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Just two months after earning a bachelor’s at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Lorraine Nunes '20 landed her first big job, as a software architect analyst at Accenture. 

As companies increasingly seek outside help to understand and implement emerging technologies such as data science and artificial intelligence, Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC) is playing an increasingly broader role in helping companies achieve this goal.

YWCC does this through its Industrial Affiliates Program (IAP), a platform to nurture corporate partnerships, providing opportunities for companies, students and faculty in employment, training and joint research and development.

NJIT alumna Dayrene Martinez, who earned her electrical engineering degree in 2018, recently published a textbook of Python computer programming after mastering the language as a systems engineer for defense contractor Raytheon.

NJIT students have broken three university records so far this year in pursuit of Fulbright scholarships, submitting a historic high of 11 applications, followed by another milestone achievement – the elevation of six to the semifinal round, including a first-ever candidate for study in the U.K., one of the most competitive countries.

Last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic began its inexorable march across the country, NJIT, along with higher education institutions nationwide, faced an unprecedented challenge: how to best move to fully remote instruction, both quickly and safely. Immediately, the university drew upon its technological resources and know-how to provide a virtual learning experience for its more than 11,000 students while completing the spring 2020 semester as scheduled.

Priscilla Maryanski, a first-year computer science major from Jersey City, was always told that learning by doing was the only way to succeed at college — but at NJIT she discovered a different approach of learning by doing good deeds.

Since April 2020, Maryanski has been a volunteer at Erevna, a multinational, student-led organization founded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that focuses on community service.

Nearly 100 employers and more than 1,000 students are expected to participate in this month’s NJIT career fair, which remains online via the Handshake networking platform.

Among the employers offering internships, co-operative educational opportunities and jobs at the Feb. 19 fair are Bristol Myers Squibb; General Dynamics, Gladstone Design; Johnson & Johnson; Tata Consultancy Services; Colgate-Palmolive; the Metropolitan Transit Authority; Mott MacDonald; the Naval Air Systems Command; Perkins Eastman; the New York State Department of Transportation and Bowman Consulting.

Students who study computing teamed with those in digital design from Jan. 29-31 at Global Game Jam, a hackathon for video game development, which was virtual this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

About three dozen entrants spanning five teams completed the challenge to finish a game in 48 hours, with some teams also including alumni and students from other universities, said Julian Quinn, the lead event organizer, who is a junior information technology major in Ying Wu College of Computing.

Artificial intelligence software used in everything from cancer research to vehicle navigation sometimes relies on unreliable data-sorting algorithms that can lead to serious real-world problems, but an NJIT expert is working on new ways to identify the causes and find possible solutions.

When companies want to address important challenges and opportunities that would benefit from computing expertise, they look to the Industrial Affiliate Program (IAP) at the NJIT Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC).