Raytheon BBN Technologies: Difference between revisions

'''BBN''' ('''Bolt, Beranek and Newman Inc.'''), now  '''Raytheon BBN Technologies''', is one of the leading Research and Development companies in the United States, dedicated to providing high-technology products and services to consumers. The company specializes in speech recognotion technologies, cyber security, advanced networking, sensor systems and information & knowledge technologies. BBN was one of the research companies involved in the development of [[ARPANET]], which later evolved into the Internet. The company was known for developing the [[packet switching]] technology, the first network e-mail, and the first router.<ref>[http://www.crunchbase.com/company/bbn-technologies Crunch Based, Raytheon BBN Technologies Company Profile]</ref> [[Robert G. Elmer]] serves as president of the company and its main office is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

BBN originated from an acoustics consulting firm founded by [[MIT]] professors [[Richard Bolt]] and [[Leo Beranek]]. At the time, Bolt and Beranek were in charge of the MIT Acoustical Laboratory, which was known as the leading leading research and teaching laboratory in acoustics. Wallace Harrison, the architect who designed the United Nations headquarters in New York City, asked MIT to provide consulting services for the acoustic design of the General Assembly Hall. The bidding request was passed down to Bolt and he won the contract. He figured that the job was too big to handle alone, and so he asked Beranek for help. At that time, the MIT administration was not interested in providing commercial consulting services but the institute allowed its employees to provide private consultancies during their free days. MIT rented out two rooms to Bolt and Beranek as their initial office and encouraged them to create a partnership, which was formed in November 1948. During the early years, along with working on the acoustical design of the UN General Assembly Hall, Bolt and Beranek also worked with General Radio Company and New York City movie theaters on jobs that were previously awarded to Beranek. They were also providing noise control consultancies for some establishments. In 1950, [[Robert Newman]] became a partner in the firm. The partnership became Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) Inc., and from an acoustics consulting firm the partnership became an innovative research and development company.<ref>[http://mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2001/BBN.pdf Beranek and Newman Inc. A Case History of Transition, Section 2: 1948-1957:The Early Years of BBN]</ref><ref>[http://www.securenet.net/members/shartley/history/bbn_the_beginning.htm History of the Internet-BBN: In the Beginning]</ref>

BBN grew in the 1950s. The partnership moved from the rented rooms at MIT to another office and eventually occupied a three story building in Cambridge. Because of the rapid growth of the partnership, BBN was incorporated in 1953. Beranek resigned from MIT and served as Chairman and CEO of the company. In 1957, [[J.C.R. Licklider]] joined the company as Vice President and Head of the Psychoacoustics, Engineering Psychology and Information Systems Research departments. In 1958, he encouraged Beranek to buy a computer; although at the time he doesn't know what to do with the computer, he told Beranek that the company needed to get into the computer business to become famous and needed to learn what they could do to the computer. BBN purchased its first computer (LPG-30), worth $30,000, from Royal McBee company. The company had five research divisions, including: Acoustics, Life and Information Sciences, Noise Control, and Applied Physics. Two of the division were involved in digital computing. Some of BBN's significant discoveries during the period include voice masking for privacy, a muffling system for Boeing aircrafts that reduced the noise caused by a propeller by 15 decibels, structural dumping, and the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) program for pattern recognition.<ref>[http://www.bbn.com/about/timeline/ Timeline- 1950s]</ref><ref>[http://mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2001/BBN.pdf Bolt, Beranek and Newman Inc. A Case History of Transition, Section 2: 1948-1957:The Early Years of BBN]</ref>