Apple awards grants for computer chip courses to historically black schools
June 17 (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) announced Thursday that it will give four historically black universities $ 5 million to help them expand their engineering programs for the design of the chips that power electronic devices.
Apple said the $ 5 million would be split over three years between Alabama A&M University, Howard University in Washington, DC, Morgan State University in Baltimore, and Prairie View A&M University in Texas. The money comes from Apple’s broader racial justice initiative, which it announced last year with $ 100 million in seed funding.
The grants will support each school’s engineering departments and seek to focus expanding coursework in areas such as computer architecture and chip design. The money will also support scholarships and internships in hardware technologies, Apple said.
Apple custom designs many chips in its flagship devices, including the mainframe processors in its Mac and iPhone computers and special chips in its AirPods headphones that help them work smoothly with other Apple devices.
“We know that many of the jobs of the future will be in innovative fields like silicon engineering and we want to help ensure that tomorrow’s leaders have access to transformational learning opportunities,” said Lisa Jackson, vice president of the environment, policies and social initiatives at Apple a statement.
Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Dan Grebler
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