The university worked with an external firm, Stratascale, to conduct a major cybersecurity maturity assessment at Rutgers, reviewing existing cybersecurity controls and practices and determining areas for improvement. Results are being used to guide future cybersecurity initiatives and protect Rutgers systems and data.

The Rutgers Clinical and Research Data Warehouse, a central repository unifying diverse healthcare data sources and housing healthcare-aligned data, has undergone substantial growth and increased project flow since it was announced in January 2024. Over the past year, improvements have been made to refine processes, shorten production time for researchers, refresh computational components, add high-performance and GPU capabilities, assess security, and unify the fee structure. Through June 2025, over 150 Rutgers researchers partnered with a CRDW team member to assist with their research projects. Additionally, many CRDW-related presentations were conducted for research deans and faculty, as well as IT professionals, since the launch.

The REDCap research survey tool, now striving to move to a centralized instance under OIT, allows university faculty to expand their research capabilities. Through FY25, the platform has supported approximately 1,750 users and 750 projects. The New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) is the first group partnering with OIT to move its substantial existing REDCap instance into the central instance, with additional instances planned soon thereafter.

Computer lab upgrades were made across all campuses over the past year, including:

• New Brunswick: Workstation replacements in the Library of Science and Medicine, Allison Road Classroom Building, Carr Library, and the Rutgers Academic Building.
• Camden: Upgraded laptops in the Campus Center and Business and Science Building.
• Newark: Replacement of fifty workstations across multiple buildings.
• Additionally, updates to the overall computer lab system were made to accommodate the latest academic and productivity software.

Grammarly for Education was made available to the university community in September 2024. The tool provides faculty, staff, and students with:

• real-time vocabulary suggestions
• genre-specific style checks
• tone recommendations
• plagiarism detection
• grammar review
• citation assistance
• AI prompts that suggest improvements

Continuing its mission to align technology, health, and academic priorities, Rutgers Health IT teams successfully completed 35 projects to modernize IT infrastructure and 22 projects to enhance the student experience. These efforts collectively advanced digital transformation, operational efficiency, and academic engagement across the university. Key accomplishments include:  

• Continued progress toward completing the RAD Migration initiative and upgrading to Windows 11, both of which strengthen data security and system performance.
• Wi-Fi upgrades, desktop and device refresh initiatives, and enhancements to the printing environment that promote sustainability and efficiency.
• Implementation of new digital communication tools—including SimpleTexting and Five9 Call Center systems at the New Jersey Medical School and School of Dental Medicine, along with MappedIn indoor wayfinding at the New Jersey Medical School.
• Extensive AV upgrades at the School of Health Professions, New Jersey Medical School, School of Public Health, School of Nursing, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, enhancing instruction, campus engagement, and learning with interactive tools and modern classroom technology.

The New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS) and the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science (RITMS) partnered with the Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) to launch a microcredential in Clinical Informatics and Data Science. At no charge to students, this microcredential is designed for medical students, doctors, or researchers with experience in the fundamentals of R and Python, enabling them to quickly and efficiently analyze patient data and inform clinical decisions.

A fast, secure, and efficient wireless network is essential to effective teaching, learning, and research. Using funding from the state’s Higher Education Equipment Leasing Fund (ELF Grant), Rutgers installed 12,550 new Juniper Mist access points in 2024-2025, introducing the latest generation Wi-Fi frequency band. By using the Higher Education Technology Infrastructure Fund (HETI grant), network teams replaced outdated, end-of-life network switches in 2024-2025 and will continue these upgrades during FY 2026. These projects allow both wired and wireless networks to integrate AI capabilities that proactively monitor network performance, providing increased uptime, better service, and enhanced support.

The Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration Services team launched a new interface for the Rutgers Automated Mass Mailing System (RAMS), a major system for targeted email lists that are essential for internal communications at Rutgers. The modern, mobile-friendly interface offers improved response times and a more simplified, organized layout. The old RAMS web interface was decommissioned, and new features will continue to roll out over time.

The Student Experience Improvement Initiative (SEII) continues to advance the university’s dedication to providing seamless, integrated, consistent, effective, and responsive services that meet the needs of Rutgers students. A major part of the SEII initiative is the implementation of a single university-wide student information system (SIS) within the Oracle Cloud Enterprise. Since early 2025, the Enterprise Applications and Research Computing team has been working closely with the system implementer, Sierra Cedar, to assess, review, and set up the technical and system environments needed for this project's kickoff in 2026. Additionally, next year, an extensive business process review will be prepared for the future state design and implementation of the Oracle Student Management Cloud.

Need a reliable place to store your research data? Research Data Storage (RDS) offers research labs and university centers 34 PB of total usable space for research data, designed to ensure reliable access to university research data. RDS is a collaborative effort managed and maintained by OIT’s Office of Advanced Research Computing and Enterprise Infrastructure. RDS had been in a pilot phase for several months before becoming available to the university community in late 2025.

Rutgers University–Newark has been piloting an academic technology initiative since the beginning of 2025 to modernize classroom attendance tracking by offering faculty and students multiple options based on their needs and class sizes. The system includes traditional roll call, QR code scanning, location-based app check-ins, and student ID swipes, allowing instructors to select the most effective attendance method for each course. Research consistently shows that tracking and acting on attendance data improves student outcomes, particularly in fostering engagement and supporting retention. This initiative has reduced administrative overhead, increased accuracy, and generated valuable data to strengthen early alert and student success strategies. Faculty and student feedback from the pilot are now shaping the next implementation phase.

More than 100 faculty members, researchers, technologists, and other experts have played key roles in the AI@Rutgers Initiative—an effort to shape how Rutgers uses artificial intelligence across academic, clinical, research, technology, and administrative areas. By coordinating and consolidating guidance from multiple stakeholders, the group is developing a strategic framework to prepare students, faculty, and staff to use AI securely, ethically and responsibly. Their work has included information gathering about existing AI projects, benchmarking against peer institutions, and assessing risks and opportunities. Their efforts are setting the stage for recommendations to guide the future of AI at Rutgers.