In the battle to increase the numbers of African American Ph.D.s in science, technology and engineering, the nation may just have a secret weapon: historically Black colleges and universities. The statement may sound improbable. After all, only a handful of the nation's HBCUs offer doctoral programs. And education has long been the field of choice for African Americans choosing to tread the doctoral path. But consider this nugget of information: In May 2004, North Carolina A&T State University graduated 21 newly minted doctors from the three programs that offer the Ph.D. degree--industrial and systems engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering. Twelve of the graduates were African American, a number that leaves the previous leaders in that area--Johns Hopkins and Stanford universities, which graduated four Ph.D.s each in 2002-2003--in the dust.