%1

A green space is growing on the roof of the Campus Center at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

It’s a community garden with five plots, each tended by students, staffers or professors with ample light and water. The output will be vegetables and herbs, with a portion donated to NJIT’s food pantry. The project has a broader purpose as well.

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has climbed to No. 80 — its highest-ever placement — in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report Best National Universities rankings, continuing its steady ascent among the nation’s leading institutions.

The new placement marks a four-spot rise from last year and a 23-place improvement over the past five years, underscoring NJIT’s growing national reputation for academic excellence, innovation, student success and affordability.

Vibha Venkataraman ’26 (Data Science) and Tina Thai ’26 (Computer Science), two students in NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC) and both Albert Dorman Honors College scholars, will have added their respective first and second place wins during this year’s Bank of America (BOA) Codeathon to an already impressive list of achievements when they graduate in May.

Some might be surprised to learn that a startup company digitizes scents, but making scents made sense to Sriya Chinthalapudi, who in high school became enthralled by a TED talk about detecting diseases from a person’s odor and spent many hours learning more on her own.

She shared that memory in spring 2024 while interviewing for a summer internship at Google-funded Osmo Labs, ahead of her senior year as a computer science major at New Jersey Institute of Technology. After graduating in May 2025, she became a full-time software engineer there.

When the FIFA World Cup kicks off next summer, all eyes will be on the 16 host cities across North America — especially East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the tournament’s final will be played at the 80,000-seat MetLife Stadium. But for Tatiana Florexil ’25, a recent graduate from New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD), the true potential of the World Cup lies beyond the stadium walls. It lives in the streets, parks and plazas of local communities.

Most people finish college and then look for full-time employment or enroll in graduate school, but Don Bonifacio did both and is constantly challenging himself to learn new things.

Bonifacio graduated in May from New Jersey Institute of Technology with a B.S. in computer engineering and was a member of Albert Dorman Honors College. He now works at Verizon planning behind-the-scenes engineering for their fiber optic network and is simultaneously continuing in the NJIT computer engineering department this fall for a master’s degree in his field.

A cornerstone of NJIT’s annual Homecoming Weekend, the Alumni Achievement Awards recognize alumni whose professional and personal achievements stand as a testament to the values instilled at the university. These awards honor individuals for their exceptional accomplishments in fields ranging from technology and finance to community service and entrepreneurship — contributions that bring distinction to NJIT while advancing society in meaningful ways.

The Princeton Review continues to recognize New Jersey Institute of Technology as one of the best universities in the U.S.

NJIT is featured in this year’s edition of the educational services company’s guide, The Best 391 Colleges. Just 15% of all four-year colleges and universities made the guide, which NJIT has been in since its inception in 1992. The selections are listed alphabetically.

At New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the path to STEM achievement often begins long before college. Through its nationally recognized Center for Pre-College Programs (CPCP), the university engages students in grades 4–12 each year — many from Newark and other historically underserved communities — with academic enrichment designed to spark discovery, cultivate leadership and build confidence in the next generation of scientists, engineers, designers and innovators.

Three Highlanders were recognized for their entrepreneurial achievements and significant contributions to New Jersey’s economy at the 12th annual New Jersey Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards. Among the distinguished honorees were alumnus and trustee Dhiraj Shah '99, Foundation Board of Directors member Arthur Kapoor and Professor Suresh Kumar.