GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1991 SESSION

CHAPTER 316
HOUSE BILL 1086

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE PIEDMONT TRIAD RESEARCH INSTITUTE TO OPERATE THE PIEDMONT TRIAD GRADUATE ENGINEERING PROGRAM, BASED AT WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY AND SERVING THE ENTIRE PIEDMONT TRIAD.

Whereas, North Carolina is the tenth largest state in population and must maintain and enhance its position as a significant center for high technology research, development, and manufacturing; and
Whereas, in order to accomplish this task, the State needs to combine and work with two of its most visible and important components – its medical excellence and its base in information systems, the medical component being obvious by the excellent reputation of its universities and hospitals, and the information systems base being evidenced by the unrivaled "CONCERT"network and by its universities, in particular, the Center for Communications and Signal Processing at North Carolina State University at Raleigh, and the Communications, Signal Processing Expert Systems, and the Application Specific Integrated Circuit – Very Large Scale Integration (ASIC VLSI) Design Laboratory at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; and
Whereas, the State can, by combining these and other resources, produce another island of excellence in the Piedmont Triad by forming the Piedmont Triad Research Institute and the Piedmont Triad Graduate Engineering Program, affiliated with the premier universities of the Piedmont Triad, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, as well as with North Carolina State University at Raleigh, the State's major engineering school; and
Whereas, with this strategic approach, a cooperative climate will develop whereby research and education in medicine, engineering, computer science, mathematics, and physical and chemical sciences will be heightened and whereby this environment will attract industries involved in these areas to the Triad as a conduit for research and technology transfer; Now, therefore,

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  Chapter 116 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article to read:
"ARTICLE 31.
"Piedmont Triad Research Institute and Graduate Engineering Program.
"§ 116-250.  Piedmont Triad Regional Institute; establishment; board of directors; purpose.
(a)	There is established the Piedmont Triad Research Institute as a nonprofit corporation registered and regulated pursuant to Chapter 55A of the General Statutes.
(b)	The Articles of Incorporation of the Institute shall constitute the board of directors of the Institute of individuals representing industrial and business interests in the Triad area, and of representatives of the following universities:
(1)	North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University;
(2)	North Carolina State University at Raleigh;
(3)	Wake Forest University; and
(4)	Winston-Salem State University.
(c)	The Institute is established to further education and research in engineering, particularly as engineering may be applied to medicine.
"§ 116-251.  Piedmont Triad Regional Institute's Director; funding administration duties.
The Director of the Piedmont Triad Research Institute shall report directly to the board of directors of the Institute.  The Director shall administer the Institute's funds from three primary sources for the general operation of the Institute and the fourth for the operation of the Piedmont Triad Graduate Engineering Program established by G.S. 116-252.  These sources of funds are as follows:
(1)	Funds from external research funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health;
(2)	Funds from industries in support of specific research projects;
(3)	Funds from block grants from foundations and chambers of commerce; and
(4)	Funds appropriated to the Institute from the State in support of the Piedmont Triad Graduate Engineering Program established by G.S. 116-252.
"§ 116-252. Piedmont Triad Graduate Engineering Program; establishment; purpose.
There is established the Piedmont Triad Graduate Engineering Program, to be housed in Winston-Salem in facilities provided by the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University.  The program shall support faculty and graduate students involved in engineering at the campuses of The University of North Carolina in order to allow their participation in engineering teaching and research in the Program, which shall provide much-needed university-level engineering education to the Piedmont Triad area.
The Program shall begin to be phased in effective for the academic year 1991-92.
"§ 116-253.  Piedmont Triad Graduate Engineering Program; Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina; adoption of rules.
The Board of Governors, pursuant to its authority under G.S. 116-11, shall adopt rules, after consultation with the board of directors of the Piedmont Triad Research Institute, to implement this Article as it affects the ongoing roles of The University of North Carolina and its designated constituent institutions in the Piedmont Triad Graduate Engineering Program and in the education and research projects of the Institute."
Sec. 2.  Nothing in this act obligates this General Assembly or future General Assembly to appropriate any funds to implement it or obligates the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina to allocate any funds to implement it.
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1991.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 18th day of June, 1991.

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James C. Gardner
President of the Senate

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Daniel Blue, Jr.
Speaker of the House of Representatives