NC State's Centennial Campus Poised for Growth

RALEIGH, NC, September 26, 2010 (Press-News.org) Centennial Campus is on a roll.

North Carolina State University's research park and technology campus has not only has weathered the downturn in the economy, but it is poised for a growth spurt. Below are some of its most recent announcements:

- The U.S. Department of Interior has announced that a new federal hub for climate research (the only one in the Southeast) will be located on Centennial Campus. The center is part of a broader effort by the government agency to deal with the effects of climate change on U.S. land, water, ocean, fish, wildlife and cultural resources. As many as a dozen federal employees, including scientists, will move to the campus to work with NC State researchers.

- One of the top business schools in France SKEMA (School of Knowledge Economy and Management) is leasing space on Centennial Campus so it can begin teaching classes in January. This is the school's first program in the United States and they chose NC State because of its close proximity to Research Triangle Park and the robust business climate in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. The French school will offer several undergraduate and graduate business programs and is working with NC State's College of Management.

- Centennial Campus has signed three new corporate partners to leases for space. Phononic Devices is an early-stage company commercializing advanced thermoelectric materials and devices. The company's proprietary approach combines thermopower with a thermally insulating and manufacturing-friendly semiconductor platform to dramatically improve the efficiency of heat-to-electricity conversion. Green Energy Corporation is a technology company providing software engineering services to communications, utilities and energy companies. The company provides several products and solutions for the utilities industry, including smart grid technology. Pentair Water Pool and Spa is the world's leading manufacturer of pool and spa equipment and accessories. The company's commercial division offers swimming pool equipment for commercial, large residential and large exterior water environments such as aquariums, zoos, water parks, and resort swimming pools.

- A new student innovation incubator center was launched recently on Centennial Campus. The hub, called "The Garage," will be open 24 hours a day and seven days week, allowing students to brainstorm ideas and come up with new businesses any time they feel inspired. Red Hat, a corporate partner on Centennial, sponsored the outfitting of the space.

- NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson announced a new innovation portal, called the Springboard Innovation Partnership Portal. The aim of the Springboard portal is to create a "one-stop shop" for researchers who want to find collaborators or market their inventions, businesses looking for creative solutions, and faculty, staff, and students who want entrepreneurial training. The portal's offices are located on Centennial Campus.

- One of the buildings on Centennial Campus was recently installed with 268 solar panels, which will be used by the FREEDM Systems Center to study how distributed renewable energy can be tied to the current electrical grid. The FREEDM Center is the only National Science Foundation-funded center to focus exclusively on green grid research. The goal is to use breakthrough research to find new ways to create a "distributed energy" network of electrical power in which energy flows in two directions, from houses and businesses to the electric power company and back.

- A state-of-the-art building for engineering students recently opened on Centennial Campus. This is the third building to be constructed on Centennial specifically for NC State's College of Engineering. About two-thirds of the College is now located on campus. Engineering Building III will house two departments: the joint NC State-UNC Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Both programs offer undergraduate and graduate degrees.

- Construction continues on Centennial Campus for the James B. Hunt, Jr. Library, a state-of-the-art 139,000-square-foot building which will feature a state-of-the-art robotic book retrieval system. In addition to the basics--wireless connectivity and easy access to electrical power--the environment in Hunt Library will be permeated with virtual browsing, video-conferencing, on-line room scheduling, collaborative projection, whiteboards, video walls, and technology-enabled furniture.

About Centennial Campus and NC State University
Centennial Campus (http://www.centennial.ncsu.edu) is an internationally recognized 1,314-acre research park and technology campus owned and operated by North Carolina University. Home to more than 60 corporate, government and non-profit partners, such as Red Hat, ABB, and the USDA, collaborative research projects vary from nanofibers and secure open systems technology to serious gaming and biomedical engineering. Four university college programs also have a significant presence on campus - College of Engineering, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Textiles and the College of Education. NC State is one of the top research universities in the country, with expenditures in research approaching more than $325 million annually. The university ranks third among all public universities (without medical schools) in industry-sponsored research expenditures. (http://www.ncsu.edu)