Morehouse College will play a key role in a National Science Foundation initiative to build a next-generation academic supercomputer.
The $457 million project will fund construction of “Horizon,” a supercomputer for the National Science Foundation’s Leadership-Class Computing Facility.
The Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing has received an initial $5 million grant to begin developing a site that will house the “cutting-edge supercomputer,” according to a statement.
Once operational, Horizon is expected to expand capabilities in artificial intelligence, climate modeling, biomedical research and other complex scientific fields.
A statement on the National Science Foundation’s website says the supercomputer “will provide 10x performance improvement for simulation over the current [computer system] Frontera and meet the unique scientific requirements of the NSF community.”
“This contribution cements Morehouse’s place as the undisputed HBCU leader in artificial intelligence,” Kinnis Gosha, principal investigator of the grant, said.
Morehouse will lead several project-related initiatives, including a summer enrichment program for middle and high school boys, a post-baccalaureate program in artificial intelligence and three faculty accelerators in the Dominican Republic focused on research, teaching and grant proposal development, the statement said.
The overall project is led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Morehouse will present its research and project updates at the annual Integrating Supercomputing-Powered Instruction, Research and Entrepreneurship Workshop in Austin.
“Morehouse College is honored to partner with the NSF and the University of Texas at Austin on this transformative project,” said F. DuBois Bowman, president of Morehouse College. “This investment positions our students and faculty to help shape the future of science, technology and global problem-solving.”
Morehouse is emphasizing the project’s important role in advancing diversity and equity in technology stating: “According to national labor statistics, some 62 percent of tech jobs are held by White Americans.”
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