive technological universities in the nation. With well over 8,000 students, NJIT is the largest technological university in the New York metropolitan region. The university has state-of-the-art facilities with more than 2 million square feet located on a 45-acre campus in Newark, and a solar observatory in Big Bear, California. With robust extension and distance education programs, NJIT's degree and non-degree programs are available throughout the state and world.

NJIT Mission Statement

NJIT is a public, urban, research university committed to the pursuit of excellence in:

• Undergraduate, graduate and continuing professional education, preparing students for productive careers and amplifying their potential for lifelong personal and professional growth.

• The conduct of research in such multidisciplinary areas as environmental engineering, materials science, manufacturing, productivity enhancement, infrastructure systems, communications technologies, and an array of biorelated sciences and technologies.

• Service to both local communities and the broader society of the state and nation by conducting public policy studies, making educational opportunities widely available and initiating community-building projects.

• Contributing to the state's economic development through partnerships and joint ventures with the business community and through the development of intellectual property.

NJIT prepares its graduates for positions of leadership as professionals and as citizens; provides educational opportunities for a broadly diverse student body; responds to needs of large and small businesses, state and local governmental agencies and civic organizations; and advances the uses of technology as a means of improving the quality of life.

NJIT offers a comprehensive array of programs in engineering and engineering technology, computer science, architecture, applied sciences, mathematics, management, policy studies, and related disciplines throughout New Jersey and the nation.

NJIT's Six Colleges
NJIT's roots are in engineering education. For more than eight decades, Newark College of Engineering (NCE) has been preparing engineering students to use science, mathematics, technology and problem-solving skills to design, construct, test and maintain products, services and information systems. NCE alumni lead major corporations, hold senior public positions, own their own businesses and teach at universities.

NJIT's New Jersey School of Architecture, established in 1974, is one of the largest architecture schools in the nation and is nationally recognized for the innovative integration of computer technology into the design curriculum.

The College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA), established in 1982, is moving into the forefront of many national research activities from solar astronomy to mathematical modeling. CSLA provides students with the skill sets for the professional marketplace, including literacy in the mathematical, physical and biological sciences, as well as traditional liberal arts disciplines.

The School of Management, established in 1988, combines the best of traditional business disciplines (e.g., finance, marketing, accounting, e-commerce) with the power of information and technology management to develop professionals who can manage and communicate effectively.

The Albert Dorman Honors College, established in 1993, offers one of the nation's leading technologically oriented honors programs for students who are prepared to undertake a rigorous and individualized course of study.

The College of Computing Sciences, established in 2001, has one of the largest educational programs in the nation, with approximately 2,000 students in 13 degree programs.

A Public Research University
NJIT is designated as a "Research Intensive" University by the Carnegie Foundation and ranks among the "best national universities" by U.S. News and World Report. The university expends more than $75 million in a panoply of research and development partnerships with industry, government and other universities. NJIT researchers are making important advances in a wide range of areas, including the biosciences, manufacturing, microelectronics, multimedia, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science.

As a public research university, NJIT is educating leaders for a technology-driven economy. The university is constantly updating educational programs to emphasize marketplace skills, and redesigning its methods of delivering education. Indeed,
computing and information technology underpin every facet of the NJIT mission.

Computing-Intensive Campus
As one of America's most computing-intensive universities, NJIT is nationally recognized as a pioneer in the use of information technologies from developing complex algorithms to reducing simulation times on large-scale parallel computers, to advancing the frontiers of visualization technology in computer-aided design, to patenting optics-based sensors, to developing computer-based infrastructure management systems, to developing advanced computer-mediated communications systems.

NJIT's Information Services and Technology (IST) division provides members of the university community with universal access to a wealth of resources and services available over the NJIT network and the advantages of a highly computing-intensive environment.. EDUCAUSE recently recognized the university for streamlining student processes "with creativity, efficiency, and effectiveness worthy of emulation."

