Investing in Technology and Education

Building the leaders of tomorrow requires investing in education at both the high school and college level. Nobody understands that better than the Motorola Foundation. The foundation recognizes the importance in supporting students in their formative years to prepare them for the rigorous work ahead in college and the workforce. 

They invest in the connections between the formative high school years and the rigorous college years, and they are working with Carnegie Mellon to build a much-needed pipeline of technological talent for the future.

The Motorola Foundation recently made a significant gift to Carnegie Mellon to support two programs at Carnegie Mellon—Summer Academy for Math and Science (SAMS) and the Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact (ARTSI) alliance. Both programs focus on encouraging under represented minorities to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. This is the second year that the foundation has provided such generous support for these programs.

The SAMS program targets high school juniors and seniors who are strong students that show promise of becoming excellent candidates for leading universities, but require focused skill development and academic motivation. Since its inception in 2001, more than 800 students have participated in SAMS. 

“We are grateful to Motorola, a true leader in championing innovative STEM education opportunities. said Ty Walton, director of the SAMS program. “These numbers could not be possible without Motorola's vision of making the sciences accessible, meaningful and fun to underrepresented students and others.”

ARTSI is an alliance of leading research institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that creates awareness and increases participation by African American students in robotics through collaborative robotics education and research projects. Alliance members create research projects that are designed to improve society while also encouraging entrepreneurship.

"The ARTSI Alliance is increasing the number of African American students pursuing graduate training in science and technology.  Motorola's support has been an important factor in our success as we've grown to include 13 HBCUs and 9 major research universities,” said David Touretzky, ARTSI co-director.

Carnegie Mellon leaders from ARTSI and SAMS recently attended Motorola Foundation’s Innovation Generation grantee conference.  The conference helped bridge the gap between corporate and non-profit sectors by bringing together more than 100 grantees and leaders in STEM fields.  Leaders shared proven best practices and worked to cultivate a more informed core group of advocates to improve STEM educational awareness.

With the Motorola Foundation as a valued partner, Carnegie Mellon is inspiring future generations to be the leaders in science and technology fields.