Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) has awarded $5 million to Howard University to create a new research initiative on campus that will delve into racial bias within the financial services industry, the university said Tuesday.
The new Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics will include a master’s degree in applied data science, as well as a discussion series on racial equity and inclusive growth, to support research into how Black communities face systemic challenges in the credit approval process — specially through artificial intelligence and algorithmic bias.
But beyond the financial industry and the growing regional need for a diverse tech talent pipeline, data science has broad applications, said Anthony Wutoh, Howard University's provost.
"As an area that is going to continue to be significantly impactful in our economy, going to be significantly impactful in terms of the types of positions and the types of roles that graduates are going to have and the types of skills that they will need to have, like Mastercard, we have concerns that currently this is an area that doesn't have a lot of minority students," Wutoh said in an interview with the Washington Business Journal.
The center will launch during the spring semester, and Howard will prioritize recruiting tenure-track data science faculty. The center will add seven faculty members who specialize in data science: some of whom will be salaried through the grant, and others whose positions will be funded by the university, Wutoh said.
Mastercard is helping with the cluster hiring process, and Howard has also asked the deans of each of its colleges to submit proposals for the faculty appointments, which will be reviewed in the next month, he said.
“We’re looking through our physical space now to identify a physical location for the center,” Wutoh said. “Initially we’ll likely be operating virtually, but we’ll be identifying a physical space. We wanted to have the Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics be a home for our data science faculty.”
William Southerland, a Howard professor of biochemistry and molecular biology who serves as principal investigator of the university’s Research Centers in Minority Institutions Program, will be the center’s interim director.
The center will partner with other historically Black colleges and universities on curricula and research, as well as other corporate leaders, for workforce and talent development for students interested in data science careers.
The grant is delivered through the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth’s Impact Fund, as part of the Purchase, New York-based financial services company’s racial equity commitment.
Salah Goss, the senior vice president of social impact at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, said the partnership with Howard was more than a year in the making.
“If you look at Howard’s reputation – and they’ve been just a beacon in terms of really cultivating Black talent — if you look at the importance that we put on our talent pipeline and really supporting the minds of the future, and if you think about algorithmic bias and how important that is for financial inclusion, something that we’ve been doing for years, it was a no-brainer,” Goss said in an interview.
