Howard University plans to stand up a new hub for applied data sciences — and one of its first degrees will be shaped by Amazon Web Services, the school and company told the Washington Business Journal.
The partnership between Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud computing subsidiary and the historically Black university also promises to generate internships and career pathways for students, perhaps to jobs at HQ2.
The collaboration will boost Howard's presence in STEM fields, a central goal announced a few years ago, while providing students the skills they will need to address systemic challenges in other areas.
“Beyond the technical aspects of these fields, we want to focus on application of data scenes and data analytics,” said Dr. Anthony Wutoh, Howard provost and chief academic officer. “How we can utilize this technology to help address broader societal issues, like looking at things like health care disparities or criminal justice reform.”
The data sciences degree program will also provide Amazon access to a potentially diverse candidate pool, which in the long run could help the company reach its workforce equity goals.
This degree program is still in the planning phase and won’t be available at Howard this fall. But in the near team, the university will combine concepts from AWS Educate, Amazon's educational platform, into its current curriculum. Educators will get access to “cutting-edge” training resources provided by the company, the school said.
“We want to see a significant number of students go into our data science program,” Wutoh said. “While we are starting with a master's degree program, we certainly want to expand to a doctoral degree.”
Howard's under-development center for applied data sciences, Wutoh said, will serve as a home for educators in data science, cybersecurity, engineering and other related fields who are at the university but are spread across multiple schools. The AWS-aided master’s degree will be among the center’s first initiatives, he said.
Since Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) selected Arlington as the home of its second headquarters, universities across Greater Washington have announced plans to support the region's growing tech-talent demands. The first pillar of Howard's strategic plan involves investments in STEM education, according to the multiyear document. But, Wutoh sees the Amazon partnership as a means to solve another problem in the tech industry — the lack of diversity.
“We want to see a growing diversification of the workforce,” he said. “So the number of Howard students placed with Amazon and more broadly in the field will be an indication that we are seeing success.”
The school and company are still working out the details of internship opportunities, but Howard students will get access to the AWS “cloud-focused” job board, and company leaders will reach out to students to discuss company culture.
Amazon’s professional workforce, like most tech companies, remains largely white and male, according to data the company released only recently. Following months of racial justice protests and reporting that noted Amazon’s struggle to retain Black employees, the company committed to double Black employment year-over year.
“Overall the industry has a long way to go to get to where we believe we need to be,” said Kim Majerus, AWS leader for U.S. education, state and local government. “We have made year over year progress. But there is still a long way to go.”
This is not Howard's first partnership with a tech giant. Google teamed with the D.C. university in 2017 to offer a residency program for hundreds of students, but, as The Washington Post reported in March, the search-engine goliath was hit and miss with its investments, recruiting and diversity efforts — not only at Howard but HBCUs generally.
Surveys of the Google program, Wutoh said, turned up largely positive reviews from students and staff. Moreover, he said, when it comes to Amazon, the company has already proven a good partner. Howard Entertainment, a collaboration between Amazon Studios and Howard University that sends students to Los Angeles to work with the tech giant's streaming and movie arm, is now entering its second year.
“A number of students who participated in the first cohort have been hired by Amazon as a result of participating in the program,” Wutoh said.