Franklin Alumni Feature

 Roberto Vitalini ’94

Roberto sits in front of one of his company's virtual seascapes. 

Born and raised in Lugano, Switzerland, Roberto Vitalini '94 did not move next door to Franklin’s campus after graduating from high school but ended up in San Francisco. In California, he was inspired by the American approach to higher education, a system that allowed students to explore many different interests at once. Upon Roberto’s return to Switzerland, Franklin was a natural choice for him with its international environment, faculty and students and an American approach to education.

At Franklin, Roberto was not disappointed by the choices of what he could pursue. “In Switzerland, we are surrounded by mountains that give a sense of permanency, that things will always be there,” says Roberto. “Franklin prepared me for “change.” Cross-cultural communication, political science, international business, they all contributed in shaping an international and open-minded view of our planet, its citizens and myself. At Franklin I started thinking outside the box.”

He also learned the importance of traveling, going to London and Cornwall with Professor Stanford, Tokyo and Hong Kong with Professor Clark, and Paris with Professor McCormick. “Each professor has shaped the way I look at the world,” says Roberto. All of the travels would also later impact his work and business outlook. 

After Franklin, Roberto joined the Fantastic Corporation, a hi-tech company started in 1996 that began to be publically traded in 1999 but is now defunct. Surrounded by engineers he developed his skills for creating interactive media experiences. He later fused his love for art and technology when he founded his company, BASHIBA. The first product, called BASHIBA Panorama, is a software and hardware platform for the creation of real-time virtual landscapes and seascapes that can be used not only as digital scenery for theatre and opera, but also as "ambient information displays" for financial institutions that want to visually perceive the mood of the market using ever-changing 3-D weather simulatioin. “I have always enjoyed communicating with images, and if I should have to use words, I would rely on metaphors to get the messages across,” says Roberto.

In a throwback to past Academic Travels, last year Roberto and his company worked with the English National Opera and they presented BASHIBA Panorama at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Roberto still enjoys traveling, understanding the contribution it makes to creativity and growth.  On a trip to Tibet he recalls the color of the sky at 5,000 meters, saying, “It was so blue that I felt I was looking at the real sky for the first time.” 

For more information on BASHIBA visit www.bashiba.com or www.vitalini.com.

May 2010