Siobahn Day Grady Wants Everyone to Be AI Literate
IEEE Spectrum AI Aaron Mok
Siobahn Day Grady launched the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research (IAIER) at North Carolina Central University in January 2025, the first AI research institute at an HBCU, to build AI literacy across disciplines and address the unequal distribution of AI resources in higher education. The institute has engaged over 2,800 students, faculty, and community members through programs funded by a $1 million Google.org grant, including mandatory freshman AI courses and cross-departmental seed grants up to $10,000. The challenge now is sustaining momentum as demand grows faster than capacity, particularly as HBCUs receive less than 1 percent of federal research and development funding despite representing 3 percent of four-year institutions.
Why it matters
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the skills employers expect from new graduates. In response, universities are scrambling to launch new courses, research centers, and industry partnerships that prepare students for today’s workforce. But building a cutting-edge AI curriculum demands funding and access to industry networks, resources that remain unevenly distributed across higher education. At North Carolina Central University, Siobahn Day Grady is trying to change that equation.In January 2025, Grady, an associate professor in the NCCU School of Library and Information Sciences, launched the first AI research institute at a historically Black college or university, or HBCU. The Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research (IAIER) aims in part to help students and faculty across the university develop the skills needed to navigate a labor market increasingly transformed by AI.“There used to be a time where people could say, ‘I don’t do tech,’ or ‘That’s not for me,’”
