NJIT@JerseyCity Officially Launched with Expectation of Rapid Growth

Written by: Evan Koblentz
Published: Friday, December 6, 2019

NJIT welcomed 35 data science students to its newly opened NJIT@JerseyCity location this semester, with a goal of doubling that number in the spring and reaching 500 students in three years, Ying Wu College of Computing Dean Craig Gotsman said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony held December 5 at the new location.

Gotsman said the current students are primarily working professionals in the finance and tech industries from companies located in Jersey City and also in New York City. Hudson County quickly became a technology hub following the Sept. 11 attacks and was bolstered again after Hurricane Sandy.

Currently NJIT@JerseyCity offers a master’s degree in data science as well as graduate certificates in big data and data mining, with plans to add a graduate certificate in data visualization in spring 2020. Non-credit data science accelerator programs are also expected to be offered in the spring. All current students are studying part-time, but Gotsman envisions the location will soon have options for full-time students.

Future plans also include graduate programs in cybersecurity. 

NJIT@JerseyCity is located at 101 Hudson Street, just steps from the Exchange Place PATH station. Gotsman said 80,000 commuters use the PATH daily, so there is plenty of potential for growth.

"I can almost promise that this site will bloom, it will flourish and it would grow exponentially," he said. "We're absolutely at the right place at the right time."

"You can't talk about computer science today and not realize how rapidly it is moving," President Joel Bloom added. "Campuses are going to continue to change and decentralize."

Board of Trustees member Jordan Hu '89 said the rapid changes echo what he witnessed as a computing professional working on Wall Street in the 1990s. At that time, merely knowing how to spell Unix would guarantee you a job, he joked, but today the key skill is understanding data science. Hu is now CEO of RiskVal Financial Solutions in New York City.

For more information on all NJIT @JerseyCity programs, please visit jerseycity.njit.edu.