Apple said the $5 million will be spread across Alabama
A&M University, Howard University, in Washington, D.C., Morgan State
University, in Baltimore, and Prairie View A&M University, in Texas, over
three years. The money comes from Apple’s broader racial justice initiative,
which it announced last year with $100 million in initial funding.
The grants will support each school’s engineering
departments and seek to focus expanding course work in fields like computing
architecture and designing chips. The money will also support fellowships and
internships in hardware technologies, Apple said.
Apple custom designs many of the chips in its flagship
devices, including central processors in its Mac computers and iPhones and
special chips in its AirPods headphones that help them work smoothly with other
Apple devices.
“We know many jobs of the future will be in innovative areas
like silicon engineering and we want to help ensure the leaders of tomorrow
have access to transformational learning opportunities,” Lisa Jackson, Apple’s
vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, said in a
statement. -