Laurie DeWitt/The Gazette Brian K. Smith on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The 33-year-old owns Smith Solutions-IT firm, is executive director of EduSerc, and teaches underprivileged kids during a summer program at the university.

When he's not running Smith Solutions, an information and technology solutions firm in Greenbelt or managing EduSerc, a nonprofit he founded, the 33-year-old Laurel resident teaches an engineering course at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The 28-member class, which continues through the summer, allows high school and college students to build and program robots.

"It's difficult to manage sometimes," Smith said of his life. "I've always wanted to go into business. I'm a goal-oriented person and that's how I've achieved all that I've done so far. There's not too many things that I've not yet accomplished, and I do that just by staying completely focused."

After he graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with an electrical engineering degree, Smith first went into business in 1996 when he founded EduSerc "through a vision," he said.

"It was a vision that God gave me to improve the quality of life in the community. It really came to me from just praying a lot, and thinking about what my purpose really is. That's when the vision came to me."

He wants Smith Solutions to be successful, but EduSerc, which provides educational and business training programs for teenagers and young adults, is his "passion."

Smith Solutions was established in 1999. A small business currently serving four clients, Smith Solutions' revenues topped $250,000 last year. The company provides database and network administration services, Web consulting and custom software development. There are five employees, including Smith's brother Jerome, the company's vice president.

Smith devoted his full time to the business, after quitting his job with Sybase, a database technology firm in Dublin, Calif.

"I quit my job and everybody called me stupid," Smith said. "I saved two months of income, and I said, 'If I'm going to do it, then I'm going to do it.' And I did it."

Lockheed Martin Information Technology of Seabrook, a division of the Bethesda-based defense and aerospace giant, was one of 15 contributors during EduSerc's annual high school development conference in Baltimore last November.

Joseph Wagovich, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, said the company has an executive who serves on Northwestern High School's advisory council for pre-engineering. Lockheed Martin supported EduSerc because it is a good initiative, he said.

"We were glad to help," Wagovich said.

Smith's interest in information technology stemmed from his love of video games and his father, an electrician who owned an appliance repair shop.

While spending time as a contractor on a project with Mo1torola, Smith said, he knew he wanted to run his own business. When he launched Smith Solutions, landing the company's first contract was the biggest hassle.

But during his first week of business, Smith landed a subcontract with the Federal Communications Commission. Since then, he has worked with the National Weather Service and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, among others.

"The unique thing," Smith said, "is that we try to match the quality we say we provide with the actual certifications and proof. We're innovators. We solve things very quickly."