College of Computing Sciences STEP Program The Survivors Course A real world team-based problem solving experience! Prepared by

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College of Computing
SciencesSTEP Program The Survivors CourseA
real world team-based problem solving experience!
Prepared by  Osama Eljabiri Director of
Senior Project Capstone Courses Presented to
Introduction Class Session (Spring 2006)
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Electing our Class Secretary

• Nominees
• Introductions
• Voting time

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Introducing Class Talents

• Full Name
• High School
• Academic Interests
• How did you end up in this course?
• What do you expect from this course?
• More about you personally (optional)

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Introductory Clip

• One success story in a minute

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(No Transcript)
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Your Course

• This course introduces strategies, principles,
  techniques, and skills essential in solving real
  world problems using computer technology.
• In this course, technology is viewed as a handy
  tool (black box) that can be utilized by anyone
  regardless of their technical background.
• Students will have weekly hands-on training in
  project management, software economics, customer
  requirements investigation, object-oriented
  design, CASE tools, plug and play programming,
  web development and more.
• Students will create a virtual collaborative
  learning organization with one mission forming
  small rescue teams to solve real world problems,
  compete, and survive obstacles along the way.

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Your Course - Continued

• Teams will be presented with mock-up and real
  world scenarios in which they will participate in
  a semester-long competition. High-scoring
  survivors will be rewarded by the end of the
  semester.
• Scenarios are drawn from a broad array of
  business, health, communications, sports, and
  entertainment arenas. A broad array of games,
  group-based competitions, movies, visits from
  industrial and academic experts, and hands-on
  training are used to engage students in a live,
  vivid, interactive and dynamic learning
  experience.
• The ultimate goal is for each participant to
  develop a portfolio of interdisciplinary skills
  that would help him or her become a true problem
  solver in real world projects.
• A strong desire to learn, collaborate, overcome
  challenges is expected.

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Background

• In 2002 the College of Computing Sciences at NJIT
  introduced a completely new designed senior
  project Capstone course, utilizing projects from
  industry, faculty and students as the basis for
  team-oriented projects.
• In these projects, student teams analyze,
  diagnose and model system requirements to produce
  well-engineered and well-documented software
  products.
• The regular 491 or 492 course is offered as a
  one semester and may be extended to two-semester
  program during the Fall, Spring and Summer
  semesters.
• This course is intended to provide senior
  Computer Science, Information systems and
  information technology majors real world
  experience in software engineering and
  interdisciplinary problem solving prior to
  graduation.
• This course is team-based in which project
  mangers and team members are carefully and
  collaboratively selected to suit the task at
  hand.
• Course director/instructor solicit a revised
  selection of industry and real world projects
  from a broad array of sponsors. 

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Your Schedule

• Class meetings every week except for the Spring
  break (as scheduled).
• (training and presentations)
• Teams to present after each two-week Sprint
• (5 sprints including the final presentation)
• Review Master Calendar in excel format at our
  course homepage at
• www.eljabiri.com
• Our online calendar is available at
• http//calendar.yahoo.com/eljabiri2

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Date Topic / Objective
1/28/2006 Introduction to course (roadmap and interactive party)
2/4/2006 Effective techniques to manage your project and study its feasibility? Teams Formations
2/11/2006 Methods to capture stakeholders requirements?
2/18/2006 Present your team progress (1) ( Competition Panel)
2/25/2006 Strategies to design and visualize your solution
3/4/2006 Present your team progress (2) ( Competition Panel)
3/25/2006 Presentation Skills
4/1/2006 Present your team progress (3) ( Competition Panel)
4/8/2006 Plug and Play technology deployment (CASE tools/Object Oriented development / RAD tools) Part 1
4/15/2006 Present your team progress (4) ( Competition Panel)
4/22/2006 Plug and Play technology deployment (CASE tools/Object Oriented development / RAD tools)- Part 2
4/29/2006 Final Presentations (5) Celebration Party (Appreciation certificates Rewards) ( Competition Panel)
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Your Resources

