Binghamton University forges partnership with six HBCUs

VESTAL, N.Y. — In collaboration with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Binghamton University has announced a New Educational and Research Alliance (New ERA) with six historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

The HBCUs include Alabama A&M University, Central State University, Tuskegee University, Prairie-View A&M University, the University of the District of Columbia, and Virginia State University, per Binghamton University’s Tuesday announcement.

The partnership will focus on research collaborations among faculty and students across the participating institutions. The areas of research will include artificial intelligence (AI), data science, cybersecurity, materials, biomedical engineering, smart energy, future manufacturing, health care, and agriculture.

The partnership also will further support HBCUs in their pursuit of a high research Carnegie classification, Binghamton University said. By leveraging the strengths and expertise of all involved institutions, the alliance will provide additional resources and guidance to “elevate the research profiles” of HBCUs.

“Binghamton has a reputation of being a great research university, and some of our HBCUs are on the verge of becoming great in some areas,” N. Joyce Payne, founder of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, said in the announcement. “This was a prime opportunity to bring the two communities together to start the conversation.”

Plans for New ERA emerged from a three-day conference called the Emerging Technology and Broadening Participation Summit held June 5-7 at Binghamton University and organized by Binghamton’s Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science.

More than a dozen faculty members and students from the six HBCUs toured the college’s laboratories, met in research affinity groups with Watson faculty to discuss collaborations, and heard from speakers such as Tuskegee University Associate Professor Michael Curry, Binghamton University Distinguished Professor M. Stanley Whittingham (winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) and Visions Federal Credit Union President and CEO Tyrone Muse.