December 8, 1998

MINORITY STUDENTS RECEIVED HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CAREERS AT NJIT

NEWARK - Some 350 minority high school students from Newark, Irvington and East Orange traveled to New Jersey Institute of Technology on Thursday, Dec. 10, and received a first hand look at state-of-the-art technology and what it can mean for their careers.

The conference, sponsored by the University's Education Opportunity Program (EOP) and the Consortium for Pre-College Education in Greater Newark, strives to increase the number of minority students who seek careers in Engineering and other technological fields by offering them a "hands-on" experience of technology in a university setting.

Called "Future Tech," the program features a variety of workshops on cutting edge engineering applications - in architectural design, computing technology, environmental technology, mechanical engineering, and physics.

University faculty lead presentations on such topics as robotics, lasers and hazardous chemicals. Dr. John Droughton of the Mechanical Engineering Department offered an exciting demonstration on wind tunnels.

Keynote speaker for the event was Antionette Torres, Vice President of Academic Affairs for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME). Under Torres' leadership, NACME's Engineering Vanguard Program has become a national model for the use of problem-based assessments of mathematics potential in high school students.