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about frank j. garofalo
Overview
Frank is an interactive multimedia developer with professional experience including operating a web design firm since 1999, working as a project manager in marketing departments, as well as past employment with the Walt Disney Company and Bank of America. As a graduate of Purdue University's Computer Graphics Technology program, he has focused on web design, multimedia applications, and digital marketing. His research interests are in the areas of usability, accessibility, and user-centered design.
Professional Experience
In July 1999 Frank received a request to make a web site for a radio show called "Wayne's World of Baseball." That month his web design company, Cyber View, was born. About a year later, in August of 2000 he incorporated his business as Garofalo Enterprises Incorporated. From the beginning most of the web and graphic design services he has offered to his customers were self-taught. Cyber View offers services geared especially to small businesses, including: web design, graphic design, web development, multimedia, online commerce, web hosting, marketing, and branding. In May of 2004, Cyber View released a content management system called CyberStudio. CyberStudio 4.0 was released in June of 2008 and continues to be the leading software-as-a-service solution Cyber View offers. Functionality of CyberStudio was divided into modules to allow customers to select the right solutions to meet their needs, with the option to request custom-built modules. In addition to CyberStudio, Cyber View also offers other software-as-a-service solutions. In November 2008, Cyber View was accepted as an Adobe Solution Partner, which includes membership in the Adobe Partner Connection. Also, Frank joined the Purdue President's Council in November 2008, a group of distinguished alumni and friends to provide loyalty and support to Purdue University. Frank served on the Advisory Board for National Safe Place which is a non-profit organization designed to help youth in crisis from 2000 to 2009.
Originally released in 2007 under the name "myRA Portal," the latest system produced by Cyber View is the "ResLife Portal SaaS," residential life management system for colleges and universities. The "software-as-a-service" system is a web-based solution hosted by Cyber View that gives real-time data to university housing administrators about the residential life community in their campus housing. Cyber View built the ResLife Portal on our own framework called the "Streamline Engine" - a powerful and dynamic user management system.
Other professional experiences have included an internship with the Walt Disney Company at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Frank's seven and a half month internship in 2005 with the Walt Disney Company, despite no relation to his computer graphics studies, helped him to develop a high standard of customer service values. The internship with the Belle of Louisville Cruises (Louisville, KY) during the summer of 2006, Frank served as a project manager in the marketing department which allowed him to branch away from web design to further expand his print marketing and advertising skills. While with the Belle of Louisville, he designed specialty flyers, promotional coupons, informational brochures, tourism advertisements, and building signs. During the summer of 2007, Frank worked within the Consumer and Small Business Technology Group at Bank of America in Charlotte, NC. As a team member at Bank of America, Frank worked on projects including on-boarding new affinity credit card products to bankofamerica.com, launching an internal wiki to serve as a knowledge management repository, in addition to research utilizing emerging technologies.
Undergrad at Purdue University
Prior to graduating from Purdue, in addition to his studies and professional experience, he has served as a Staff Resident for Purdue University Residences at Cary Quadrangle, leading a staff of nine resident assistants in a building of 345 residents. Frank is a member of ACM SIGGRAPH in addition to supporting the student chapter of SIGGRAPH at Purdue. He was selected as a member of the Barbara Cook Chapter of Mortar Board at Purdue University, as well as the Gamma Pho Chapter of the international honorary for professionals in technology, Epsilon Pi Tau. As a member of the OnePurdue Enrollment and Student Affairs Advisory Committee through the Office of the Vice President for Student Services, he had the opportunity to assist in preparations for the new student self-service web portal set to launch in Summer 2008 called "myPurdue." Frank was honored to be selected as one of the fourteen members of The Order of Iron Key, a prestigious senior honor society whose goal is to create a service project that will benefit the Purdue community. The Iron Key Class of 2008 decided to tackle the challenging task of placing a bronze statue on campus to represent the Purdue experience. Furthermore, the class then had the challenge of fundraising for the project through donations. For more details about the project, please visit www.purdueblockp.com.
In Spring 2008, Frank was appointed to serve as a student representative for a two year term on the Department of Computer Graphics Technology (CGT) Industrial Advisory Board. The senior design project of Frank and his classmates spearheaded a research collaboration between the Department of Computer Graphics Technology and Adobe Systems. This collaboration has resulted in $500,000 worth of software, training support and conference grants from Adobe to the CGT Department.
Graduate Studies
Frank's interests lie in the application of emerging web and multimedia technologies paired with research related to human-computer interface design, usability, and accessibility. More specifically to focus on the experiences of user interactions with graphical interfaces, including but not limited to web technologies as desktop applications and the capabilities of those applications with multi-touch screen devices.
In Fall 2008, Frank was named as the Adobe Student Representative for Rich Internet Applications for Purdue University. Frank joined Associate Professor Kellen Maicher (Dept. of Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue University) and Alex Porter to give a presentation at the 2008 Adobe MAX Conference in San Francisco, California. The presentation, entitled "Using Adobe AIR as a Tool in Universities," is regarding on-going research about cgCentral, a rich-internet application built with Adobe AIR for information distribution of a senior-design course. He presented along side Associate Professor Kellen Maicher (Dept. of Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue University) and Travis Faas at the 2009 Adobe MAX Conference (Oct 4th-7th) in Los Angeles, California with the session title "Exploring New Uses for Rich Internet Applications in Education."
In April 2010, Purdue University Research Foundation filed a provisional U.S. Patent (#61/327,354) on behalf of Frank, under the title "Collaborative Touch: A Multi-user Collaboration Multi-touch Device," for a multi-touch table he developed as part of his graduate research project. July 2010 marked the completion of Frank's research study on team-based tasks using multi-touch devices with interfaces built on the Adobe Flash Platform. He was awarded a Master of Science in Computer Graphics Technology from Purdue University in August 2010. For more details about Frank's current research visit: www.multiusermultitouch.com
