Although quiet this year due to the pandemic, summer has traditionally been a busy time at NJIT. In this first of a six-part series, we look back at some of the many happenings over the past three summers that bolstered and brightened the university. Click on the headlines below.

NJII Opens Agile Strategy Lab in Renovated Central King Building 

Volunteerism continues to be part of the foundation of NJIT. In 2019 alone, the university’s students contributed more than 67,000 hours of community service and gave their time to over 300 community-based organizations.

On Monday, March 16, 2020, NJIT will make science competitive yet fun when it hosts the Technology Student Association’s Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science (TSA-TEAMS). The annual, statewide STEM competition for middle and high school students is designed to help them discover their potential for engineering in an engaging way, by showing them how math and science, with an engineering focus, are used to make tangible differences in the world.

They came, they competed and, at day’s end, they convened, to learn the results of the 2020 New Jersey Science Olympiad, hosted on campus Jan. 6 by NJIT for the 14th consecutive year. Hundreds of students making up 43 teams from high schools and middle schools from throughout the Garden State put their knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to the test in 19 hands-on activities.

Since 1924, Victoria Foundation has awarded more than $300 million in grants to benefit Newark. One of the country’s oldest private foundations, Victoria dedicates itself to improving the lives of children and families in Newark, and protecting water resources and preserving open spaces throughout the Garden State.

For the 14th year in a row, NJIT will host the New Jersey Science Olympiad (NJSO). The university expects upward of 700 middle and high school students on campus Jan. 6, 2020, (snow date Jan. 13) for the event, which is part of a national science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) competition. Participants must possess both strong academic achievements and a great interest in the STEM fields.

NJIT’s Center for Pre-College Programs will hold another STEM Family Workshop Series this February. The “hands-on, minds-on” classes are designed for 8- to 13-year-olds and their families, and will be led by university professors, students and staff on three consecutive Saturday mornings from 8:30 a.m. to noon on the NJIT campus.

The series will feature:

- “Code Saves the World,”  Feb. 1, Location: Guttenberg Information Technologies Center, Room 2302

Howard Kimmel, professor emeritus in chemical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). He is one of 15 awardees nationwide and the only recipient in New Jersey this year.

NJIT is one of six higher education partners in New Jersey awarded federal funding over the next seven years, from the U.S. Department of Education, for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). Here in Newark, the university’s Center for Pre-College Programs (CPCP) administers GEAR UP, which provides academic enrichment opportunities to economically disadvantaged middle and high school students with the aim to improve their college attendance and success.

It was an intense seven-week program of math enrichment in algebra, pre-calculus and calculus, coupled with college and SAT prep, and on-campus recreation. When it concluded Aug. 9 at a ceremony in the Campus Center Atrium, the 35 rising 12th-graders who participated in the inaugural NJIT/Newark Math Success Initiative (MSI) looked back on their accomplishments with pride and happily accepted their certificates of achievement.