Princeton, Research Company Reap Benefits of High-Speed Broadband System

From left to right: Chamberlain, Mangrich, and Bird.

Build it, and they will come.

          No, we’re not talking about a baseball diamond from the Field of Dreams film starring Kevin Costner, but rather, a high-speed Internet broadband system – a system capable of attracting and sustaining business and industry to northern Illinois.

In particular, we’re talking about a system constructed, operated and maintained by the City of Princeton --- a system which is beginning to deliver on its promise of attracting high-tech commercial enterprises to this Bureau County municipality and the surrounding area to the north, an area often referred to by state officials as the “Northern Illinois Technology Triangle.”  (Note: The ‘Triangle’ is a 545-square-mile region encompassing approximately either side of Interstate 39, running between Rockford on the north, Rochelle on the south, and DeKalb (Northern Illinois University) on the east).   

And, who would know better about the success of operating a high-tech research enterprise than Dr. Rex Chamberlain, a senior research scientist, holder of a PhD in aerospace engineering from the UIUC and president and founder of Tetra Research Corporation.  Tetra, an aerospace research company founded by Chamberlain and his wife, Ami, herself a former resident of Princeton, specializes in an area of research called computational fluid dynamics.  It involves the modeling, testing and evaluation of solid rocket engines, rocket boosters and similar forms of high-tech propulsion and aerodynamic effects being studied in contract research work for such government agencies as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Defense Department as well as aerospace engineering firms and private contractors.

Chamberlain said he and his wife chose to relocate his home-based research business from Huntsville, Alabama, to Princeton not just because his wife was a former resident of the community during her high school and college years , but because of its high-tech communications infrastructure. 

“I chose Princeton primarily because of its commitment to a high-speed broadband communications infrastructure,” Chamberlain notes.  “It’s ideal to my particular line of research work, which involves analyzing the flow of air, gas and liquids over aircraft wings and rocket boosters.” 

A large portion of Chamberlain’s computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research work involves the use of high-resolution graphics, photos and images. This particular image shows temperature contours as they flow over an “aerospike” while hydrogen gas burns at the tip. Heat from the combustion decreases the drag by reducing the pressure on the aerospike’s blunt nose and shoulder. The amount of drag reduction was studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) on Chamberlain’s 40-processor Linux Cluster computer system located in a secure area of the Princeton Police Department. Commonly used in the aerospace, automotive, marine, power generation (eg., wind turbines) and HVAC industries, CFD is often a cheaper alternative to building and testing prototype hardware.

The bulk of the “brains” behind Chamberlain’s research work is conducted by a Linux-Cluster supercomputer located in a secure area of the Princeton Police Department.  The system is comprised of 10 computer nodes, each with two dual-core processors .  This system offers Chamberlain the ability to transfer data from this complex/cluster to his home computer via the fiber-optic connections made available by the City of Princeton.

“It’s like having 40 computers available, each working to help solve a separate aspect of research or problem, all at the same time,” he noted.  “This helps to save time, effort and parallel processing this way, ultimately speeds up the quality of the research data I’m able to produce.” 

“Princeton is a progressive community which I feel offers great market potential for any business or industry that decides to locate here,” he continued.   “I’m proud to say that I live and work in Princeton, a community I feel is growing each day.”

And growing it is. 

Jason Bird, superintendent of electric and telecommunications for the City of Princeton, and Jeff Mangrich, assistant superintendent of electric and telecommunications for the municipality, point out that to date, more than 22 miles of fiber-optic have been installed throughout the City of Princeton, a number that continues to grow with each passing day.   

“We’re going great guns,” Bird said.  “In fact, we plan to have another 2 to 4 miles of fiber optic installed by December 2009.  If we maintain growth at this pace, we can reasonably expect to have between 26 and 27 total miles of installed (fiber-optic) capacity by the end of 2009.   Expansion of our system has helped the state’s ongoing efforts to bridge the digital divide here in Illinois as well as spur economic development in the Princeton and surrounding area.”

Both Bird and Mangrich acknowledge that a large part of Princeton’s success is due to the ongoing partnership the municipality has with a Peru, Illinois-based computer firm, Connecting Point Computers, Inc. LLC.

“Connecting Point actually helped us develop a strategy for installing, operating and maintaining a fiber-optic network, one which we could grow and nurture ourselves,” Bird pointed out.  “To help facilitate this work, we created our own telecommunications department, complete with a mobile trailer, equipment and trained personnel.” 

Princeton – a community having a population of 8,000 and situated amidst rich, productive farmland, bounded by two major interstate highways, well-positioned with access to nearby major rail and waterway routes and having an adjacent landscape dotted by wind turbines and wind farms – has earned the right to proclaim itself a leader in the area of alternative energy and high-tech communications.   Earlier this year, the municipality was bestowed with the prestigious International Telecommunications Award by the UTC, placing second only to San Diego Gas and Electric Co.

Given the success he’s experienced to date, does Chamberlain have plans for expansion in Princeton?

“I’m where I thought I would be at this point in time (ie., level of business), and it is possible that we will expand our computational facilities as we attract new work, ” he notes.  “Regardless, I would recommend Princeton to anyone as an excellent place to locate and do business.”