"In terms of retaining and developing core competencies for a razor-sharp competitive edge, IBM is joining forces to take on challenges of top strategic importance to the future of the automotive industry worldwide - and do so by helping in the training of top talent here in Greenville."

Todd Kirtley, General Manager of IBM Global Services for the Industrial Sector

Microsoft is also committed to being a part of the center and will announce the details of its participation later.

The site consists of a 250-acre Clemson campus and an adjacent 150-acre property that will be privately developed by Rosen Associates. President and CEO Cliff Rosen has been integral in helping the vision of the automotive research center become a reality.

Eventually, the campus is expected to include unique research and testing facilities, such as an automotive electronics systems lab, crash-worthiness lab, fuels lab with an emphasis in hydrogen-based research, and a full-scale wind tunnel.

Graduate engineering center
The $25 million graduate engineering center, at BMW's request, will be named for former governor Carroll A. Campbell Jr., who helped recruit the company to South Carolina. The center will house nine faculty members and up to 50 graduate students, who are expected to generate $5 million a year in external research support.

The graduate programs will focus on systems integration, addressing a growing challenge in the automotive industry as car components become increasingly computerized.

Graduates of the program will be prepared to meet the engineering and management challenges of designing and building a highly complex automobile in which mechanical, electrical and digital technologies work together to drive safety, performance, comfort and even entertainment.

Clemson will collaborate with Greenville Technical College to prepare the technical staff that will be needed as the campus develops.

Support
Two bills approved in 2002 by the S.C. General Assembly are providing key support -- the Research Centers of Excellence Act and the State General Obligation Economic Development Bond Act.

The Clemson project already has generated more than $90 million in public and private support:

• $10 million from BMW to endow the graduate engineering center;
• $5 million in additional private support for the graduate center from BMW suppliers;
• $15 million in matching funds from South Carolina's Research Centers of Excellence Act, which earmarks lottery revenues for endowed chairs;
• $40 million from the state's economic development incentive bond act to build and equip the graduate engineering center and build the information technology center that will be leased by BMW;
• $14 million in state funding for roads and other infrastructure;
• $1.1 million in a first-year commitment from IBM;
• $7 million to be raised by the Clemson University Foundation to purchase land.

Construction
The campus will be built on 400 acres of prime Greenville property that fronts Interstate 85 halfway between Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta, Ga., a corridor that is home to two-thirds of the nation's motorsports racing teams. There are 200 automotive-related businesses in South Carolina and another 114 automotive industry suppliers located in the Palmetto State.

Construction will begin this year on the graduate engineering center, located on the research and education campus at the intersection of I-85 and Laurens Road in Greenville. Initial plans call for a four-story building with space for laboratories, classrooms and offices. An additional $30 million from the state Research Centers of Economic Excellence program and matching industry awards will secure three endowed chairs and six additional faculty members.

The research synergy between the center and related campus research is predicted to generate more than $10 million of external funds a year eventually.

The center director is expected to be on board later this year. An international search has begun, seeking top applicants from industry and academics.

At the wheel
Clemson's new Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center will put South Carolina in the driver's seat in the emerging field of automotive systems integration.

As any motorist can see from behind the wheel, automobiles and computers are increasingly intertwined. Today's dashboards glow with global positioning units while sensors monitor tire traction and pedal pressure applied to the brakes.

Systems integration is a critical challenge for the automotive industry as car components become more complex. It is also a challenge for a host of other industries, ranging from computers to gas turbine generators.

Through the graduate engineering center and related research labs, Clemson faculty and students will find ways to integrate the scores of different systems in automotive development and manufacturing.

The center, set to open in 2005, will build on existing strengths at Clemson, where researchers already collaborate with some of the world's top automotive companies and motorsports industry. (See "Already at Clemson" for many of the University's current auto-related research projects.)

"You need people who understand a range of disciplines and know how to put them together," says Imtiaz Haque, chair of Clemson's mechanical engineering department. "That's where Clemson comes in."

"The park is going to be a key driver of South Carolina's economic engine, a job-creating shot in the arm for the Upstate as well as a huge step toward making our state a major player in the emerging high-tech economy."

S.C. Governor Mark Sanford

"The campus will serve the state's existing automotive industry cluster and help attract new ones by bringing together a graduate program that can provide a highly educated work force and research expertise with testing facilities not available in the United States."

Chris Przirembel, Clemson Vice President for Research

"We're creating what's going to be an international magnet for automotive research in our own backyard and planting the flag for an aggressive economic development effort in the months and years to come."

S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bob Faith