Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, has received an initial $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to house a supercomputer.

The grant will support the college’s participation in a $457m research project, led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin, to build one of the most powerful academic supercomputers in the southeast of the US.

The first round of funding will support the construction of a data center at the Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing, where the supercomputer, dubbed Horizon, will be housed. The facility will form part of the NSF's Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF).

Additional funds will be disbursed as operations continue, the college noted, although the total funds it expects to receive have not been detailed. Morehouse will share its research and project progress at the annual Integrating Supercomputing-Powered Instruction, Research, and Entrepreneurship (InSPIRE) Workshop in Austin, Texas.

In a statement, Morehouse said that as a primary partner in the project, it will house the system and serve as a national epicenter for programmatic support, leading free initiatives such as enrichment and AI programs, and faculty accelerators in Punta Cana and the Dominican Republic, focused on research, teaching, and grant proposal writing.

"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, 13th president of Morehouse College. “By hosting one of the southeast's most powerful academic supercomputers, we are providing HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) 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. Kinnis Gosha, chair of computer science at Morehouse College, added: "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."

Founded in 1867, Morehouse College is the only college in the US founded to educate men of color. According to the university, it is ranked as Georgia’s top liberal arts college for men.