MITRE
MITRE is a non-profit company that provides technical advice to elements of the United States federal government; originally in engineering fields (particularly information and communications systems), but now more broadly. It provides a liaison between the government and those scientific and industrial organizations which have useful expertise in the subject areas; it also performs some work in-house.
Like the System Development Corporation, it was rooted in the SAGE effort; MITRE was founded in July, 1958, as a spin-off of Lincoln Laboratory, to help take the SAGE system to completion.
As that effort wound down, the Air Force had been unable to identify a business to help it to develop the overall air defense system, so MITRE was hired to serve as the Air Force's system engineering organization. With that experience in hand, MITRE subsequently designed air defense systems for U.S. allies. In the 1970s, MITRE continued supporting military projects across a broader area.
In the years since, its area of work has expanded greatly; it now has efforts in defense, homeland security, cyber-security, aviation, and as afar from its original focus as health-care. It currently oversees several 'federally funded research and development centers' (FFRDCs) in those areas, supporting various agencies of the U.S. federal government.
See also
Further reading
- Robert C. Meisel, John F. Jacobs, MITRE, the First Twenty Years: A History of the MITRE Corporation, 1958-1978, The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, 1979
