Microsoft Awards $3.4 Million Technology Grant to New England Center for Children

Microsoft has donated $3.4 million in software and services to the New England Center for Children (NECC), an institute that provides education and research for children with autism. The grant will be used to update the center’s technology infrastructure, with goals toward improving communications, data storage and reliability.

“The New England Center for Children is honored to be a recipient of Microsoft’s generous philanthropic gift of industry-leading software,” said Vincent Strully, Jr., founder and CEO of the NECC, in a prepared statement. “Microsoft’s donation allows us to maximize our resources and provide our students with the innovative programs, facilities and materials they need to thrive.”

“The New England Center for Children performs a critically important role in educating children with autism and Microsoft is delighted to provide our technology to help in the center’s mission,” said Robert Davy, general manager of Microsoft, in a prepared statement. “Through Microsoft Philanthropies, we’re investing Microsoft’s strongest assets to drive greater inclusion and empowerment of people who may not have access to technology and the opportunities it offers and enables.”

A 501 (c)(3) nonprofit based in Southborough, MA, the NECC built its core computing infrastructure on Windows technology in order to provide a dynamic and immersive technology experience for both staff and students. With Microsoft’s gift, NECC plans to upgrade to newer, more robust versions of Exchange, SQL and Windows Server. All staff and student computing devices will be upgraded to Windows 10 in an effort to provide a secure, flexible and unified end user experience.

Also with this donation, NECC will be able to streamline data collection for its Autism Curriculum Encyclopedia (ACE) program that all 800 teachers at NECC use while working one-on-one with their students. The ACE is a web-based toolkit which provides an interactive interface containing assessment tools, lesson plans, teaching materials and student performance reports for more than 1,300 skills drawn from the curriculum used at NECC. ACE is used by more than 4,700 users in 24 states and nine foreign countries, according to a news release.

“Many of our students use technology to learn, to interact with the world around them and even to simply communicate,” said Beth Bellone, director of speech and language services at NECC, in a prepared statement. “A percentage of our student population is non-verbal, and with the use of technology, they can ask for what they need or communicate how they are feeling.”

NECC provides its teaching staff with Surface tablets to facilitate teaching, administrative and data collection functions. NECC’s services include home-based, day and residential programs; public school partnerships and consulting; autism research programs; and the ACE curriculum software.

In addition to its Southborough headquarters, NECC also operates a center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

About the Author

Richard Chang is associate editor of THE Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • chart with ascending bars and two silhouetted figures observing it, set against a light background with blue and purple tones

    Report: Enterprises Are Embracing Agentic AI

    According to a new report from SnapLogic, 50% of enterprises are already deploying AI agents, and another 32% plan to do so within the next 12 months..

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • student using a tablet with math symbols dissolving into a glowing AI

    Survey: Students Say AI Use Can Reduce Math Anxiety

    In a recent survey, 56% of high school students said that the use of artificial intelligence can go a long way toward reducing math anxiety.