NJIT, Ben-Gurion University Unveil Home of Institute for Future Technologies
New Jersey Institute of Technology and Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev officially opened a research center, the Institute for Future Technologies, located in the NJIT @JerseyCity satellite location.
Although the Institute and research there began last year, the opening ceremony only happened now due to pandemic-related delays.
NJIT President Teik C. Lim said the Institute epitomizes our university's progress, which must continue. Looking to the future, "[Former NJIT President Joel S. Bloom] and I recognized that what got us here, wouldn't get us there," Lim said. "I was drawn to NJIT by the amazing upward trajectory of this institution."
Lim observed that while in academia, "We move at a geological time scale, but once in a while you get a quantum leap," which happened in 2020-2021 as the pandemic forced students, faculty and staff to suddenly master the art of digital education.
"So this Institute for Future Technologies was created at the right time and in the right place," Lim added. "If we do this right, it will open the whole world wide to NJIT."
Yet with plans spanning study space for exchange students, joint graduate degrees, ideation-stage startups and even combined faculty appointments in fields such as artificial intelligence, civil engineering and cybersecurity, it is difficult to predict how the Institute might evolve. Ben-Gurion President Daniel Chamovitz said that's okay.
"It doesn't matter if we don't know what the endpoint is. It matters that we're willing to make that first step," Chamovitz told the audience on the 36th floor of Jersey City's 101 Hudson Street building. He noted that their university's namesake was David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of the State of Israel, who knew during their nation's founding that the future could go in any direction.
NJIT's Baruch Schieber, professor of computer science and director of the nascent Institute, agreed that their plans are unconventional but said they're already productive. There are faculty on both sides who are working together and would not have met if not for the partnership, he said. One measure of the Institute's success will be funding from the National Science Foundation and from the joint U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation.
