Frank M. Groom is a professor of information and communication sciences at the Center for Information and Communication Sciences at Ball State University. He conducts research into high-bandwidth networking and the storage and transmission of multimedia objects. Dr. Groom has conducted research into multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-driven fiber networks, intelligent agents, network-based data deployment, and firewall-based security. He has conducted a number of national research projects using surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, and student research culminating in two of his published books. Furthermore, he has conducted many specialized statistical research studies for AT&T, McDonalds Corp., and Nth Dimension Software. In addition to his graduate level networking, information systems, network security, and advanced database courses at Ball State, Dr. Groom annually conducts a graduate research methods course for Ball State graduate students where he teaches many of the methods he has employed in his own research. His research has been conducted both in industry and at the university studying both big data problems as well as smaller situations. Dr. Groom has presented networking and data processing courses to major American corporations, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM, AT&T and its various units, Motorola, Digital Equipment Corp. (now HP), Unisys, Ford Motor, Hillenbran Industries, and McDonalds.
AT&T has twice sponsored Dr. Groom to present advanced data processing and networking courses to the graduate students and faculty of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) and the People’s Republic of China Government Office of Telecommunications. He was honored with having two of his papers presented at the Plenary Session of the 1996 International Conference on Information Infrastructure (ICII’96) in Beijing, China, and another paper presented as the Plenary Session for the Broadband 2000 conference in Tokyo. Furthermore, in 1996, 1998, and 2006, Dr. Groom presented papers on ATM networking, Multimedia, and VoIP at the leading French Graduate School of Telecommunications (Ecole Nationale Superiore des Telecommunications [ENST]) while consulting with research professors and reviewing the PhD dissertation research of current candidates.
In addition to publishing over 120 technical papers concerning networking, systems design, corporate re-engineering, and object-oriented storage, Dr. Groom has published a number of books, including The Future of ATM and Broadband Networking, The Future of IP and Packet Networking, The ATM Handbook, The Basics of Voice over Internet Protocol, The Basics of 802.11 Wireless LANs, and Multimedia over the Broadband Network. Further, he has authored two chapters in other books: Network Manager’s Handbook and Knowledge Management. He is the coeditor of the four-volume 2006 Annual Review of Communications, and is one of the coauthors of the second edition of The Fundamentals of Communication for Non-Engineers with Stephan S. Jones and Ronald J. Kovac for Taylor & Francis.
Dr. Groom has a PhD in management information systems from the University of Wisconsin, was division manager in charge of the Information Systems Division of Wisconsin Bell, and is the retired senior director of information systems for Ameritech (now once again part of AT&T).
Kevin Groom is a project manager for AT&T’s network projects for large corporations. He is a former senior network engineer in AT&T’s Network Service Division, supporting AT&T’s national backbone network for 15 years. He has a BS in telecommunications and an MS in information and communication sciences from Ball State University.
Stephan S. Jones spent over 16 and a half years in the communication technology industry while operating his own teleconnect company, providing high-end commercial voice and data networks to a broad range of end users. Later, Dr. Jones was district sales manager for the Panasonic Communications and Systems Company, providing application engineering and product support to distributors in a five-state area.
Since joining Ball State as a professor of information and communication sciences, Dr. Jones has served as the codirector of the Center for Information and Communication Sciences Applied Research Institute and has conducted research in the development of broadband delivery systems, unified communications, and health-care information technologies, and he has written/edited 15 books and authored numerous book chapters. In his current role as the director of the Center for Information and Communication Sciences, he is charged with external funding development, student career development and placement, the pursuit of new curriculum ideas, graduate student recruiting, and the out-of-classroom learning experience of the Student Social Learning Program.
Dr. Jones received his PhD from Bowling Green State University, where he also served as the dean of continuing education, developing a distance-learning program for the College of Technology’s undergraduate Technology Education program.