The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,100 students in 92 degree programs. NJIT has built its research program around multi-disciplinary centers that encourage partnerships among various disciplines, as well as with other educational institutions, private enterprise and government agencies. NJIT hosts a number of publicly and privately funded research initiatives and is able to focus its resources on the most promising of emerging technologies including: telecommunications, simulation and modeling, software development, biomedical engineering, multi-lifecycle engineering, sustainable green manufacturing, nanotechnology, infrastructure, transportation, and materials science and engineering.

One of the most computing-intensive campuses in America, NJIT contributes significantly to New Jersey’s economy and economic development. NJIT’s students perform 10,000 hours of community service annually, and the university serves more than 4,500 elementary and secondary school students and teachers annually through an array of pre-college programs.

NJIT owes its origins to a predecessor institution, Newark Technical School, founded in 1881. Today, the university has six schools:

• Newark College of Engineering (founded in 1919)
• New Jersey School of Architecture (1973)
• College of Science and Liberal Arts (1982)
• School of Management (1988)
• Albert Dorman Honors College (1993)
• College of Computing Sciences (2001)

From the outset of its history, NJIT has provided government, industry, and the larger community with a technologically educated workforce. Today’s emphasis on graduate studies and research builds upon the fine undergraduate programs that have distinguished the institution since its earliest days. Currently, about one third of NJIT's students are enrolled in master's and doctoral programs.

The strong applications orientation of the university’s research program has allowed NJIT to respond to state, federal, and industrial initiatives, to help address pressing public policy issues, and stimulate economic growth.

NJIT was one of four national universities designated under the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in 1991, which Congress reauthorized, in 1998, as the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Evolving from the strategic planning process of the U.S. Department of Transportation's University Transportation Centers Program, NJIT’s National Center for Transportation and Industrial Productivity (NCTIP) was established to scientifically determine means to increase efficiency and productivity of private or public sector entities and industries through transportation improvements. This is accomplished by undertaking high quality, multi-disciplinary, innovative education and research activities that can withstand rigorous peer review in the areas of freight and passenger movement efficiency, and facility, institutional, and regulatory transportation efficiency.

NCTIP undertakes educational, research and technology transfer activities to achieve its objectives. The Center's flagship program, the Interdisciplinary Program in Transportation, leads toward designated M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Transportation. The program is probably one of the few true interdisciplinary programs in the country involving faculty and students from departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Computer Science, School of Management, and School of Architecture.It is designed to meet the needs of students with engineering and science backgrounds who desire to study planning, design and operation of highway and public transit systems. The degree program has three areas of specialization: Transportation Engineering; Transportation Planning; and Advanced Transportation Systems and Technology.

NCTIP research efforts focus on:

• Freight Movement Efficiency – The movement of goods over complex networks of shippers, terminal facilities, carriers, distributors, and receivers. Increasingly intermodal, the optimized flow and management of information used for tracking and operations are critical.
• Passenger Movement Efficiency – Focusing on operations planning solutions for transit properties designed to stimulate productivity growth through improvements such as unimpeded access to jobs and services. Much of NCTIP's public transportation research is conducted in this area.
• Facility, Institutional, and Regulatory Efficiency – The physical and regulatory environments in which vehicles function. Although these may affect more than one mode of transportation, there are cases, such as rail transit and freight railroads, that have dedicated rights of way or specialized regulations and institutional arrangements under which they operate. Problems that affect productivity in such cases are also addressed within this area.

NCTIP endeavors to share information with potential users in forms that can be directly implemented, utilized, or applied. In addition to the dissemination of research results and conference presentations to the public, NCTIP sponsors a seminars series on topics of current interest to students and other transportation professionals, convenes periodic conferences on significant transportation issues, publishes a semi-annual newsletter and co-publishes InTransition, a publication issued semi-annually by NCTIP and the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. While NCTIP will no longer continue to receive federal transportation money through the U.S. Department of Transportation's University Transportation Centers Program, the Center continues to carry out its technology transfer and transportation research activities through other public and privately funded research initiatives.

In 2000, Commissioner James Weinstein of the New Jersey Department of Transportation designated NJIT as theInternational Intermodal Transportation Center (IITC), a university-based resource program that works closely with public and private sector transportation stakeholders to facilitate economic development and quality of life improvement efforts linked to the intermodal transportation corridor.

One of IITC's primary goals is to identify common and complementary needs within the region, ensuring that a cooperative agenda can be created to further economic growth from the powerful global trade assets shared by the region. Consequently, one of the early projects of the Center was the establishment of a forum to facilitate expanded communication and collaboration among all the transportation stakeholders in the Corridor. High on the list of priorities for the IITC is support for Portway – a critical State program to strengthen and improve the immediate access corridor between the Newark-Elizabeth Seaport/Airport complex, nearby rail and trucking warehousing terminals, and the interstate and international surface distribution network.

IITC also addresses broader issues such as freight transportation, brownfields, and passenger transportation. In addition, the Center identifies public and private sector investments made in the corridor communities to support mobility and advance intermodal related economic development.

Recognizing the critical relationship between transportation investments and economic development, the U.S. Department of Transportation has selected the New Jersey Institute of Technology and NCTIP to develop a fully integrated information management system and decision support system to help transportation planning agencies prepare and carry out their transportation planning programs. The Transportation Economic and Land Use System (TELUS) is specifically developed to manage project data, including project description, type of project, phase of work, project cost, location of the project, and lead agency/contact information. Continuation of this program has been recently reauthorized by the Congress under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Act: A Legacy for User (SAFETEA-LU).