The ARTSI Alliance is an NSF-funded consortium of 17 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and 8 major research universities that encourages students from under-represented groups, particularly African Americans, to pursue advanced training in computer science and robotics. Hampton University, an HBCU, is the lead institution; Carnegie Mellon is the lead research university. ARTSI schools offer robotics courses using Carnegie Mellon's Tekkotsu Robotics curriculum, and ARTSI students do summer internship in robotics labs at Carnegie Mellon and the other research universities in the Alliance. Other ARTSI activities include an annual student research conference and robotics competition, an annual summer faculty workshop, and K-12 outreach programs targeting local schools serving minority populations.