When Gregg Riedel '93, MS '95 steps into the elevator at the Times Square offices of MTV Networks, amid the music industry's top artists, his face beams at the thought of his decision to switch from a career path in medicine to majoring in computer science at the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science.

After graduate school, Gregg worked at Chyron Corporation, the premier manufacturer of graphics equipment for the broadcast industry. But, his entrepreneurial spirit soon inspired him to leave Chyron to start Video Design Interactive, a broadcast graphics animation software company, with a fellow Binghamton graduate.

After completing successful projects for one of his clients, MTV Networks, the media giant hired Riedel full-time, where he now serves as director of broadcast systems for MTV Networks Information Systems and Technology.

"MTV is so youth-oriented, it keeps me young," said Riedel. "Walking around my office feels like walking around CIW - it looks like a grenade went off in a music store."

Riedel is responsible for all broadcast technology initiatives at MTV Networks, including developing hardware and software solutions for graphics, audio, interactive television and other special projects for about 180 channels worldwide, including MTV, MTV2, MTVu, VH-1, CMT, Comedy Central, Spike and Nickelodeon.

"My team develops the systems used across the company to create, review, approve and display over 15,000 graphics a month," said Riedel. "We're also involved in dozens of other cutting-edge technology initiatives across the entire enterprise."

Richard Eckert, associate professor of computer science, vividly remembers Riedel's senior independent study project, in which Riedel and his team morphed computer graphics, a technique that was only beginning to develop at the time.

"He was a real self-starter, a go-getter," said Eckert. "We have a lot of very successful graduates and Gregg is certainly one of them."

Riedel attributes his current success to his work as a computer science major and computer pod consultant at Binghamton.

"I could have never predicted my career path when I arrived at Binghamton, but I owe a large part of my success to the fantastic education that I received there."

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