NEWARK, NJ, October 16, 2024 – Hosted in partnership with Kean University, EdgeCon Autumn on October 10 brought together attendees from universities and community colleges to explore how to achieve sustained success by uniting strategy and innovation through enterprise architecture. During the keynote panel, Blueprints for Success: Uniting Strategy and Innovation in Higher Education, Edge presented several awards to celebrate the incredible achievements and contributions that higher education institutions are making throughout the region.
To recognize vision and leadership in the area of high performance computing, the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) was presented with the High Performance Computing Innovation Award. Over the past year, the technology and network teams at NJIT have built an exemplary HPC platform, including on-site and remote data center resources, that is secure, at scale, and meets the growing demands of their research community.
At a time when higher education institutions are going through rapid change and facing unique challenges, Edge wanted to recognize the vision and leadership of the Metropolitan College of New York for seeking out the support and capabilities of the Edge network and community. To honor this commitment to collaboration, the College was presented with the Regional Network Partnership Award.
As attacks on higher education accelerate, and privacy regulations and compliance standards become increasingly complex, the cybersecurity burden on institutions has sharply increased. In acknowledgement of their dedication and diligent work in going above and beyond regulatory standards to keep their educational community safe, Middlesex College received the Community College Cyber-Preparedness Award.
Edge also recognized Jeremy Livingston, Chief Information Security Officer at Stevens Institute of Technology for his essential role in relaunching the Edge IT Security Community of Practice, which serves as a forum for collaboration and collective intelligence to fight cybersecurity threats. Livingston was presented with the Security Community Leadership Award for his outstanding commitment over the past year.
To help broaden the education community and support students in their learning journey, online learning programs are vital to the mission and success of modern higher education institutions. In recognition of their efforts to grow their online program rapidly, effectively, and without sacrificing quality, the award for Exemplary Online Program Leadership went to Rowan University.
Following EdgeCon Spring, which included a galvanizing keynote focused on artificial intelligence (AI), and the growing momentum and importance of the topic, the instructional team at Seton Hall University stepped up to engage the Edge community and partnered with Edge to host the first AI Teaching and Learning Symposium. To recognize the University’s continued leadership in the community and their participation in the initial cohort of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum, Edge presented Seton Hall with the AI Education Leadership Award.
Edge also wanted to celebrate research that has had a significant scientific, societal, economic, or environmental impact. The Research Impact Award was presented to Stephen K. Burley, M.D., D. Phil. from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for his Pioneering Work in Structural Biology: Transformative Contributions to Biomedical Research and Global Scientific Collaboration. Dr. Burley is an internationally recognized scholar and has published extensively in data science and bioinformatics, AI/machine learning, structural biology, and clinical oncology.
The Engaging Students in Collaborative Research Award recognizes research projects that involve significant collaboration between institutions or research teams that engage students in the research process. This honor was presented to Joseph Diaco, Professor, Camden County College, and Dr. Hieu Nguyen, Professor, Rowan University, who were principal investigators for the Precision Agriculture Using Drone/AI Technologies project, Blueberry Drone AI: Smart Farming of Blueberries using Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Drones. The project aimed to equip students with hands-on experience in drone technology and AI, improve the accuracy of blueberry counting and health assessment through enhanced image recognition models, and achieve proof of concept for autonomous drone missions.
EdgeCon Autumn 2024 not only served as a platform for meaningful dialogue on the future of higher education but also highlighted the remarkable efforts of institutions committed to excellence and innovation. Edge is excited to see how these inspiring achievements will continue to shape the landscape of higher education and empower students and institutions for generations to come.
About Edge: Edge serves as a member-owned, nonprofit provider of high performance optical fiber networking and internetworking, Internet2, and a vast array of best-in-class technology solutions for cybersecurity, educational technologies, cloud computing, and professional managed services. Edge provides these solutions to colleges and universities, K-12 school districts, government entities, hospital networks and nonprofit business entities as part of a membership-based consortium. Edge’s membership spans the northeast, along with a growing list of EdgeMarket participants nationwide. Edge’s common good mission ensures success by empowering members for digital transformation with affordable, reliable and thought-leading purpose-built, advanced connectivity, technologies and services.
