Morehouse College to Host Supercomputer for AI Research Project

Morehouse College, a UNCF-member institution, has received an initial $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), as part of a larger groundbreaking $457 million project—known as the NSF’s Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF)—to build one of the most powerful academic supercomputers in the southeast.

The project will be led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. As a primary partner of the LCCF project, the Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing will build a site to house Horizon, a cutting-edge supercomputer. The supercomputer is expected to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence (AI) and provide greater access to areas such as climate modeling, machine learning and biomedical research, according to a press release from the Morehouse College Office of Institutional Advancement.

This historic investment in cyberinfrastructure in higher education will advance Morehouse’s ability to provide students, faculty and HBCUs with unprecedented access to world-class computational resources. Additional funds will be disbursed to support ongoing operations.

“Morehouse College is honored to partner with the NSF and the University of Texas at Austin on this transformative project,” said Dr. F. DuBois Bowman, president, Morehouse College. “By hosting one of the Southeast’s most powerful academic supercomputers, we are providing HBCUs with unprecedented computational power to explore bold ideas, accelerate discovery and unleash new frontiers of creativity and innovation. This investment positions our students and faculty to help shape the future of science, technology and global problem-solving.”

Morehouse will also serve as a national epicenter for programmatic support for the project. The college will lead free initiatives such as summer enrichment programs for middle and high school boys, a postbaccalaureate program in AI and faculty accelerators in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, focused on research, teaching and grant proposal writing.

“This contribution cements Morehouse’s place as the undisputed HBCU leader in artificial intelligence,” said Dr. Kinnis Gosha, principal investigator of the grant and the Hortinius I. Chenault Endowed Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Morehouse College. “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.”

Morehouse will share research and progress at the Integrating Supercomputing-Powered Instruction, Research and Entrepreneurship (InSPIRE) workshop, held annually in Austin, TX.

Does your member institution have news? Share it with UNCF.