The New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Material Handling www.mhsnj.com gave NJIT last night $3,000 to fund students studying material handling or management. NJIT students who study this discipline are enrolled in the industrial engineering discipline http://mechanical.njit.edu/ offered by Newark College of Engineering.
"We're thrilled to receive the money because it allows us to encourage students to study and look into careers in this area," said Layek Abdel-Malek, PhD, associate dean of engineering for administration and academic affairs at NCE.
The career opportunities available to material handling professionals are enormous particularly in today's global supply chains for both engineers and managers," he continued. These opportunities range from jobs in the manufacturing sector, airline industry, and retail services to couriers such as UPS, Fed EX, and DHL, as well as warehousing and shipping.
Material handling activities integrate knowledge acquired in several fields of studies including design of conveyors, automated guided vehicles, robotics, cranes, and lift trucks to their electronic computer controlled systems and the identification protocols of bar codes, pattern and voice recognition, and radio frequency identification. Additionally, the field requires knowledge of logistics and operations research for implementing efficient material handling systems.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce and Bureau of Labor Statistics, material handling and logistics is one of America's largest and fastest growing industries. The consumption of material handling and logistics equipment and systems in America exceeds $156 billion per year, and producers employ in excess of 700,000 workers.
At NJIT on a very practical level, students who take these classes have become involved in improving the layout of the food services. The discipline also involves mathematical analysis and simulations. The money was awarded following a tour of the Distribution Center of Volkswagen/Audi in Cranbury.
NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, at the edge in knowledge, enrolls more than 8,000 students in bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 92 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 e-learning. In 2006, Princeton Review named NJIT among the nation's top 25 campuses for technology and top 150 for best value. U.S. News & World Report's 2007 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities.