NJIT Design Professor Honored with Distinguished Educator Award
Glenn Goldman, director emeritus and professor of architecture and design at NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design, earned the prestigious 2025 ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Educator Award, recognizing his outstanding contributions to teaching computer graphics and interactive techniques. Goldman was also inducted into the SIGGRAPH Academy.
“This is an extraordinary honor. I like to judge awards by the organization giving or sponsoring them, and by who has received the award in the past. SIGGRAPH, the largest special interest group of the Association of Computing Machinery, is the premier international organization dealing with computer graphics and interactive techniques,” said Goldman. “Previous recipients of this award include some of the most important and influential educators and researchers in the field like Andries van Dam from Brown University and Don Greenberg from Cornell.
“Receiving this means that NJIT has been a hospitable environment for both computer graphics and pedagogical innovation – at least for me – for more than four decades. It speaks to the legacy of our use of information technology in the processes and products of architecture and design and reaffirms our position as an early leader that supported innovation.”
Pioneer in digital design education
Goldman’s accolades stem from more than forty years of integrating cutting-edge digital tools into architectural pedagogy. As one of the earliest advocates for computer graphics in the field, he, along with professor Steve Zdepski of the School of Architecture, spearheaded the development of electronic design studios that utilized personalized computers and custom software long before such technologies became mainstream.
His digital-first approach has transformed traditional analog workflows, pushing students to explore 3D modeling, visualization, VR and AI. He also authored “Architectural Graphics: Traditional and Digital Communication,” a forerunner in bridging manual and digital architectural communication, and penned more than 50 articles on the subject.
“When one stands back and looks at where we’ve been, we see big changes. But when we are in the midst of things, and doing the work, it sometimes seems very incremental,” he said. “Students can do so much more in much less time than they have ever been able to before. But it’s important to recognize that industry and academic demands increase along with the capabilities. With enough power and the right equipment, we can do a lot in real time now compared to even 15 years ago when we started the School of Art + Design (A+D).
“And it’s almost incomprehensible to see the changes that have happened in the more than 40 years since we integrated digital media into architectural design at NJIT when we could wait up to five hours just for a hidden line drawing of a 3D model. It’s much easier to keep up rather than catch up.”
He noted that as technology improves, professors have to make changes right along with it. He likes to remember the NJIT provost when he first started, Dr. Gary Thomas, and how he was fond of saying that they must teach students with the kind of technology and capabilities they will have four years from now when they enter industry. It does them little good to just be current because that will be obsolete by the time they graduate. He convinced him to always advocate for the need to use cutting edge technology and to push that technology to its limits in the classroom. Furthermore, this technology is a great social leveler because it doesn’t care what the students’ background is. It’s all about what they do.
“But at the same time, it has never been more important for students to learn basic principles of whatever they are learning because human/designer judgment has never been more critical,” he said.
Goldman’s impact reaches far beyond the classroom. In 2007, he founded NJIT’s School of Art + Design and launched its NASAD-accredited digital design degree, heavily influenced by SIGGRAPH methodologies and focused on cross-disciplinary collaboration. His vision continues to shape future-ready designers and architects versed in digital arts, VR and immersive media.
At SIGGRAPH, his leadership has spanned from serving as education liaison (SIGGRAPH 2013), courses chair (2015) at annual conferences, to chairing the year-round international Education Committee since 2021, and convening thought forums on bridging academia and industry.
Mentoring tomorrow’s innovators
Beyond institutional leadership, Goldman is celebrated for nurturing generations of students — many of whom now hold or have held positions at NASA, Disney, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Autodesk and many design firms, or have taught at Harvard, Pratt, Temple, Clemson and RISD.
“The School of Art + Design is an incredible place to learn, to grow, to study, and to work. There is a combination of theory and professional practice. The students are bright, imaginative, ambitious, and hard-working. It’s a joy to work with them,” said Goldman. “The talented faculty are engaged in research as well as scholarly and creative activities. But they never lose sight of the fact that we are a school, a community where people come to learn. I believe that it is important for faculty and administration to remain flexible and to support innovation, without ever compromising the quality of what we do.
They represent a community that must be willing to try new things and change course if an opportunity presents itself. And since the fields do change rapidly, it means that there will have to be continued and sustained investment in technology which provides the members of the academic family with increased opportunities. Goldman noted that much of this investment should be at the “local” level where it can have direct and positive impacts by providing the resources and physical and cultural environments that allow creative and dedicated individuals – faculty and students – the chance to experiment as they develop new and better ways of doing things.
His approach emphasizes empowering underserved and first-generation students, ensuring new technology fosters equity and opportunity.