• Course Information
• www.eljabiri.com
• Course Communication and Evaluation
• http//webboard.njit.edu
• FAQs
• http//www.eljabiri.com/id32.html
• Samples and Examples
• http//www.eljabiri.com/id24.html
• Software Engineering Lectures
• http//www.cis.njit.edu/osama/generallecture_note
  s.htm

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Your Textbook

• None and Every thing
• No special book is required to buy
• Use all previous books from other courses
  relevant to the task at hand
• For the software engineering process, recommended
  references are
• Modern Systems Analysis and Design by Jeffrey A.
  Hoffer, Joey F. George and Joseph S. Valacich,
  Third edition, Addison Wesley (ISBN
  0-13-033990-3).
• More good books and references in software
  engineering can be found at the following URL
• http//www.cs.colorado.edu/tomg/seyp/books/
  index.html

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Course Tools

• Microsoft Project
• Microsoft Visio
• SPSS (for research track)
• PhP/Mysql
• ASP.NET
• Camtesia (for presentations)

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Course Events

• Five Teams Presentations (including final
  presentation with a panel of judges)
• Jan 30th OWASP
• JJ Tours
• NJIT Open House
• CCS Career Day
• Capstone Showcase Thursday April 27th

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Course Additional Training

• Project Managers Workshop (Optional- Feb 1st 4-6
  PM)
• Jan 30th Open University Opening (including a
  mini career fair)
• JJ Tours
• Open University Every Wednesday from 4-6PM
  starting from Feb 8th (First Three meetings
  Php/MySQL covered in three sessions)
• Hands-On training in our laps (TBA)

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Your Evaluation

• Teams will compete for 1000 points.
• Progress reports by project managers (100
  points).
• Introduce yourself assignment (on-time) (30
  points)
• Capstone Showcase (100 extra credit points)
• Sponsor evaluation form (200 points)
• Class attendance Total 200 points but
  deductions may exceed 100 if very poor attendance
  occurred.
• INCLUDING (-20 POINTS for every class you
  missed without a documented permission, -50
  points for missing last class)
• Class participation (100 points)
• All thee presentations/deliverables (including
  100 points for Final presentation) (370 points)
• Sponsor evaluation form , final
  deliverables/presentations , final progress
  reports and attendance are CRUCIAL VARIABLES that
  can give extra push UP/DOWN.

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The Winners (Survivors)

• Certificates signed by both the college and the
  industry for the surviving teams (75 and above)
• Recommendation letters to outstanding individuals
• Gifts (TBA)

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Course Rules and Policies

• Only project managers can reserve a project. They
  have
• Deductions start to apply after missing deadlines
• Attendance is expected in all classes. You are
  responsible for signing the attendance sheet
  every time.
• Attendance is expected for the entire class.
• Listening in class is required for any team,
  guest, student or instructor.
• You are responsible for all the information and
  instructions posted on our class website.

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Your Instructor

• Biographical Sketch
• Publications

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How to contact me?

• Osama Eljabiri
• Lecturer and Director of Capstone Courses
• Room 2315 A - GITC Building 
• College of Computing Sciences _at_ NJIT
• University Heights - Newark , NJ 07102
• Tel  [phone]
• Cell [phone]
• Email     oe2_at_njit.edu
• URL       http//www.eljabiri.com
• Calendar http//calendar.yahoo.com/eljabiri2
• Instant Messenger eljabiri2 (Yahoo)

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Office Hours

• Normal Office Hours (unless otherwise updated
  below ) 
• Spring  2006 Regular Office Hours Thursdays 330
  -530 PM
• Class-based extended help hours 15 Minutes
  before most classes and up to one hour after most
  night classes (when available).
• Walk-ins are welcome any time based on
  availability.
• Online and in-class help hours are always
  available
• Online office hours Online assistance and
  orientation are available via email, webct,
  chatting, etc. (whenever possible)

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Course Procedures

• This semester teams are 4-5 people each
• What projects are available?
• How to reserve a project?
• How to be a PM?
• How to form a team?
• How to join a team?
• How to declare a team?
• What to submit? What to present?
• When to submit? When to present?

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We are looking for good PMs?

