The President today will announce new steps with the private sector to strengthen the manufacturing sector, boost advanced manufacturing, and attract the good paying jobs that a growing middle class requires. The President will announce the selection of a North Carolina headquartered consortium of businesses and universities, led by North Carolina State University, to lead a manufacturing innovation institute for next generation power electronics. 

A group of businesses and universities, led by North Carolina State University, will work together to design and manufacture next-generation, low-power semiconductors, U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday. The new manufacturing innovation institute, one of five such innovation hubs proposed by Obama last February, will focus on enabling a new generation of energy-efficient, high-power electronic chips and devices by making so-called wide bandgap semiconductor technologies cost-competitive with silicon-based technologies in the next five years, Obama said during a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina.