YWCC Dean Announcement
Dear Highlanders,
It is my great pleasure to announce that Dr. Jamie Payton will join NJIT as the next dean of the Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC) on July 1, 2024. Dr. Payton, who currently serves as chair of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Temple University, emerged from a talented pool of applicants following a national search.
YWCC is presently the largest college at NJIT and is a key element of NJIT's drive to become a nexus of innovation under its new strategic plan. Its three departments, Computer Science, Data Science, and Informatics, prepare students to enter burgeoning fields that also are research priorities of NJIT, such as software engineering, cybersecurity, information technology and artificial intelligence.
As dean, Dr. Payton will be charged with supporting NJIT's 2030 strategic plan by driving enrollment growth; deepening research and curricular partnerships with NJIT’s other colleges; further diversifying the student body, faculty and staff; and managing relationships with alumni, donors and corporations.
As a chair at Temple, Dr. Payton launched new degree programs and became a national leader in initiatives that aim to introduce underrepresented students to computing and STEM, including providing K-12 and college students with learning opportunities around AI. To that end, she serves as the principal investigator and director of the STARS Computing Corps Alliance for Broadening Participation in Computing, which has been supported by more than $10 million from the National Science Foundation, and as co-principal investigator and director of broadening participation of the INVITE AI Institute, whose research is backed by a $19.5 million grant from the NSF.
Earlier in her career, Payton was a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The research projects for which she has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator have been supported collectively by more than $40 million in external funding.
Dean Payton will help create and advance a renewed, forward-looking vision for YWCC. This vision will build upon our new strategic plan, the college’s strengths and its commitments to student success, impactful research and innovation. Please join me in welcoming her to NJIT and supporting her important work in this critical role.
Sincerely,
Teik C. Lim
President
John A. Pelesko
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
