Mitre Corporation

The Mitre Corporation
Type Not-for-profit corporation
Founded 1958
Headquarters Bedford, MA and McLean, VA, USA
Key people Alfred Grasso
(President) & (CEO)
Revenue US$ 1.31 billion[1]
Employees 7544
Website www.mitre.org

The Mitre Corporation (which styles its name in all capital letters as "MITRE") is a not-for-profit organization based in Bedford, Massachusetts and McLean, Virginia. It manages Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) supporting the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the Federal Judiciary.

Contents

History

Under the leadership of C. W. Halligan, Mitre was formed in 1958 to provide overall direction to the companies and workers involved in the US Air Force SAGE project. Most of the early employees were transferred to Mitre from the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where SAGE was being developed. In April 1959, a site was purchased in Bedford, Massachusetts near Hanscom Air Force Base, to develop a new Mitre laboratory, which Mitre occupied in September 1959.[2]

After the SAGE project ended in the early 1960s, the FAA selected Mitre to develop a similar system to provide automated air traffic control. The result of the project formed the National Airspace System (NAS), that is still in use today. To support the NAS project and continual operations with the US Department of Defense at the Pentagon, Mitre opened a second "main office" in McLean, Virginia.

Through the 1960s, Mitre developed and supported military Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I) projects, including the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). Mitre also worked on a number of projects with ARPA, including precursors to the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network ARPANET. Since the 1960s, Mitre has developed or supported most DoD early warning and communications projects, including the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System JTIDS and the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System JSTARS. Since 1998, Mitre has helped to modernize the US Internal Revenue Service.

During the 1980s, the German hacker Markus Hess used an un-secured Mitre Tymnet connection as an entry point for intrusions into US Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and NASA computer networks.[3]

On July 10, 1985, mitre.org was the first .org domain name registered, and it remains in use by the company today.[4]

On January 29, 1996, Mitre divided into two entities: The Mitre Corporation to focus on its FFRDCs for DoD and FAA, and a new company, named Mitretek Systems (now called Noblis) to assume non-FFRDC work for other US Government agencies.[5]

In 2005, a team from Mitre competed in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and qualified in 23rd place for the final race. The team's robot, the Meteor, drove off the course a mile into the race due to a late morning dust cloud confusing the sensors.

Organization

Centers and research program

Mitre is organized as follows:[6]

Locations

Mitre operates branch offices around the world, most co-located with military bases.[1]

Corporate governance

Chief executive officers

Board of Trustees

Awards, honors, and accomplishments

Over the years, Mitre has received awards for corporate achievements as well as for achievements of its scientists, researchers, and engineers.[10] A sampling includes

Mitre employees have created 46 technologies available for licensing,[18] generated 28 packages of downloadable software,[19] and been granted 87 US patents.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b "2010 Mitre Annual Report". The Mitre Corporation. 2011. http://www.mitre.org/about/annual_reports/mitre_2010_annual.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  2. ^ Redmond, Kent C.; Thomas M. Smith (2000). From Whirlwind to Mitre: The R&D Story of The SAGE Air Defense Computer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ISBN 0-262-18201-7. 
  3. ^ Stoll, Clifford (1989-09-26). The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385249461. 
  4. ^ ".ORG Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Very First Registration - MITRE.org". CircleID. Iomemo Inc.. 2010-07-12. http://www.circleid.com/posts/20100712_org_public_interest_registry_25_anniversary_of_first_domain_mitre/. Retrieved 2011-01-20. 
  5. ^ Day, Kathleen (1996-02-23). "The Think Tank That Went Out for a Spin; Mitre Splits in Two to Answer Concerns That It Has an Unfair Edge in Government Work". The Washington Post. 
  6. ^ "The Mitre Corporation: A National Resource". The Mitre Corporation. 2009. http://www.mitre.org/news/pdfs/mitre.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  7. ^ Shearman, Jennifer (2008). The Mitre Corporation: Fifty Years of Service in the Public Interest. The Mitre Corporation. 
  8. ^ Oral history interview with Charles A. Zraket, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota
  9. ^ "Mitre Board of Trustees". The Mitre Corporation. 2009-07-07. http://www.mitre.org/about/trustees.html. Retrieved 2009-08-02. 
  10. ^ "Mitre Awards and Recognition". Mitre Corporation. 2009-04-09. http://www.mitre.org/about/awards_recognition.html. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 
  11. ^ van Leeuwen, Marcel (2009-01-09). "FAA Names "Excellence in Aviation Research Award" Winners". AviationNews.eu (Aviation News). http://www.aviationnews.eu/?p=5490. Retrieved 2009-04-23. 
  12. ^ "Mitre Presented with Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service". bnet (Business Wire). 2008-07-12. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_June_12/ai_n26671431/. Retrieved 2009-04-15. 
  13. ^ "Mitre wins Air Force Association’s Theodore von Karman Award". The Integrator (US Air Force). 2008-07-31. http://integrator.hanscom.af.mil/2008/July/07312008/07312008.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-15. 
  14. ^ "Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for". Fortune Magazine. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2011/. Retrieved 2011-01-20. 
  15. ^ "100 Best Places to Work in IT 2010". Computerworld. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176791/Best_Places_to_Work_in_IT_2010. Retrieved 2011-01-20. 
  16. ^ Shearman, Jennifer; Karina Wright (2009-09-16). "Aviation Week Names Mitre a "Best Place to Work"". Mitre Corporation. http://www.mitre.org/news/releases/09/aviationweek_09_16_2009.html. Retrieved 2009-10-06. 
  17. ^ "The World's Most Innovative Companies 2010". FastCompany Magazine (Mansueto Ventures LLC). 2010-03. http://www.fastcompany.com/mic/2010. Retrieved 2010-02-18. 
  18. ^ "Mitre Technology Transfer Office: Available Technologies". Mitre Corporation. 2011-04-20. http://www.mitre.org/work/tech_transfer/technologies.html. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  19. ^ "Mitre Technology Transfer Office: Downloadable Software". Mitre Corporation. 2010-08-16. http://www.mitre.org/work/tech_transfer/downloadable_software.html. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  20. ^ "Mitre Technology Transfer Office Patent List". Mitre Corporation. 2011-02-14. http://www.mitre.org/work/tech_transfer/allpatents/patentchronlist.html. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 

External links