RALEIGH -- Wednesday, President Obama announced that North Carolina State University had been selected to lead the Next Generation Power Electronics Innovation Institute. NC State Vice Chancellor of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development - Terri Lomax - says the research will lead to improving efficiency of semiconductors, which are in many of our devices.

According to Lomax, "It's in your cell phone, it's in your television, it's in your cars, it's everything that we do that has any kind of power, uses silicon-based semiconductors. And what we're working on, is the next generation of those energy-moving devices that will be much more efficient and much more powerful."

The program contains a $70,000,000 grant from the Department of Energy - the largest grant in North Carolina State University history. In September of last year, NC State received a $60,000,000 grant from the National Security Agency, which was - at the time - the largest grant in school history.