White House science advisor visits NC State to see student innovation

On Friday, President Joe Biden’s top adviser on science and technology visited North Carolina State University to see firsthand how students are creating cleaner and more efficient energy systems.

It’s just a prototype now, but students have created a system is designed to turn energy from ocean waves into electric power. The storage of that power will hopefully provide electricity to remote areas off the coast.

Students at NC State’s FREEDM System Center are also developing extreme fast chargers for electric vehicles

Dr. Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology, saw the work firsthand.

“Think about the huge number of innovations that then turned into the industries that are today and that is what we are doing is investing in the university research that can spark these new ideas and educate the people who are going to go off into companies or start companies," she said.

Prabhakar says expanding renewable energy is key to the electric grid of the future.

Also important, she says, is manufacturing more products - like semiconductors - in the U.S.

"We are in a geopolitical competition and with China’s rise, I think we just have to be really, really clear that we can’t take any of this for granted and we have to be very purposeful about investing in America and making sure we are strong for ourselves and our role in the world," she said.

As the world changes, so does the work at NC State, where students say their focus is on making products that cleaner and more reliable.

"It’s this new kind of research and the people who are doing it that are going to be the seedbed for these industries of the future," said Prabhakar.

Prabhakar also visited with doctors and researchers at UNC’s Lineberger Cancer Center.