[2] The founders of New York Institute of Technology, and in particular Dr. Alexander Schure, Ph.D.,[3] started the current university as a career-oriented school that offered engineering-related training and applications-oriented research opportunities.
36th President of the United States Lyndon Johnson was a keynote speaker and opening speeches were broadcast nationally by the ABC Radio Network.
In 1960 NYIT received a provisional charter from the Board of Regents to operate as a four-year college with the ability to grant bachelor's degrees.
A grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York allowed the school develop an automated, self-instructional engineer training system prior to the advent of personal computers.
The institute received its first computer, donated by the CIT Financial Corporation, in 1965 and received two grants totaling approximately $3 million from the federal government to develop a "system of individualized learning" through the use of computers as well as a computer-based course in general physics for midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Total enrollment reached 5000 students during this time and at the start of the 1971 academic year, the university moved its Manhattan campus to a newly constructed 45-story skyscraper at 888 Seventh Avenue, and later to its current location at 61st Street and Broadway in 1976.
Noted alumni of the lab included Pixar co-founders Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, Walt Disney's Chief Scientist Lance Joseph Williams, DreamWorks animator Hank Grebe, Computer Media Artist Rebecca Allen and Netscape and Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clark.
[7][8][9][10][11] NYIT CG Lab was also regarded as a top computer animation research and development group internationally during the late 70s and early 80s.
W. Kenneth Riland served as a co-founder and founding dean of the college, which has since grown to enroll the largest number of medical students on a single campus in the United States.
Notable alumni affiliated with the university include Humayun Chaudhry, president and chief executive officer of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), Richard Jadick, a Bronze-Star naval surgeon who saved the lives of 30 marines and sailors during the Second Battle of Fallujah, Kevin O'Connor (physician), White House physician to president Joe Biden, Mikhail Varshavski, a You-Tube internet celebrity and family medicine doctor, Amit M. Shelat, Vice Chairman of the New York State Board for Medicine, and Barbara Ross-Lee, the first African-American woman to serve as dean of a U.S. medical school.
In 1980s, NYIT's student-run newspaper The Campus Slate's journalism infrastructure were upgraded to conduct several mainstream interviews, including with Oscar-nominated actress Diane Lane and The Beach Boys.
NYIT ceased operations in 2005 as a full college campus though at one point, the location included student lounges, laundry facilities, dining hall, classroom buildings, and library.
The school still operates its 7,000-square-foot Central Islip Family Medical Center, located near the former campus, to serve the local community.
The World Health Organization designated the medical school in 1988 as one of three collaborative centers for occupational medicine in the United States.
Since 2005, NYIT has also included an international focus in its degree program expansions, establishing a campus in Abu Dhabi, located in the Center of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) Technology Park.
NYIT's College of Osteopathic Medicine also uses 3-D motion capture technology to identify mobility and stability problems in patients with Parkinson's disease.
The following year, NYIT sponsored its second U.N. event, the International Energy Conference to examine opportunities and innovations in the field of sustainable technology.
[28] In early 2020, NYIT had reached an agreement with Extell Developments to sell several buildings at its Manhattan location in order to focus resources on its College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Old Westbury campus.