Morgan State University Receives $40 Million Federal Grant to Expand Engineering Programs

Morgan State University, Baltimore's historically Black research university, has been awarded a $40 million federal grant to expand its School of Engineering, part of a broader push to increase the number of Black engineers entering the workforce nationally.

The grant, distributed over five years, will fund new faculty hires, expanded laboratory space, and scholarships aimed at students pursuing degrees in civil, electrical, and industrial engineering. University officials said the funding will also support a new partnership with the Maryland State Highway Administration to give engineering students hands-on experience with infrastructure projects around Baltimore.

"Morgan has always produced engineers who go on to build things that matter in their communities," said the dean of Morgan State's School of Engineering. "This grant lets us scale that up significantly instead of doing it a few students at a time."

The university plans to hire 15 new tenure-track engineering faculty over the grant period and expects the funding to support scholarships for roughly 200 students who might not otherwise be able to afford a full engineering course load without working substantial outside hours. Morgan State's engineering enrollment has grown by more than 30 percent over the past five years, university data show, outpacing growth in most other programs on campus.

State higher education officials described the grant as a significant win for Morgan State's research designation, which the university achieved in recent years as it pushed to expand its doctoral programs and research output. University leadership said the new engineering building expansion tied to the grant is expected to begin construction within the next eighteen months.