The Mission of the Economic Development Office is to implement an effective, prudent, and cost effective economic development program that results in a strong corporate tax base and good quality jobs for all county residents.
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Center for Advanced Engineering and Research

The Center for Advanced Engineering and Research is a nonprofit organization that brings together local industry and universities to conduct research and development projects targeted toward generating economic opportunities for Region 2000. This new facility will provide space for these research activities to be conducted locally. It is CAER’s vision that this facility attracts the best and brightest researchers from industry and universities, provides convenient and efficient research facilities, and foster an atmosphere of collaboration and innovation.

The resulting planned facility is approximately 27,000 square feet, located on two levels. Roughly 70% of the space is devoted to research, 20% to education and community outreach programs, and the remaining 10% to administrative support. It will occupy about 6-1/2 acres of a 28-acre parcel in the New London Business Park in Bedford County. CAER has requested the facility be located close to U.S. 460 to increase public visibility. A 3 minute virtual tour of the planned facility is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYw3WKaQbv8.

Some key elements of this facility include:

  1. A fully configurable nuclear power plant control room simulator
  2. High-performance computing capability and a supporting and connected visualization laboratory to support the development of the necessary 3-dimensional simulation models of plant operations.
  3. Six (6) 20 ft x 32 ft research laboratories plus one 60 ft x 32 ft high bay laboratory
  4. Support space for up to eight (8) research faculty and sixteen (16) research assistants
  5. Cognitive radio test room and 100 foot antenna tower
  6. A design theme of “Science Made Visible”

Research Program Areas

Center for Safe and Secure Nuclear Energy (CSSNE)

  • -- Advanced control room monitoring technology
  • -- Technologies for improved safe and secure operation of nuclear power plants
  • -- High performance modeling and simulation of nuclear power plant processes
  • -- Assessment and design of new digital technologies for instrumentation and control -

Cognitive Radio (CR) Research

  • -- Spectrum Sensing: detecting unused spectrum and sharing it without interference with other users.
  • -- Spectrum Management: Capturing the best available spectrum to meet user requirements.
  • -- Spectrum Mobility: the process for how a CR user changes its operating frequency.
  • -- Spectrum Sharing
  • -- Cognitive Jamming Networks
  • -- Intelligent Antenna (IA)

Inspection, Testing and Analysis Technologies

  • -- Nondestructive Evaluation
  • -- Inspection Technologies
  • -- Materials Analysis
  • -- Advanced Manufacturing Processes
  • -- Plant Chemistry/Corrosion

Sensors, Controls and Wireless Technologies for Energy Production and Transmission

  • -- Sensor technologies
  • -- Wireless networks
  • -- Wireless Communications
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