Cyber Engineer Speaks About FFRDCs

In April, Theresa Giorlando, principal cyber engineer for the MITRE Corporation in Omaha, Nebraska, spoke with the chapter about the business, which is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). Giorlando clarified that FFRDCs are nonprofit organizations. Their focus is to help deliver outcomes to make the nation great. There are 40 different FFRDCs that work with various organizations, including the U.S. government. They provide convenient pockets of specialized talent for government use. FFRDC organizations are not in competition with industry, so they have no commercial conflicts of interest, and they neither manufacture nor create products. Giorlando discussed MITRE's mission to look at problems that may occur down the road. She pointed out that MITRE is congressionally capped in size. In addition, the average experience level of a MITRE employee is 25 years of scientific or technical expertise, with capabilities ranging from critical problem solving to science and mathematics, social sciences and systems engineering. Giorlando concluded by emphasizing MITRE's role as a trusted adviser.