HARC's first research program, a laser study of materials, was sponsored by the Strategic Defense Initiative program in 1983. The following year in 1984, the University of Texas joined the HARC Consortium which already included the original universities that Mr. Mitchell had sought out. In 1985, an act of the Texas Legislature created HARC's Geotechnology Research Institute (GTRI), to improve technology used in oil and gas exploration. That same year the Center for Global Studies was merged into HARC as an operating division. The Center organized the Woodlands Conferences, managed the Mitchell Prize competition, and developed field work in Houston, the Rio Grande and Northeast Brazil. In 1986, NEC chose HARC for the location of its NEC SX-2, its first supercomputer in North America.