IHeartComputer Is Now an NJIT ACM SIG

In early February 2026, Ryan Alport, myself, and a few others started an unofficial computer club called IHeartComputer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

The idea was pretty simple: we wanted a small, fun, and open group where people could get together and talk about computer-related stuff they found interesting. It was never meant to be overly formal or structured. We just wanted a space where people could share projects, talk about technologies they were exploring, show off things they built, or just have good conversations about computers outside of class.

Over the Spring 2026 semester, we ended up holding around 10 meetings and publishing eight computer-related articles written by members of the group. Our meetings covered a pretty wide range of topics, and that was honestly one of my favorite parts about it. Different people brought completely different interests, projects, and ideas to the group, which made every meeting feel a little different.

Going into Fall 2026, we hit a milestone that I'm really excited about: IHeartComputer is now an official Special Interest Group (SIG) under NJIT's Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter.

We're still not technically an official campus "club" per se, but becoming an ACM SIG is a huge step for us. It gives IHeartComputer a real home within NJIT's computing community while still letting us keep the small, relaxed, and open atmosphere that made the group fun in the first place.

I also want to give a huge thank you to NJIT ACM for welcoming us in and giving us the opportunity to become a SIG. Their support has given us a much stronger foundation to keep meeting, growing, and bringing more people into the group, and I'm really grateful for that.

We've already started the Fall semester off strong. At our first meeting, we introduced the group to new members and had people showcase some of the projects and things they worked on over the summer. We have plenty more technical talks, workshops, project showcases, and probably a few weird computer-related rabbit holes planned for the rest of the semester.

It's really cool seeing something that started as a handful of people getting together to talk about computers turn into an actual community on campus. I'm excited to see where IHeartComputer goes from here and what everyone ends up building, researching, writing about, or sharing next.

You can check us out at iheartcomputer.club.