Morehouse College Secures $5M NSF Grant to Develop Supercomputer
Morehouse College, a historically Black college and university, has received a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build a supercomputer.
The Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing has received the initial $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to start building the supercomputer Horizon. Further capital will be donated to support similar initiatives.
The grant is part of a wider $457 million project to build one of the most powerful academic supercomputers in the southeast.
The college will become a national hub by introducing free programs, including a summer program for boys in middle and high school, a postbaccalaureate program in artificial intelligence, and three weeklong faculty accelerators in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, which will focus on research, teaching, and grant proposal writing, according to a press release.
Morehouse becoming a leader in artificial intelligence
“This contribution cements Morehouse’s place as the undisputed HBCU leader in artificial intelligence,” Dr. Kinnis Gosha, Principal Investigator of the grant and Hortinius I. Chenault Endowed Professor and Chair of Computer Science, says.
“As a national resource provider, we will empower other HBCUs and non-research-intensive institutions to contribute to growing their research capacity and enhancing student learning.”
The HBCU will share its findings and project progress at the Integrating Supercomputing-Powered Instruction, Research, and Entrepreneurship (InSPIRE) Workshop, held annually in Austin, Texas. “This investment positions our students and faculty to help shape the future of science, technology, and global problem-solving,” Bowman adds.
Morehouse and artificial intelligence
Morehouse has been ahead of the curve in relation to the use of AI. In 2024, Morehouse College launched what is reportedly the world’s first fully spatial AI teaching assistants (TAs). It also launched their Metaversity in 2021. Muhsinah Morris, a senior assistant professor in education and metaversity director at Morehouse, pioneered the technology in Spring 2021 with faculty assistance. She will now teach a class this fall with a spatial 3D AI TA.
“These are different from chat bots because, one, they’re conversational. Two, they’re 3D, and you might just hear my AI TA speak Mandarin,” Morris said in a video shared by VictoryXR.
Image: kevin turcios
