COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Knowledge Based Systems, Inc. (KBSI) has been nationally recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as the 2024 Small Business Subcontractor of the Year.
The company has been based in College Station for the past 36 years and has developed technology used by the Air Force, Navy, Army, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security.
It all started in 1988 when Richard Mayer founded Knowledge Based Systems Inc. in his garage with a Mac Plus computer. That computer is now on display in the KBSI building.
“We actually had a Lisp machine that we used for research, but then we used a Macintosh Plus to write reports and write proposals,” Mayer says.
The College Station company has grown dramatically in the more than 30 years since its inception.
“We've done a lot of research in the biosecurity field,” Meyer said. “We've been doing a lot of work in warehouses overhauling equipment. The fact is that if our soldiers fought it, we'd probably design a process to repair it.” Sho.”
KBSI is a leader in cybersecurity software research and development. As a dynamic engineering and systems analysis, consulting, and systems/software development company, the company focuses on a variety of things.
KBSI also takes pride in its 20-foot by 10-foot portable data center facility. Shawn Reynolds, his vice president of IT at KBSI, explains that the data center does “high-capacity research and high-performance computing” with the ability to run 500 computers every day. The data center is fully backed up by batteries and generators.
One of their most notable accomplishments was creating the ASSURANT tool, which is used by thousands of people in the U.S. Air Force.
“The role of this tool is to help Air Force cyber technicians protect weapon systems from being hacked in flight,” Meyer said.
KBSI was appointed by Ball Aerospace (now BAE Systems), one of the contractors it worked for. The company was awarded Small Business Subcontractor of the Year for Region 6 in the South Central Region and later won the National Small Business Subcontractor of the Year award.
Meyer was shocked when she learned she had been recognized.
“I'm very humbled, but I had no expectations at all. I mean, one day I got a call and they said, 'Oh, you're a national award winner,' and I said, 'Really?' I did. What do you mean? ” Meyer said.
This recognition means a lot to College Station businesses.
“It's really great for a small company in College Station to get national recognition, but to have a company like that here is huge for us,” Reynolds said.
Copyright 2024 KBTX. All rights reserved.