At NJIT, the latest advances in telecommunications and multimedia technologies are used to enhance the delivery of courses and the overall educational experience, allowing students to experience many aspects of a “virtual university” in a traditional campus setting.  Computers and information technology play an important role in virtually every task performed on campus, from cutting-edge research to applying for on-campus student employment.  Computers assist in teaching and independent study, campus communication, library research, engineering and architectural designs.  Students register for classes, check the status of financial aid, run degree audits, ask questions of academic advisors, and pay their bill – all online.  Students can access the tools they need to design new buildings, develop complex solutions to engineering problems or compile detailed management analyses – all by logging on to the NJIT network.  With connectivity to Internet2, students have the opportunity to work closely with faculty and researchers as new families of advanced applications are developed for an increasingly networked and information-based society.

NJIT's multi-gigabit network connects more than 6,500 nodes in classrooms, laboratories, residence halls, faculty and staff offices, the library, student organization offices and others.  The campus wireless network blankets the university's public, classroom and outdoor areas.  Both networks provide access to a wealth of shared information services.  Included among these are high-performance, multi-processor servers used for simulation and computational research; disk arrays for storage of large data sets; communication servers for computer conferencing and e-learning, and a digital library with access to over 19,000 online journals.  A virtual private network combined with Internet access extends access to network services to faculty, staff and students at home, work, any of the university's extension sites or throughout the world.

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni receive a single university computing ID (UCID) that authenticates them as members of the NJIT community and authorizes them to role-based campus services.  Highlander Pipeline, the NJIT portal, is the starting point for most online services.  Students have access to hundreds of computer workstations in public-access computer labs across the campus, supplemented by special-purpose departmental facilities.  A healthy mix of Windows, Mac, Linux, and other Unix operating environments support the diverse needs of a technological research university.  Campus-wide software licenses provide NJIT faculty and students with the latest versions of the most popular Microsoft products, as well as software tools for virus-protection, statistical analysis, mathematical programming, computer-aided design and visualization, and much more.  Advanced software libraries support the computational research needs of faculty and students in mathematics, engineering, and the sciences.

The Van Houten Library's Information Commons provides a convenient and relaxed atmosphere to check e-mail, search the Web, view digital archives of lectures, or retrieve scholarly publications from the university's digital library collections.  Over 19,000 of the library's databases and subscriptions are available on-line allowing remote access from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.  Reference librarians are available on-line and in-person to help students and researchers sort through the vast amounts of information resources available and access what they need.

The Office of Instructional Technology and Media services provides several facilities used for live and recorded broadcast of e-courses as well as satellite downlinks for a wide variety of video conferences and other educational and public service satellite broadcasts.  Several interactive television studio classrooms provide distance learning facilities.  Multi-media capability is now being deployed to all areas on campus via network based video technologies.

In addition to these extensive resources, several departments have special facilities for the support of individual academic programs, including the New Jersey School of Architecture's award winning Imaging Laboratory that provides students an opportunity to explore new media and images that alter the way buildings are visualized, interpreted and created.

NJIT is one of the founding members and administrative home to NJEDge.Net, New Jersey's higher education network.  NJEDge.Net provides collaborative resources and networked information services to its members and affiliates in support of education; research and development; outreach and public service; as well as economic development throughout the state of New Jersey.  With 53 connected institutions including all of New Jersey's research universities, NJEDge.Net leverages economies of scale and supports new and emerging technology-enabled forms of inter-institutional collaboration among members and affiliates.

Library Services
The University Library is composed of two modern library facilities in Newark and extensive online resources which may be accessed on campus or remotely at www.library.njit.edu.  The main library, the Van Houten Library, is located in the Central Avenue Building. Erected in 1992, it provides a modern facility for individual and group study, research and browsing. The Barbara and Leonard Littman Architecture Library, redesigned and relocated in 1998, is found on the fourth floor of Weston Hall, part of the Architecture and Building Sciences Complex.

The collections include more than 150,000 volumes of print and electronic books plus maps, slides, models, images, theses and dissertations, product catalogs, CDs, DVDs and an historical archive.  The Libraries have over 19,000 subscriptions to journals, databases, and other serials, almost all available online remotely.  These focus on NJIT's curriculum and research areas of architecture, engineering science, computer science and technology, management, and liberal arts.

Library staff acquire and organize books and other materials in print and electronic format and make them accessible to the NJIT community. Though the library and online collections form the backbone of research support at the university, NJIT librarians consider the world their resource and help faculty and students obtain materials from other libraries or online sources whenever necessary through the Library's Inter-Library Loan and Document Delivery services.

