Meet Corrado

Hello there!

Thanks for taking the time to learn a bit about me. And I’d like you to know the real me, so I’ll try to post natural taken-by-other-people-while-out-and-about pictures throughout the site; much like the one on the left here. That one was taken by my girlfriend while we paddle-boated around a small lake one summer weekend while staying with friends at a cottage.

I’ve been heavily interested in graphic design since early high school when I took the top grade in my design classes. I was lucky and found something I was good at right at the start; designing and computer science. I’ve spent the rest of my life working on getting better and better at those two things.

Right off the bat, I can hear a lot of people saying “But Corrado, how can you be good in both arts AND sciences?” The answer is easy! It all depends on how you view things, and how long you work at it.

I’m stronger in arts then I am in science. However, I don’t view computer programming as a science, or a math; it’s an art form in itself. You can be creative with it as you paint yourself a program. Or you can be technical with it: I choose to be creative.

In high school, my excellent design skills landed me solely in charge of our high school’s website: which I can proudly say won an award for best designed high school website in the district. That started me into the website development field where I had the chance to use my graphic design skills.

Since then, my graphic design and website creation skills evolved into more; integrating proper interface design, colour (yes, I’m Canadian, we like our u’s) theories, placement theories, psychology, and much much more.

In university, I took the record for highest grade in the upper year human computer interaction class, which focused on proper interface design, theories, psychologies, and focused heavily in design application. After that class, I was invited to work with the professor to create a business-grade application which maps out the different actions, tasks, and the times associated with them, that users would have to take to accomplish their goals. It’s called VisualHTA, which stands for visual hierarchical task analysis.

This program allows people to visually see how long it takes users to complete their goals; which means, they can now see the exact spots which drops conversion rates, and lowers their sales.

After that, I was invited to help teach that class on proper user interface design, where I’ve been doing it ever since; including holding multiple weekly seminars.

Shortly after obtaining my BSc (Bachelors of Science degree) in Computer Science with honours, I took on a second major project with a professor combining music, artificial intelligence, and interface design. This project involved the design and creation of EGDE (yes, it’s misspelled on purpose), a granular synthesis instrument for modifying and creating a new form of music.

The project went so well, that I was invited on behalf of Professor Brian Ross to become his master’s student, allowing me to get a second degree, this time my MSc (Masters of Science degree) with a focus on evolutionary computation, which is just a fancy name for Artificial Intelligence.

On a different, more fun note, throughout my university career, and still now, I’ve been a varsity sabre fencer. For about three nights a week, every week, I hit people with swords; and hopefully they don’t hit me.

All the while I’ve been using my design skills to build webpages, e-commerce stores, flyers, etc for people and companies (like hundreds before me have), though I’ve also been taking on clients and helping them increase conversions on their websites, advertisements, emails, etc; helping them increase their sales, their profits, their opt-in rates, and more. I’ve become popular very quickly and have been forced to outsource my work.

After having worked in person with another online marketer, Matthew Glanfield, for quite some time; I’ve noticed a lot of areas that need improving in the online marketing world. As a result of this, and the need to outsource my work, Corrado Coia Solutions was formed: where I help create solutions in the online world.

Whether that be building online products that create solutions for online marketers, or helping solve conversion problems, or creating advertisements and websites that work: if a problem needs solving, I’d like to fix it.

Anyway, below is a resume style list of stuff about me. It’s a summary, I guess you could say. If you ever want to know anything more about me, drop me a line.

Until next time,

See ya.

Corrado

Education

Bachelor of Science with Honours

BSc. Computer Science with Honours, Brock University, 2003-2008
Concentration in Intelligent Systems/Artificial Intelligence

Master of Science in Computer Science

MSc. Computer Science, Brock University, 2010
Graduate research topic in Evolutionary Computation/Artificial Intelligence
Researching under the well-published Professor Brian James Ross

Teaching Assistant, Seminar Leader, and Student Evaluator

COSC 3P94: Human Computer Interaction, Brock University, 2006, 2008

Academic Projects

Coia Corrado (2006). Visual Hierarchical Task Analysis (VisualHTA).

Project Type: Interface Design

An HTA is a hierarchical listing of tasks/steps that are needed to complete a goal. This information can be used for many purposes, such as improving the design of procedures that aid in performing a task. These procedures can be either physical or procedures within software. HTAs can be shown either visually though the use of a tree structure, or textually though the use of a numbered lists. VisualHTA allows for the visual graphic of HTA structures.

Coia Corrado, McHugh Michael, and Deinhart Michael (2006). Evolved Fractal Images through an Iterated Function System

Project Type: Interface Design and Artificial Intelligence

Many learning systems have used supervised learning to tackle this problem in the past. Our goal is to create a user-guided system which uses a variety of old and new fitness functions, utilizing them to help the user create aesthetically pleasing fractal images.

Coia Corrado (2007-2009). EGDE: the Evolution of Granular Synthesis.

Project Type: Interface Design and Artificial Intelligence

This project involves the design and creation of EGDE – a granular synthesis instrument for modifying and creating a new form of music. EGDE has a detailed granular synthesis engine that specifies a large number of parameters for creating interesting granular synthesis effects. Then, interactive evolution is used as a means for interfacing the engine with the audio composer. EGDE is a VST Plug-in, making it compatible with the latest audio editing environments.

Athletics and Hobbies

Sabre Fencing

Team Captain (Community) 2007-2008
Team Captain (Varsity) 2008-2009

I compete for Brock University as a finalist in the Ontario varsity sabre fencing circuit. I have been fencing with Brock steadily since 2004.

What is sabre fencing exactly? The sabre is the modern version of the cavalry sword. Hits can be scored with the point or the cutting edges on the target area, which is anywhere above the waist including head and arms, and are registered electrically.

Site Link: Fencing Niagara

Reading

Favourite Authors:

• Charles Bukowski
• Douglas Adams
• George Orwell
• Dave Eggers

Some Favourite Books:

• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
• 1984 – George Orwell
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers
• Notes of a Dirty Old Man – Charles Bukowski
• Life of Pi – Yann Martel
• The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
• Neuromancer – William Gibson

Books on the To-Read List:

• Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
• Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
• Space Oddesy 2001 -
• Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads – Greil Marcus
• Last Night of the Earth Poems – Charles Bukowski
• A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

Music

Some Favourite Bands:

• Radiohead
• Pearl Jam
• Modest Mouse
• Bob Dylan
• The Smiths
• The Weakerthans
• Broken Social Scene

Miscellaneous other Interests

Coincidentally all forms of -graphys:

• Typography (fonts)
• Videography
• Photography

Some other ones

• Cooking
• Interface Design, of course!
• Fencing (the sport, not the white-picket kind)