Howard University campus opening at Google in diversity push

Google is trying something new to boost diversity.

The tech giant is partnering with Howard University to launch "Howard West," a three-month summer program open to rising juniors and seniors studying computer science.

The 25 to 30 students selected for this summer's program will be taught by senior Google engineers and Howard faculty on Google's Mountain View campus and will receive a stipend for housing and other expenses in Silicon Valley.

Alanna Walton, a junior majoring in computer science at Howard, said students are excited about the program.

"There are no HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) on the West Coast. To bring a whole bunch of black students to the West Coast to learn is a great experience," she told CNNTech. "Pretty much the whole campus understands how big this is."

Google (GOOG) plans to expand the program to other historically black colleges and universities in the "near future." Howard called the move a "major step forward" for Google's efforts to recruit and keep diverse talent.

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Google pledges $11.5M to fight racial bias in policing, sentencing

Google is handing out $11.5 million in grants to organizations combating racial disparities in the criminal justice system, double what it has given so far.

And, in keeping with a company built on information, the latest wave of grants target organizations that crunch data to pinpoint problems and propose solutions.

"There is significant ambiguity regarding the extent of racial bias in policing and criminal sentencing," says Justin Steele, principal with Google.org, the Internet giant's philanthropic arm. "We must find ways to improve the accessibility and usefulness of information."

Among the organizations receiving funds from Google.org is the Center for Policing Equity, a national research center that collaborates with police departments and the communities they serve to track statistics on law enforcement actions, from police stops to the use of force. In addition to the grant of $5 million, Google engineers will put their time and skills to work on improving the center's national database.

"It's hard to measure justice," says Phillip Atiba Goff, the center's co-founder and president. "In policing, data are so sparse and they are not shared broadly. The National Justice Database is an attempt to measure justice so that people who want to do the right thing can use that metric to lay out a GPS for getting where we are trying to go. That's really what we see Google as being a key partner in helping us do."

Read more: Google pledges $11.5M to fight racial bias in policing, sentencing

Google adds first black board member.

Google parent company Alphabet is adding finance chops and diversity to its board with the appointment of economist Roger Ferguson.

Ferguson is the first African American to serve on the board of Alphabet and Google, marking a major milestone in Google's effort to bring more diversity to the technology industry.

Ferguson will serve on Alphabet's audit committee. With his appointment, he receives a $1 million equity grant, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Google awards #BlackLivesMatter $500,000 grant

Google.org announced a series of racial justice grants it awarded to a number of social justice causes and organizations. Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter, was one of the first recipients of Google.org’s new giving cause, receiving a $500,000 grant.

The grant will support Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors, a fellow with the center who is working with the ACLU on a police violence reporting app.

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Tech summit addresses industry's lack of diversity

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson spent most of this year pressuring the technology industry into facing up to the glaring scarcity of women, blacks and Latinos at companies renowned as great places to work.

Now comes Diversity 2.0 — finding ways to reverse a deep-rooted problem that isn't going to be as easy to fix as writing new lines of code for a computer bug.

The challenges, along with some of the potential solutions, were explored Wednesday at a Silicon Valley summit organized by Jackson and his group, Rainbow Push.

In a show of their commitment, Google, Apple, Facebook and more than other 20 other tech companies sent representatives to the forum held at the Santa Clara, California, headquarters of a Silicon Valley pioneer, computer chipmaker Intel Corp. The crowd of roughly 300 people also included entrepreneurs, academics and nonprofit groups eager to change the cultural and educational milieu that turned computer programming into an occupation dominated by white and Asian men.

Read more: Tech summit addresses industry's lack of diversity

Jesse Jackson presses Facebook on lack of diversity

[SOURCE] Jesse Jackson isn’t keeping quiet about the lack of diversity in the tech industry’s ranks.

The civil rights veteran and former presidential candidate plans to attend Facebook’s annual shareholders meeting in Redwood City today, pressing the company to include more minorities on its board and within its executive ranks. He has paid similar visits to shareholder meetings of eBay, Google and Hewlett-Packard this spring.

“At its best, technology can be a tremendously positive change agent for the world,” Jackson said, in a prepared statement. “At its worst, it can hold on to old patterns that exclude people of color and women from opportunity and advancement. Silicon Valley and the tech industry must transform itself to mirror the America it depends upon for talent and customers.”

Staff diversity among tech companies has come under increasing scrutiny, with many critics decrying a “bro culture” that often tends to be white and male. Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition are trying to focus some of that attention on the lack of diversity in the tech world’s board rooms and C-suites.

They’ve had some small successes. Last week, Google announced it would release a report that includes race and gender statistics for its workforce.

Nas Teams Up with Google and Microsoft for Tech-Based Scholarships

These are the stories we don't hear enough about. Many Hip Hop stars give back but for some reason it has to be a secret. Of course most rappers are not as socially aware as Nas is but they can aspire to be. Big kudos to Nas. I don't know if they makes up for "Oochie Wally" but it's a start. LOL. George Cook AAReports.com.

[ SOURCE ] General Assembly, a private technical school in New York has created a new fund designed to increase minority participation in the tech world, and it’s receiving help from none other than Nas. The hip-hop artist has enlisted the help of Hirepurpose and tech giants Google and Microsoft to help fund the new initiative. Nas’ own Queensbridge Venture Partners will fund scholarships aimed at African-Americans and Latinos, while Google’s contributions will help fund women’s scholarships and Microsoft and Hirepurpose will fund scholarships for veterans.