engineering

SkyBitz

SkyBitz is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SkyBitz rather than just read about it. In short: SkyBitz is an American company based in Herndon, Virginia, that provides machine to machine (M2M) products for the tracking and management of mobile assets. Parent company Telular Corporation is a fully owned subsidiary of Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in the United States.

Key takeaways

SkyBitz belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SkyBitz to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SkyBitz from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SkyBitz is an American company based in Herndon, Virginia, that provides machine to machine (M2M) products for the tracking and management of mobile assets. Parent company Telular Corporation is a fully owned subsidiary of Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in the United States. SkyBitz is a remote asset tracking and information management service provider, specializing in real-time decision-making tools for companies with unpowered assets such as tractor-trailers, intermodal containers, chassis, rail cars, power generators, heavy equipment, and other assets. The company's asset tracking products are delivered using a software as a service (SaaS) model to commercial, transportation, military, and public safety customers, including sensitive shipment haulers of Arms, Ammunition, and Explosives (AA&E) cargos. With the acquisition of commercial telematics companies Reltima and GPS North America in 2015, SkyBitz entered the local fleet management market.

Overview SkyBitz was founded in 1993 in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area under the name Eagle Eye Technologies, Inc. and used both DARPA and the United States Air Force SBIR funding to develop its patented Global Locating System (GLS). GLS technology differs from traditional Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in that positioning calculations are done centrally and automatically at an operations center instead of locally on each device. In early 2002, the company—now called SkyBitz—announced the commercial launch of its GLS technology. By 2007 SkyBitz had acquired more than 400 customers in North America and added two new products to its existing suite. It was ranked in Inc. 5000 for the first time that year, as well as in numerous Fast 500 programs from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. By 2012 SkyBitz had captured the interest of Telular Corporation, a global leader in connecting businesses and machines over wireless networks. The acquisition of SkyBitz by Telular for a total of $42 million was announced in December 2012. Less than a year later, private equity firm Avista Capital Partners completed its acquisition of Telular for a 31 percent premium to its stock market price. SkyBitz operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Telular and remains headquartered in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Today SkyBitz continues to utilize its GLS technology and also offers a variety of other asset tracking solutions based on a portfolio of GPS units and sensors. They operate over many communications networks, ranging from Low Earth orbit and geostationary satellite systems to GSM/GPRS networks. In 2014 SkyBitz won two awards from M2M Evolution Magazine for its GPS-operating asset management product—the M2M Product of the Year Award for Exceptional Innovation and the M2M Evolution Asset Tracking Award. In 2014 SkyBitz also began offering a subscription service, which amortizes all of the costs into one monthly recurring fee. Traditionally technology products and services are sold through the combination of an initial capital expense for the hardware and a monthly service fee. The SkyBitz subscription includes the hardware costs in a monthly subscription.

History

Research and development In 1992 Matthew Schor started the company as Eagle Eye Location Services Corp. The firm was awarded its first SBIR contract from DARPA in July 1994 titled "Miniature, Affordable Satellite Beacon". In November 1995 the company changed its name to Eagle Eye Technologies, Inc., and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded Eagle Eye a $500,000 contract to miniaturize the RF front end of the satellite tag transceiver. In 1997 the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology provided a research grant that allowed Eagle Eye to work with professor Warren Stutzman at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia to further develop their technology. In 1998 the United States Air Force awarded Eagle Eye the first of another two contracts to miniaturize the tracking system and reduce its power consumption. The company's chief scientist, Mark Sullivan, as well as the vice president, James Kilfeather, received patents on technologies used by SkyBitz. The company's chief technical officer, Jay Brosius, led the design effort for the communications protocol (Slotted Aloha) and architecture. In October 1998 World Wireless Communications of Utah announced an agreement to produce a prototype mobile terminal employing Global Locating System (GLS) for asset location. Eagle Eye was able to demonstrate the GLS technology via the MSAT geostationary satellite built by Hughes Space and Electronics (now owned by Boeing). In July 2000, Zero Gravity Venture Partners invested in a Series A venture capital round. Raising capital at this time could not have been more fortuitous for SkyBitz, because the unforeseen events of 9/11 made raising capital even more difficult. It took an extended year to close the next round of financing and bring the product and service to market. The dedication of the entire team culminated in the pre-production manufacturing of the product with Solectron, development of the web-based service, and field testing with early key accounts. Landstar had tested 500 units and found that SkyBitz met their requirements. These efforts ultimately attracted new investors to set the stage for market introduction in 2002.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SkyBitz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SkyBitz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SkyBitz before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SkyBitz ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SkyBitz

In research: SkyBitz appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SkyBitz in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SkyBitz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1993 establishments in Virginia, American companies established in 1993, Companies based in Fairfax County, Virginia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SkyBitz outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SkyBitz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SkyBitz means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SkyBitz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SkyBitz in simple terms?

Why does SkyBitz matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SkyBitz?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SkyBitz.