The University of California, Irvine has announced a $10.4 million gift from the Steckler Charitable Fund in support of art history scholarship and to establish a center focused on making the field of computing more inclusive.

The fund established by alumnus Vincent Steckler ('80) and his wife, Amanda, will allocate $5.4 million to endowed funds that provide experiential learning, research-related travel, mentoring, career-building opportunities, and fellowships to art history graduate and undergraduate students. The remaining $5 million will establish the Center for Responsible, Ethical, and Accessible Technologies (CREATe) within the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences, with $2 million going to establish a faculty chair and $3 million creating endowments in support of CREATe activities, a graduate student fellowship, and programming over the next four years.

Steckler, the former CEO of Avast Antivirus Software, previously made a gift of $1 million to UCI in support of the art history department and the Bren School.

"I believe that the Center for Responsible, Ethical, and Accessible Technologies could dramatically change some of the toxic tendencies within Silicon Valley. And if we change the way Silicon Valley operates, we can change the world," said Steckler. "At the same time, art is a crucial part of the human experience. The art history courses I took at UCI made such an impression on me. What I learned ignited a lifelong passion for and appreciation of art that I’ve been able to share with my wife, Amanda, and our five children."