• Deadline is this Friday
• Interviews are Thursday 330-530 and Friday
  2-5PM (please confirm if you have applied).
• We need (6-7) in 002, (8-10) in 102 and (7-8) in
  104.
• It is an extra responsibility but also an extra
  reward
• You need to apply online
• You need to be a leader not only an administrator
• Background, knowledge and experience are very
  helpful but dedication is more important.
• You need to respect and help your team members
• You need to be an excellent communicator
• You need to respect your project stakeholders and
  work closely and intensively with them
• You need to communicate with your instructor
  frequently
• You need to read instructions carefully and apply
  them precisely
• You need to be a role model in your team, the
  first who attend and the last who leaves!
• You need to manage risk, change and be patient
• You need to be available
• PM workshop On Feb 1st 4-6PM in GITC 1100

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Sample Projects

• From the Spring 2006
• Senior Project Capstone Course

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NO Sponsor Contact Name Project Title
1 Department of Army (3 Projects) C4ISR - SEC ITED Dominic Motolla Suspense Tracking System Software Quality Assurance Tool Assessment Software Quality Assessment Video Presentation
2 Edentify, Inc. (Project 1) Terrence Defranco Advanced Reporting Module
3 Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater, Inc. Edward Dlugosz Electronic Traveling Environmental Festival (eTEF)
4 Morphos Financial LLC (Project 1) Enrique Nunez Test Environment Infrastructure
5 Career Development Services _at_NJIT Greg Mass Online Career Development System
6 Johnson and Johnson Ketul Patel Global Supply Chain Management System
7 IMS Health Gail Pecota Data Variation Tag Database
8 Homeland Security Technology Center _at_ NJIT Bill Marshall Emergency Preparedness System
9 Orthotic Enterprises, LLC. Frank Ferrari Reinventing Orthotics
10 Rational Solutions Corp (R.I.M.S) Milind Shah Brand Recognition Solution
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Our Selected Projects for Spring 2006?
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Why our project courses?

• Students experience with traditional courses
• Boring classes
• Lack of engagement
• Lack of motivation
• Lack of variety
• Exam and traditional homework pressure
• Ineffective education
• No connection to real world
• No practice
• One source for information
• Limited timeframes
• 12 weeks are too short with all other parallel
  responsibilities
• Learning opportunities are limited to class
  meetings and text book
• No opportunity to jump start
• No post course follow up
• A huge investment with unpredictable return
• No matter what you accomplish, no one knows
  about you
• You cannot grow after class because it is over
• No job opportunities

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Why this course is different?

• Students are very engaged!
• They are producers of real value and NOT only
  audience and exam takers (Project Deliverables).
• They are teachers of collective knowledge. They
  act as live résumés throughout the semester
  (Presentations and Showcases).
• Classes are interactive and they offer a variety
  of learning methods.
• All of this is in real world projects, with real
  world stakeholders and within real world
  environments!

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Why this course is different?

• Students learn by more than just listening
• They learn by doing
• They learn by collaborating
• They learn by communicating
• They learn by market-driven training

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Why this course is different?

• This is not an internship program!
• Students view sponsors as educators (not
  employers).
• sponsors view students as partners and
  collaborators (not employees).

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Why this course is different?

• Students are in charge!
• Students select their projects
• Students select their teams
• Students become project managers and lead their
  teams and projects
• Students fire free riders even if they were their
  project managers
• Students administer many activities and roles

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Why this course is different?

• Students learn how to be global (not a single
  project) problem solvers!
• They learn problem solving strategies in class
  sessions.
• They use their projects as tools to learn about
  problem solving in general so they can solve
  other kinds of problems.
• Simply put, we bring a problem solving package
  to our sponsors not a number of interns.

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Why this course is different?

• Students are trained on what they need to know
  not what they have to know
• Class sessions are about today and tomorrow not
  about out-dated techniques and strategies.
• Open university sessions and hands-on laps
  provide on-demand training free of charge for
  you, your family, friends and sponsors. You can
  even be a teacher!

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Why this course is different?

• Our course opportunities start very early and
  never stop during class, after class or
  graduation.
• Early bird and Pioneers.
• I love to hear your questions, I love to see you
  in my office, I love to hear your voice, I love
  to be able to help you in every way possible.
• Open help any time any where.
• Virtual Web-based collaboration.
• Continuous collaboration after class in various
  ways
• Job opportunities (part time, full time and
  fully-paid internships).
• We will always support our good students

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Why this course is different?

