Adam Peruta is a professor, software developer and entrepreneur with expertise in emerging media and digital advertising. He started his career as an art director and graphic designer and became interested in startups and product design for new media platforms. Combining his passion for visual design and his love for writing code, Peruta has founded and been involved with numerous business ventures, including a software platform for online grocery delivery businesses, a mobile app for personal safety and a crowdsourcing platform to influence group behavior, listed as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Brilliant Ideas. Most recently, his Traditions Challenge mobile app won a “best of show” award in the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts along with a Social Media in Practice Excellence Award and a Best of the Web/Digital Competition award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Peruta teaches undergraduate and graduate students in courses in digital advertising and branding, web development, interactive design and UI/UX. His course projects focus on product design—students concept out and produce prototypes for web and mobile apps and Alexa skills. Peruta also co-teaches capstone courses where students produce award-winning, web-based multimedia projects.
His research focuses on branding for higher education on social media platforms, looking at how colleges and universities use social media to recruit students, build alumni community, and communicate with their constituents. He has presented internationally on the topic and has been published in the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education and the Journal of Social Media in Society, among others. Peruta has also researched the effects of advertising on kids, publishing in the International Journal of Communication and presenting at the BEA and AEJMC national conferences on the topic.
Peruta previously taught at Ithaca College in the integrated marketing communications program. He is a Newhouse graduate.