Mark Farley, Oregon Sea Grant,is the lab manager and learning technologies developer for the Cyberlab, based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor Center.

Mark came to Oregon State University from private industry. He began his career with PR and Marketing firms specializing in new media. These opportunities to work with emerging technologies, giving the customer choice and control over content, captured his professional interest and has remained central to his career. Over the years he has developed many specialized campaigns featuring traditional and interactive media for clients such as General Electric, Starbucks, Department of Transportation, Smithsonian, OMSI, Apple Computer, Department of Energy, US Air Force, Samaritan Health Systems, National Geographic, and Weyerhaeuser.

As VP of development for Pathworks, Inc, a Pacific Northwest-based interactive media company, he created innovative computer-based methods of tracking user learning patterns within the increasingly ubiquitous Computer Based Training systems used by larger corporations to improve employee performance. He joined an industry-wide effort to use evaluation engines to drive a new generation of adaptive training delivery systems.

In 2009 Mark joined Oregon Sea Grant and the Free-Choice Learning Initiative in their effort to bring advanced technologies to informal science research. As part of this NSF-funded effort, he continues to pilot the creation of an observation infrastructure located at and built within the educational context of the Marine Science Center. This “Cyberlab allows free-choice learning researchers around the world to gain access to HMSC visitor behavior and interaction for innovative and complex research protocols.

In his time with Oregon Sea Grant Mark has created many successful outreach and engagement products including exhibits and apps for Extension, Education, Research, as well as many coastal stakeholders.