The Vitro Corporation is funding the establishment of the new Vitro Computer Engineering Lab in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Vitro, a subsidiary of Tracor, Inc., and based in Rockville, Md., is a full spectrum systems engineering, software engineering, and technical services firm supporting major defense and space programs. Together with its subsidiary, Quality Systems, Inc., Vitro employs 4,000 people serving customers such as NASA, the Department of Defense, federal agencies, defense contractors, international governments, and the intelligence community.

“This wonderful support from one of our key corporate partners will allow the Clark School to accelerate its educational and research programs in the computer engineering area,” said William Destler, dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering. “The result will be a greatly improved capability of the school to meet growing student and corporate demands in this critically important area of modern technology.”

The new facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art workstations, all connected to the College of Engineering’s sophisticated computer network. It will be available to both students and faculty seven days a week.

The lab is a significant boost to the newly-created Computer Engineering undergraduate degree program, offered jointly by the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In accord, the Vitro Computer Engineering lab will support a number of courses in electrical and computer engineering. It will also be used for both undergraduate projects and graduate research.

Research components for the facility will be carefully constructed to meet the needs of Vitro. The focus of these activities will be on software engineering, computer and network security, as well as computer harware and architecture.

Tracor, Inc., the parent company of Vitro, is one of the 15 largest defense electronics firms in the United States, specializing in sophisticated electronic products, systems and services.

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