Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Wayne State University in Detroit was awarded a $380,850 federal preservation grant to restore the former home of Malcolm X in Inkster and turn it into an educational museum. The house was recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The project is under the direction of Tareq Ramadan, an adjunct professor of anthropology at the university. Renovations to the small home are expected to begin in May.
EON Reality, the global leader in augmented and virtual reality learning solutions for industry and education, has awarded historically Black Clark Atlanta University a $11.8 million grant to establish the first hub of the Knowledge Metaverse to a historically Black educational institution. The Knowledge Metaverse amplifies access and engagement in learning by combining the real world with digital information and extended reality (XR) similar to immersive experiences that have become increasingly popular in arts, gaming, and entertainment. EON Reality’s global network of more than 1.4 million users is building the Knowledge Metaverse in more than 100 locations and has created the world’s leading XR library for education and industry with over 2.16 million 3D assets. The grant will enable Clark Atlanta to offer training to their faculty and students augmenting traditional in person and online instruction.
Historically Black Delaware State University has been awarded a three-year, $400,839 grant from the National Institute of Health for research into the neurodegenerative disease of Spinal Muscular Atrophy – the leading genetic cause of infant mortality. Researchers at the university’s Cell Electrophysiology Core Facility will use the funding to compare the brain of mice that have the mutated gene that leads to the SMA disease with brains of normal mice.
Cheyney University, a historically Black educational institution in Pennsylvania, has received a $100,000 for undergraduate student research in high-performance liquid chromatography. The grant was provided by Waters Corporation, an analytical research company based in Massachusetts.
