Discovery Machine Inc., a knowledge acquisition and engineering company in Williamsport, is expanding into a commercial services role and plans to hire between four and six employees in early 2009, according to President and Co-Founder Todd Griffith.
"We capture the know-how of pivotal performers in a company," says Griffith. "The idea is that if you have a pivotal person in your company, we can come in and capture that expertise and then have it deployed."
Founded in 1999, the idea for Discovery Machine began when Griffith was teaching computer science at Bucknell University. His wife Anna Griffith, who is the company's co-founder and CEO, was working with a
DARPA research company doing knowledge acquisition work.
"She found she didn’t really have any tools to do the things she needed to do," says Griffith. "It turned out my research applied perfectly to this knowledge acquisition need."
The husband and wife team went about developing software that helps make the transfer of complex knowledge easy and accessible to non-technical experts. Until recently, Discovery Machine has served mostly government clients, from the U.S. Navy to NASA. But the company is receiving a $150,000 grant from Ben Franklin Technology Partners to complete a commercialization plan that will make Discovery Machines' unique services available to private companies.
"We are maintaining our government business while expanding into the commercial space," says Griffith. "Next year we will be expanding into both spaces in what will undoubtedly be a bad economy. But it will be our best year yet."
Source: BFTP, Todd Griffith, president and co-founder of Discovery MachinesWriter: John Davidson