"This donation shows our ongoing support and appreciation of the Capstone Program at NJIT," said Gardner at the morning ceremony. "The program has provided our company with a steady stream of intelligent, energetic and enthusiastic students who have handled a series of projects for us ranging from highly technical code writing to setting up project protocol. The net result to our company was an acceleration of our development schedule that has had significant positive impact on our competitive position within our industry." Stephen Seidman, PhD., Dean of CCS, accepted the check on behalf of the college. The donation, given over a one-year period, totaled $10,000.
NJIT started the Capstone Program in the fall of 2002, mandating all seniors majoring in computer science complete a semester-long project. Working in teams of four to six, students design and implement software products and other computing services. Each student must spend nine hours a week on the project, and many of them travel to their sponsor companies. The projects deal with different business problems and applications, from entertainment, finance, health care, education and public sector needs.
"The Capstone Program is fantastic experience for our students," said Osama Eljabiri, a special lecturer and director of the Capstone Program at NJIT. "When they graduate and go on job interviews, they can say, 'Here is a real-life project I worked on.'" Editor's Note: Companies and agencies that would like to become sponsors and have NJIT students work for them, please contact Eljabiri, director of Capstone Program: Phone (973) 642-7123; Fax: (973) 596-5777; email oe2@njit.edu, or http://www.cis.njit.edu/~osama.
CyberExtruder is a young software development company located in the Enterprise Development Center, a business incubator program, at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). CyberExtruder www.cyberextruder.com uses a core technology enabling the automatic conversions of 2D facial images (such as a passport photos) to life-like biometrically and forensically accurate 3D models of the subjects' faces or heads. The technology has applications in the entertainment and security industries.
Last year, the company developed a computer software application for Samsung that allowed cell phone users to pass a cyber baton through their mobile telephones. This year, the company introduced a new application to deliver personalized talking heads to mobile devices. Federal security agencies have expressed interest in the company's image enhancement software to improve the performance of facial recognition software.
New Jersey Institute of Technology, the state's public technological research university, enrolls more than 8,300 students in bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 100 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and eLearning.