Miami-based Nanovation Technologies Inc. and the Microphotonics Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge announced that the company has agreed to donate $90 million over six years to establish a photonics research facility on the campus. Students will investigate photonics technologies for applications in telecommunications, data communications and computing.

Fifteen faculty members from the university's science and engineering schools will direct the new interdisciplinary research and development program. The endowment includes $10 million for the creation of professorships.

The center, which is an outgrowth of the school's Materials Processing Center, has sought industrial support for its work since its founding in the fall of 1998.