Morehouse College announced it has received a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation as part of a $457 million initiative to build one of the most powerful academic supercomputers in the Southeast. The historic investment in higher education cyberinfrastructure will significantly expand access to advanced computational resources for Morehouse students and faculty, as well as HBCUs nationwide.
The Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing has received an initial $5 million portion of the NSF grant to begin construction on a site that will house the cutting-edge supercomputer, named Horizon. The system is part of the NSF’s Leadership-Class Computing Facility. Additional funds will be disbursed to support ongoing operations.
Horizon is designed to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence research and provide expanded access to high-impact fields including climate modeling, machine learning, and biomedical research. By hosting the system, Morehouse will help extend world-class computational infrastructure to institutions that have historically had limited access to such resources.
The broader computing project is being led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. As a primary partner in the Leadership-Class Computing Facility project, Morehouse will play a central role in deploying Horizon. Beyond housing the system, the college will serve as a national epicenter for programmatic support. Planned initiatives include a free summer enrichment program for middle and high school boys, a postbaccalaureate program in artificial intelligence, and three weeklong faculty accelerators in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, focused on research development, teaching strategies, and grant proposal writing.
The partnership reinforces Morehouse College’s expanding influence in STEM research and its long-standing commitment to academic rigor and equity in technology. The initiative comes at a time when diversity in the tech workforce remains limited. According to national labor statistics, approximately 62 percent of technology jobs are held by White Americans.
Morehouse will also share research outcomes and project progress at the annual Integrating Supercomputing-Powered Instruction, Research, and Entrepreneurship Workshop held in Austin, Texas. The conference supports faculty and students using artificial intelligence in teaching and entrepreneurial efforts.
Founded in 1867, Morehouse College is the nation’s only college established to educate men of color. The institution enrolls approximately 2,800 students annually and is recognized as Georgia’s top liberal arts college for men. Morehouse is a leading producer of Black men who go on to earn doctorates and has generated more Rhodes Scholars than any other HBCU. The college is also a top feeder institution for Black men entering graduate schools and MBA programs, with 60 percent of students coming from families with household incomes of $40,000 or less.
KEY QUOTES:
“Morehouse College is honored to partner with the NSF and the University of Texas at Austin on this transformative project. 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.”
Dr. F. DuBois Bowman, 13th President of Morehouse College
“This contribution cements Morehouse’s place as the undisputed HBCU leader in artificial intelligence. 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.”
Dr. Kinnis Gosha, Principal Investigator Of The Grant And Hortinius I. Chenault Endowed Professor And Chair Of Computer Science, Morehouse College
