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Research shows how AI is getting better at exams: How universities can respond
Confirmed
In Short: The report also found that 17 of the 43 federal agencies that distributed research funding to universities in 2023 awarded no funding to HBCUs.
Grady, an associate professor at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), has launched the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research (IAIER), marking the first AI research institute at a historically Black college or university (HBCU).
In January 2025, Grady initiated the IAIER, building on her earlier efforts to establish the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research at NCCU in 2020.
Since its inception, the IAIER has expanded to include university-wide AI initiatives, new academic programs, and research opportunities.
The institute's establishment underscores the growing importance of AI in higher education and the need for universities to adapt to the changing workforce demands.
Despite HBCUs accounting for only 3 percent of four-year institutions in the U.S., they receive less than 1 percent of federal research and development funding, according to a 2025 report by the Center for American Progress and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
This disparity highlights the challenges HBCUs face in securing funding for research and development.
Grady's initiative is part of a broader trend where universities are launching new courses, research centers, and industry partnerships to prepare students for today’s workforce.
The institute's success has prompted calls for increased collaboration and support from governments, universities, and companies to address the growing importance of AI in national security and the balance of military power.
However, concerns have been raised over proposed inter-university transfers of teaching and non-teaching staff, which could disrupt academic and research programs.
Academics argue that such transfers could affect research students, particularly where specialized faculty, laboratories, and libraries have been developed around specific research areas.
They warn that transferring faculty could leave young research students without mentors and disrupt established research centers in older universities.
What this adds
The initiative highlights the need for HBCUs to secure more funding for research and development.
Academics are concerned that proposed inter-university staff transfers could disrupt research programs and affect students.
What's confirmed
- Grady, an associate professor at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), has launched the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research (IAIER), marking the first AI research institute at a historically Black college or university (HBCU).
- In January 2025, Grady initiated the IAIER, building on her earlier efforts to establish the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research at NCCU in 2020.
- Since its inception, the IAIER has expanded to include university-wide AI initiatives, new academic programs, and research opportunities.
- The institute's establishment underscores the growing importance of AI in higher education and the need for universities to adapt to the changing workforce demands.
- Despite HBCUs accounting for only 3 percent of four-year institutions in the U.S., they receive less than 1 percent of federal research and development funding, according to a 2025 report by the Center for American Progress and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
- This disparity highlights the challenges HBCUs face in securing funding for research and development.
- Grady's initiative is part of a broader trend where universities are launching new courses, research centers, and industry partnerships to prepare students for today’s workforce.
- The institute's success has prompted calls for increased collaboration and support from governments, universities, and companies to address the growing importance of AI in national security and the balance of military power.
- However, concerns have been raised over proposed inter-university transfers of teaching and non-teaching staff, which could disrupt academic and research programs.
- Academics argue that such transfers could affect research students, particularly where specialized faculty, laboratories, and libraries have been developed around specific research areas.
- They warn that transferring faculty could leave young research students without mentors and disrupt established research centers in older universities.
What's still developing
- Then in 2024, an opportunity emerged to apply for a Google grant, and Grady began thinking beyond a single research group.
- Each conference year, the AbSciCon Poster Competition recognizes outstanding research by early-career scientists working to understand life's place in the universe.
- This year's competition drew 63 participants from universities and research institutions across the country.
- Silva Ethige, The University of Alabama By finding green algae performing photosynthesis in the near-dark, red-shifted twilight zones of Carlsbad Caverns, Isuru's research explores how oxygen-producing photosynthesis may be possible on planets orbiting the dim, cool stars that are the most common in our galaxy.
- ASPI’s research shows that China is either already ahead or poised to take the lead in research on several quantum technologies.
- ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker (CTT) shows that China is already the country producing the most high-impact research on quantum communication and post-quantum cryptography.
- China also produces the most highly cited research papers on quantum sensors, although the United States, in second place, is narrowly ahead on the H-index, which balances the quantity and quality of research.
- ASPI revealed a dramatic increase since 2019 in research collaborations between China and Russia on critical and dual-use technologies.
- ASPI analysis conducted in 2025 showed that most democracies had been slower than the US to sever research partnerships with Chinese institutions.
- Later this year, Austrade’s mission in London will host a delegation of Australian quantum companies that are seeking access to European markets, capital and research.
- To respond, governments, universities and companies in Australia and other technologically advanced democracies should deepen cooperation, while cutting collaboration with China and other authoritarian regimes.
- Quantum technologies have significant implications for national security and the balance of military power: China’s civilian research on quantum technologies is entangled with its military build-up and coercive statecraft.