Since graduating from Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) in 2003, Nick Berardi has made his mark in the areas of open source software development, consulting and cloud-based computing. In honor of his achievements, he was recently recognized by the college as the first recipient of the Penn State Outstanding IST Alumni Award.
“I feel humbled to receive the award because I had such a great time at Penn State and IST in particular,” said Berardi, owner of Managed Fusion, an information technology consulting firm based in Collegeville, Pa. that serves clients throughout the U.S. “It’s sort of icing on the cake.”
In commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of its first graduating class, the College of IST recently established the Penn State Outstanding IST Alumni Award to recognize graduates who have reached exceptional levels of professional achievement. The purpose of the Penn State IST Alumni Society Award is to recognize and reward outstanding IST alumni for their success as leaders in their professional field and for the impact they have had and will continue to have on society and their profession. Eligibility for the award is limited to individuals who have graduated from the University at least 10 years prior.
“Nick is the epitome of what being an IST alum is all about,” said Paul Horn, president of the IST Alumni Society. “This 10-year anniversary is monumental, and shows the longevity and impact that the IST program has had.”
Horn, a 2004 IST graduate, is the HP/Microsoft Private Cloud Sales Manager for the Americas at HP.
In 2012, Horn said, Berardi and his wife, Melinda created the Open Source Scholarship for the College of IST, “showing their support of the great program we have, while keeping the needs of future generations in mind.”Berardi, who received a Microsoft MVP award in June 2012, has more than 12 years of experience developing software and more than 10 years of experience developing applications for the Web. Following graduation from the Penn State, he moved to Philadelphia, where he worked for Lockheed Martin and Yellowbook. In 2005, he founded Managed Fusion, where he works by himself and specializes in helping companies scale the cloud and creating cutting-edge retail point-of-sale and e-commerce applications. Previously, he served as CTO and co-founder of Idea Pipe, a social collaboration tool that allows members to share ideas and track their progress across their enterprises. He also has worked for Voveo as director of technology services.
“I’m really about helping companies achieve what they want to achieve,” Berardi said.
Berardi said that consulting leaves him a lot of free time to focus on his passions. To fill some of that time, he writes on his blog, Coder Journal (www.coderjournal.com), which receives about 25,000 page views monthly. His enjoys writing about cloud computing, scalable computing, software usability and anything that captures his interest on a given day. In addition to writing on his blog, he hosts a bi-weekly podcast, Seriously Open (www.seriouslyopen.com) with some other hosts, including Phil Haack of ASP.NET MVC fame, Dale Ragan, and Justin Rusbatch. In the podcast, they “discuss open-source software development with some of the industry's brightest developers.”
Berardi will be honored with the Penn State Outstanding IST Alumni Award at a luncheon on June 2 at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus, during the Penn State Alumni Association’s Traditional Reunion Weekend.