• Course that can be customized and personalized!
• Project work progresses in an evolutionary
  prototyping fashion (Time Boxing).
• Teams are adaptive to customer requirements,
  responsive to change, dynamic and flexible.
• You select your project, your role and your team
• You select to do technical development, research
  or even become an entrepreneur.

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Why this course is different?

• Collective Intelligence
• Interdisciplinary teams from five university
  colleges
• Undergraduate /Graduate collaboration
• High school / College collaboration
• Large advisory community among sponsors, faculty,
  administrators and students.

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Why this course is different?

• Classes can be fun!
• We creating friendly collaborative environments
• Do what you like to do most
• Learn from friends what you cannot do
• Interactive classes
• Competitions boast motivation
• Movies, games, music, off-campus activities,
  presentation parties, showcases, press, rewards
  and more!

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The Triple Win Multi-Stakeholder Satisfaction
Triangle
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Position Code Position Position Job Description/responsibilities Qualifications
01 Project manager Project manager In addition to managing the team, project managers will be responsible for project management deliverables including feasibility study. Should use project management tool (Microsoft Project Manager) to plan project tasks, allocate and mange resources, assign team members to complete tasks, compile team members' weekly time sheets, report task completion and actual hours worked on tasks, prepare periodic reports on project progress.  Receives extra credit when successful. In addition to the criteria stated in the previous section, background in software economics, process life cycle models and project management techniques is essential.
02 System Analyst System Analyst System analysts will be responsible for requirements gathering and documentation (Problem definition, requirements report, DFDs, process specifications, data dictionary , etc) and coordinating with other team members. Experience/ background in requirements analysis, requirements elicitation techniques, and project documentation.
03 Back-end designer 0301 Data Base Designer Responsible for designing the backend of the system including data structures, entity relation ship models normalization, SQL, normalization, system structure and other architectural models (repository , client-server, abstract machine model , object-oriented design in UML ,etc.) Experience/ background in DBMS, CASE tools and modeling techniques in software engineering.
03 Back-end designer 0302 Network Designer Responsible for designing the backend of the system including data structures, entity relation ship models normalization, SQL, normalization, system structure and other architectural models (repository , client-server, abstract machine model , object-oriented design in UML ,etc.) Experience/ background in DBMS, CASE tools and modeling techniques in software engineering.
04 Front-end designer Front-end designer Responsible for designing the user interface for users (including GUI components , forms , reports , navigation , etc. Experience/ background in HCI , cognitive psychology , user interface design, user manuals
05 Programmer Programmer Implementing the system at the unit level and system level. Testing and Maintaining the system Writing user manual . Experience in web programming and other programming such as C , Visual Basic , Java, and the like)
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Projects Success RateRated by Sponsors

• In the last 70 projects we did
• 81 were rated between good and excellent
• 40 were rated as outstanding
• 9 projects were rated average and only 4 were
  below average

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Testimonials (Silent Reading)
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Testimonials

• We have 50 NJIT student interns who are
  studying information technology and computer
  science, working on eight projects. Having them
  work for us has allowed us to jump ahead in our
  work.
• Larry Gardner
• CEO and Founder of Cyberextruder

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Testimonials

• This was a huge project and required much
  attention to detail. The team asked the right
  questions and we very helpful to Arc of Monmouth
  staff in deciphering what needed to be done.
  They provided many useful suggestions.
• Sarah Logan
• Office Manager
• The Arc of Monmouth

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Testimonials

• I was so impressed with the whole process.
  I am amazed at how talented, professional and
  responsive the team was to the project. The
  group of students that worked on this project
  quickly understood the scope and was able to
  deliver the requested tool within a very short
  period of time. The entire experience was one
  that I am going to recommend to other managers at
  IMS.
• Marilyn Mahon Group Manager, Quality
  Assurance IMS Health 100 Campus Road Totowa,
  NJ 07512 USA

