Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
FL · AI Readiness #149 of 227
AIREDEX™ Score: 6.1 /10
FAMU undergraduates gain hands-on AI experience through the Cyber Policy Institute's student fellowship and internship programs, which draw students from seven or more majors and connect them directly to industry partners and real-world AI governance projects.
FAMU's AI and Data Science Workshop series has grown from five participants to more than 150 students and faculty, and the university's National Research Platform partnership with UC San Diego gives students access to more than 1,300 shared GPUs for applied research. That same institute, funded by a $5 million Hewlett Foundation grant, anchors the university's cross-disciplinary approach by embedding AI ethics, digital governance, and policy training across STEM and non-STEM fields alike. Two university-wide AI councils, one academic and one operational, are actively shaping how AI tools and curricula will be deployed across campus in the coming years.
Pillar grades
- Commitment: B-
- Curriculum: C-
- Partnerships: B+
- Research: B-
A(I)ttitude™: cautious
Selected Highlights
- Two distinct AI governance bodies confirmed: 20-member AI Advisory Council (chaired by Desmond Stephens, Ph.D., Asst. Provost) and Operational AI Council (led by Deidre Melton, AVP for Enterprise Risk Management), both with cross-campus membership and documented public outputs within past 2 years.
- Three distinct AI-related financial commitments confirmed: $5.35M NTIA federal grant (broadband/research infrastructure), $5M Hewlett Foundation grant (Cyber Policy Institute), $500K NSF grant (AI/ML in biology education, HBCU collaborative). Total ~$10.85M.
- Two cross-disciplinary AI bodies confirmed: AI and Data Science Cluster (Richard Aló, PI, spanning STEM and humanities) and Cyber Policy Institute (Darryl Scriven, Interim Director, jointly housed in CSSAH and CST) with active programming including faculty fellows, student interns, and white paper pipeline.
- Cyber Policy Institute confirmed as institutional responsible AI body with $5M Hewlett backing, named faculty fellows (Brown, Burney, Mulay, Taylor), 10-student AI intern cohort, AI Community Learning Series, and explicit AI ethics and governance mandate.
- National Research Platform access via UCSD/CalIT2 partnership confirmed, providing 1,300+ shared GPUs, 100+ AI modules, 5,000+ datasets; local 32-GPU cluster (8 in place); 100 Gbps broadband via NTIA grant -- highest broadband speed among HBCUs.