Fayetteville State University is one of the latest recipients of the DOD’s Nunn-Perry Award. They were selected because of their “collaboration and innovation” under the MPP, which allowed the school to partner with Booz Allen Hamilton and Masego Advanced Demographic Attribution (ADA) Data. 

“Fayetteville State University … provided critical support in partnership with Booz Allen and Masego to enable ADA Data through data collection, processing, and automation activities between 2018 and 2021, with student skills in computer science, geography, history, and political science. Two of the FSU student team leads were hired by Masego and have continued to support the project beyond graduation,” the university said in a press release. 

The principal investigator of the project was Dr. Sambit Bhattacharya, a professor of computer science at FSU and director of the Intelligent Systems Lab. 

The DOD MPP was established in 1990 to help prime contractors meet their Small Disadvantaged Business subcontracting goals. The Nunn-Perry Award was named in honor of former Senator Sam Nunn and former Secretary of Defense William Perry; they both played important roles in the launch of the MPP. The first award was given out in 1995.