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Testimonials

• If I had to pay a consultant to do the work that
  the NJIT students did for CIT as part of the
  Capstone Program it would have cost us hundreds
  of thousands of dollars
• The program gives NJIT students a chance to
  integrate real world experience into their
  academic experience, which is invaluable to them
  and to us.
• Harold Olmstead
• Vice president of Systems and Technology Services
  
• CIT

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Testimonials

• The solution for Cocomats created by the
  group reflected a keen assessment of both the
  weaknesses of Cocomats and the needs of the
  Office of Constituent relations
• Ian Thomas Brennan
• New Jersey Office of the Governor, Office of
  Constituent Relations
• Aide to the Governor

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Testimonials

• This group was very prompt in implementing
  suggestions, very professional and timely. Based
  on the scope of work initially developed, we are
  very pleased with the results.
• Juan Rosario
• Newark Housing Authority
• Acting I.T. Administrator

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Testimonials

• This group hung in there and were able to
  work around these problems and move steadfastly
  through the project. This group communicated well
  and worked very efficiently. They were always on
  time for the meetings and handled themselves in a
  very professional manner. I was very impressed
  with the work that they did. They fulfilled all
  of our needs and produced a product that is above
  and beyond what we expected. Overall all I was
  pleased and would look forward to participating
  in
• upcoming projects.
• Jerri Drakes
• CEO
• The Workstation Inc.

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Testimonials

• Very well diverse group of dynamic individuals
  with many skills equipped to create a website,
  write a business plan, business marketing, hard
  working, and capable of delivering a complete
  product.
• Henri Boll
• President
• Go2Museum.com Inc

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Testimonials

• As a whole the team preformed extremely well.
  The direction given by TMS was an outline. The
  team was able to understand what we were looking
  for and implement our needs into the finished
  program.
• Sean P McShane
• President
• Transportation Made Simple

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Testimonials

• Jeremy (Jeremy Dela Rosa) has been very
  accommodating regarding my extremely busy
  schedule. He has demonstrated a strong ability
  to learn and adjust throughout this experience.
  Jeremy performed a terrific job in coordinating
  the efforts of the team, a task that is very
  difficult for any leader. He was also able to
  work well as a liaison between me and the team,
  ensuring that my requests were communicated
  properly to all the members. Additionally, as
  project manager, he was involved in nearly every
  aspect of the project, and demonstrated a solid
  understanding of every one of the teams
• Jason Huang
• Project Leader
• Honeywell International Inc

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New Statistics

• Number of completed projects will reach at least
  250 full-scale projects
• A minimum of 300 products or sub-projects
  carried out by more than 300 teams after 10
  semesters
• This is an average of 30 products per semester
  plus CIS490 first-phase teams.
• Many of these projects have had multi-phases and
  some have involved multi-teams
• Up to 6 semesters /phases for some large-scale
  projects. up to 4 teams in some extremely
  complex or demanding industry-projects .
• Key sponsors offer more than one project every
  semester
• (CIT provided 14 projects in Spring 2004 alone
  and Cyberextruder offered 9 projects in Spring
  2003 )
• At least 1500 students have participated in the
  capstone program since Fall 2002 from CS , IS ,
  IT and HCI.

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More Facts

• Sponsors and projects diversity demonstrate a
  broad array of interest
• Examples entertainment , finance ,
  health , education , public sector
  entrepreneurships
• Geographical Distribution These projects came
  from all round NJ (North , Central and South) ,
  NY or PA . We even had a project from Boston , MA
  . This expands our reach beyond short-distance
  businesses.
• A number of companies have offered our students
  excellent support for their careers .
• Examples CIT, Saint Clair health
  system , Edu-Global , Cyberextruder ,
  All-fine-dining , IMS health
• Support forms Full time employment
  , part-time employment , internships , rewards ,
  financial support , research support ,
  recommendation letters , direct support calls ,
  software purchase , company resources , certified
  training , after graduation training.

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Added-value Community Benefits

• Sposnor-Sposnosr Collaboration
• Open-house Participation
• Collaboration across teams and across semesters
• Non-Profit and public service projects
• NJIT departments projects
• Commercialization of students ideas
• Students published empirical research
• EDC bi-directional support