Howard University will lead one of the Pentagon’s 15 university-affiliated research centers, the first HBCU to do so.
Howard University has been awarded a five-year, $90 million contract to lead a research center focused on technology for military systems, university and defense officials announced Monday, the first such center at a historically Black college or university.The new center, funded by the Defense Department and the Air Force, will focus on tactical autonomy technology for military systems.
Howard has long been making history, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a crowd gathered in the university’s Founders Library, with its carved wooden panels and arched windows. “It has always been dedicated to scientific discovery and innovation,” he said, naming past accomplishments in math, chemistry and medicine.About a third of the country’s Black science, technology, engineering and math professionals graduate from HBCUs, Austin said. “And they’re the talent our country needs.
But research funding has been heavily skewed toward predominantly White institutions in the past. “Clearly, the DOD has historically not done enough to draw on the depth of talent, expertise and potential,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said to the audience at Howard. “As Secretary Kendall noted,” Austin said, “only a tiny fraction of the department’s research funding goes to HBCUs. You know, that just doesn’t add up. As secretary of defense, I’m determined to change that.”
Bruce Jones, vice president for research at Howard, said there are a lot of issues with artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology, with limitations to how well machines can distinguish Black faces and problems with how other elements in a photo are interpreted by algorithms, apparently influenced by the race of the person in the photo. A stick could be seen as simply a stick — or a gun, he said.
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