The presence of Amazon in Newark would transform higher education in New Jersey's largest city.

Students and faculty at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers-Newark would get a chance to assist in research and development side by side with the tech giant — an edge the institutions would use to attract more students.

“When you work with a company like Amazon, the research goes across many, many disciplines, from artificial intelligence to information technology, computer science, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, business,” said Joel Bloom, president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“You’re dealing with a very large company that has many R-and-D needs as well as workforce needs,” he said.

Newark’s research institutions hope they will get to meet those needs with their combined 24,000 enrolled students, 5,500 graduates in the city and hundreds of faculty.

Dozens of universities in the region help to bolster the number of graduates to well over 100,000.

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A year ago, the e-commerce giant announced its search for a second headquarters it calls HQ2, which drew about 200 cities across the continent to submit bids. Newark surprised many when it made the top 20 list in January.

The city’s bid highlighted the talent produced from the universities in the area.

“Our talent pool is large enough to supply Amazon with enough employees for its initial phase as well as accommodating future growth,” the city’s 200-page proposal stated.

Amazon has said it would invest $5 billion to construct its new headquarters, which could employ up to 50,000 people.

A decision will be made before the end of the year, and the Brick City appears to be an underdog, according to some reports.

But Bloom says he’s optimistic.

NJIT and Rutgers-Newark pledged a well-trained workforce, in addition to continuing education and professional development for Amazon employees and state-of-the-art resources for research and development.

“They’re a technology company and technology is changing extremely quickly,” Bloom said. “They want to make sure the people who they’re employing who’ve been with the company have the opportunity to continue to upgrade their skills and their knowledge.”

Rutgers-Newark’s commitment to the tech giant would mirror the partnerships it has with other corporations in the area, such as Prudential Financial and Panasonic, Senior Vice Chancellor Arcelio Aponte said.

“It’s important for Rutgers to partner with the corporate community and align with them, whether it’s Amazon or Prudential,” Aponte said. “This would give us an opportunity at more internships and educational opportunities to further educate the Amazon employees and our students.”

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Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in an email that an Amazon headquarters in Newark could generate a new model for how “cities, major corporations and institutions of higher learning can collaborate and work together to move a city and its residents forward.”

In meetings over the last year with the Seattle-based corporation, Bloom said Amazon proposed attractive offers to the higher education institutions that were in the room.

Leaders in technology fields at Amazon could deliver guest lectures and some could instruct at the university, he said.

Amazon “would also bring its considerable resources to assist colleges in a variety of their missions, from education to supporting student activities,” Baraka said.

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The multibillion-dollar company recently made a $10 million donation to the University of Washington to build its new computer-science building, which was expected to help double the enrollment of computer science graduates, according to the Seattle Times.

In fact, just by naming Newark to its top 20 list, Amazon has already had an impact on the city's academic institutions.

NJIT hosted the company’s Amazon Alexa conference in July, which drew more than 2,500 people to the campus.

A tech-training nonprofit, Per Scholas, said it will be opening classrooms at the former New Jersey Bell Building on Broad Street to train 200 graduates for free and place them in tech jobs, according to NJBIZ.

“By Amazon bringing this much attention to the city, it’s already created an environment that other businesses and industries are looking at as well,” Bloom said. “I think we have a lot of assets they’re interested in – the city’s growing, it has a very diverse population, and there aren’t many cities where you can get from downtown to the airport in 15 minutes.”

Email: carrera@northjersey.com

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