State institutions of higher learning; create grant program to assist with endowments to recruit and employ certain professors.

HB 544 creates a grant program administered by the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) to help public universities establish endowments specifically for recruiting and hiring professors in quantum computing and artificial intelligence engineering. It requires universities to apply with details about their endowment goals, existing funding, and requested grant amounts. The bill establishes a dedicated "State Institutions of Higher Learning Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence Engineering Professors Fund" in the state treasury, with unspent funds rolling over annually. This program directly affects Mississippi's public universities seeking to strengthen faculty in these high-demand technical fields.