NJIT President Captures Award for Economic Development; Infrastructure Improvement

The New Jersey Alliance for Action recently held its 44th annual Eagle Awards Celebration, which recognizes individuals and firms for their dedication and contribution towards improving the State of New Jersey’s economy.  Held at the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, six awards were handed out to representatives from business, education, engineering and government.

Representing NJIT, President Joel S. Bloom accepted the Richard M. Hale Chairman’s Award. Since being named President in 2011, Bloom has led the school’s effort to build a million square feet of new teaching and research facilities, hire 130 new faculty, nearly double research expenditures and create the New Jersey Innovation Institute. Under his leadership, NJIT has repeatedly been recognized by PayScale.com as being among the top 2% of universities in the nation for return on investment and is currently ranked as both a top-50 national public university by U.S. News and World Report and #1 in the nation for the upward economic mobility of its students from the lowest income brackets, according to Forbes and the Equal Opportunity Project.

Bloom touted NJIT’s vast improvements in both the physical and academic space, including the creation of a new School of Applied Engineering and Technology.

“The key is ‘applied,’” said Dr. Bloom. “It’s going to integrate apprenticeships into the education. We are adding new disciplines and new majors...and continue to grow the enrollment to create the workforce for the state of New Jersey.”

NJIT’s local, national and global impacts are being recognized. This past summer Newark and NJIT hosted the first ever summit on voice technology, which was sponsored by Amazon Alexa. In large part, the summit was awarded to Newark over Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York because of NJIT’s newly built Wellness and Events Center, a $110 million 220,000-square-foot mixed use facility.

“If there ever was a time to be a science and technology university, now is it. It’s a joy to be at this university, leading it at this time and making that contribution to the state, the nation and beyond,” said Bloom.