Through collaborative agreements, NJIT students and faculty have access and borrowing privileges, with some limitations, at several other nearby academic libraries.  These include Rutgers-Newark's Dana Library, UMDNJ's Smith Library, and Newark Public Library. Students may also borrow from the libraries of Jersey City University, Kean University, Ramapo College, Rowan University, Stockton State College, William Paterson University, College of New Jersey, and Montclair State University.  Arrangements can be made for special privileges at other institutions in the New York area, when appropriate, through an NJIT Reference Librarian.

The libraries are truly academic centers. They are popular places to study, with comfortable chairs, tables, study carrels, rooms for group study, quiet work areas, and a computer lab called the Information Commons.

The Information Commons at the Van Houten Library consists of 120 computer workstations designed to satisfy student computing and online research needs.  Both libraries are wireless to facilitate the collaboration so characteristic of the NJIT community.  The Van Houten Library's Information Commons provides a convenient and relaxed atmosphere to check e-mail, search the Web, view digital archives of lectures, or retrieve scholarly publications from the university's digital library collections. Reference librarians are available on-line and in-person to help students and researchers sort through the vast amounts of information resources available and access what they need.

A team of highly trained information and research assistants, reference and instructional librarians bridge the gaps between research resources and users.  They provide ad hoc assistance in person via the Research Helpdesk at the Van Houten Library and the service desk at the Littman Architecture Library, or by phone (973-596-3210 for Van Houten and 973-596-3083 for Littman), email, and instant messaging.  The online library is available 24/7 as is the chat help line at www.QandANJ.org, a New Jersey librarians' collaborative providing research assistance round the clock.

Reference Librarians are subject specialists and work closely with departmental faculty in all of NJIT's curriculum and research areas to ensure that the right information resources are accessible to the right people at the right time. They teach research techniques and resources in the classroom in conjunction with course content and in small groups. They are also available for individual in-depth consultation sessions. Contact information for departmental liaisons can be found on the library website.

More information about the library can be found at www.library.njit.edu or by calling (973) 596-3210.

Consortium with Rutgers-Newark and UMDNJ
NJIT, Rutgers-Newark and UMDNJ, New Jersey's university of the health sciences, offer 10 joint master's or doctoral degree programs, placing them as leaders in development of programs to prepare individuals for a world increasingly multidisciplinary and technological in nature.

The three institutions are partners in University Heights Science Park, designed as a mixed-use, multi-sponsor science and technology park. University Heights Science Park is a partnership among academia, the community, private industry, and local, state and federal governments, which provide opportunities to transfer university-based research and technology to public uses. The 50-acre University Heights Science Park is adjacent to the NJIT campus. Each year, thousands of students from NJIT, Rutgers-Newark and UMDNJ take courses at the institutions. NJIT and Rutgers-Newark cosponsor common seasons of theatrical productions, as well as "World Week," and a variety of other cultural and social activities.

NJIT Campus
Located in the University Heights section of Newark, NJIT's 45-acre campus is adjacent to the campuses of Rutgers-Newark and Essex County College and a short distance from UMDNJ. The campus is reached easily via interstate highways and public transportation. New Jersey Transit's City Subway stops on campus, the Pennsylvania Railroad Station is 5 minutes from campus and Newark International Airport is within 5 miles of NJIT.

The expansion and improvement of NJIT's campus facilities have been vigorous, proceeding pursuant to a carefully drawn long-range plan, providing an environment conducive to accomplishment of the university's mission. A new student center is under construction.

NJIT's campus is home to some 20 R&D centers supported with industry, state, federal, foundation and university funding. NJIT's three-story Otto H. York Center for Environmental Engineering and Science houses a number of state and federally funded research centers.

The 187,000-square-foot William S. Guttenberg Information Technologies Center houses the Center for Manufacturing Systems and the Multi-lifecycle Engineering Research Center. The building is the site of the College of Computing Sciences and industrial and manufacturing engineering instruction and research facilities.

The Campus Center houses the food court, dining room and a more informal eating facility, The Highlander Cafe. In addition, there is a campus theater in which student productions are staged, an athletic field, tennis courts, and indoor recreational facilities, including a swimming pool, racquetball courts, weight rooms, track, aerobics room and more. The residence halls provide dormitory and apartment-style coed living.