The Entertainment Software Associate (ESA) posted a press release regarding the growing economic and social significance of the video game industry.
To read their story:
http://www.theesa.com/newsroom/release_detail.asp?releaseID=76
PITTSBURGH— Sun Microsystems, Inc., is teaming up with Carnegie Mellon
University to support the continuing development of Alice, the university’s
innovative, Java technology-based computer programming environment that
teaches students to program Java software while having fun creating 3D
animations, stories and video games.
Alice is an object-oriented, open source system developed over the last 10
years that is provided free to educators and students by the university. It
features a drag and drop interface that allows students to create 3D
environments and populate them with a wide variety of easy to program
objects and characters. Because it’s based on open development principles,
it encourages users and teachers to share knowledge to improve teaching
methods and identify improvements to the software on which the system is
based.
Alice was the key research project of Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon’s
beloved professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design
who died of pancreatic cancer last summer at the age of 47. Pausch spent
more than a decade of his career developing the program. He was able to see
a rough version of a new, enhanced Alice 3 just before he died.
Over the next three years, Sun Microsystems will work with Carnegie Mellon
to globalize Alice, providing the tools to translate it into different
languages and develop drag and drop artifacts unique to a variety of
cultures. Sun will work with the Alice development team to bring the system
to a worldwide audience of educators and students.
“The Alice team has done wonderful work over the last decade, making great
contributions to computer science education,” said Carnegie Mellon alumnus
James Gosling, vice president and Sun Fellow who created the Java language.
”There’s no better investment we can make than in the education of the next
generation. I’m thrilled that we’re making this commitment.”
Today, it’s estimated that the current version — Alice- 2.0 — is being used
in 10 to 15 percent of U.S. colleges and universities, as well as a number
of high schools and middle schools. There is a version called “Storytelling
Alice” that is especially attractive to middle school girls, helping them to
become aware of the importance of computer science early in their
educational careers.
A team of researchers headed by Associate Teaching Professor
Wanda P. Dann and lead developer and Project Scientist Dennis Cosgrove is
working around the clock to bring out Alice 3. Dann said that the support of
Sun will enable her group to debug and extend their rough version of the
system, increase the size of their team, speed up the development process
and produce a higher quality product.
“Sun’s participation will provide our team with the technical
resources we need to bring the development of Alice 3 to completion over the
next three years,” Dann said. “We will bring out a full release of Alice 3
and follow that with the development of application programming interfaces
that will make it useful in all STEM disciplines, including computer
science.” Dann said that Alice 3 also will make it easier for teachers using
Alice to move their students into Java software.
Alice 3 also will feature essential arts assets from a version
of “The Sims™” — one of the best selling PC video games of all time — which
were given as a gift to the research team in 2006. The Sims content helps to
transform the Alice software from a crude, 3-D programming tool into a
compelling and user-friendly programming environment.
“Alice 3 is a major advance over the 2.0 version” said Peter
Lee, professor and head of the Computer Science Department in Carnegie
Mellon’s School of Computer Science. “It retains the attractive, intuitive
interface that motivates students to write computer programs almost without
knowing it. At the same time, it provides a pathway to learning
industrial-strength Java software programming. For many, this will be a
great ticket to upward mobility.”
The Alice Project has been supported in the past by the National
Science Foundation, DARPA, Intel, Microsoft and SAIC, as well as Electronic
Arts, Google, General Dynamics, the Heinz Foundation and the Hearst
Foundation. For more information about the Alice project, see
http://www.alice.org. Carnegie Mellon makes downloads of the Alice software
available at no cost at www.alice.org .
PITTSBURGH—Ed Catmull, president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, will accept the first Randy Pausch Prize from Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and present the keynote address at the 7th International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC) on Sept. 26.
The award, which the ETC plans to present annually, is named for Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist and author of the best-selling book “The Last Lecture,” who died July 25 at age 47. Pausch was passionate about the need for technologists and artists to work together and unusually successful in making these collaborations work. The Pausch Prize will honor entertainment industry experts who embody his interdisciplinary spirit.
“We couldn’t think of a more fitting person to receive the first Pausch Prize than Ed Catmull,” said Don Marinelli, who co-founded the ETC with Pausch and is its executive producer. “Eleven years ago, when the ETC was just a vision that Randy and I were trying to make a reality, Ed generously shared with us his thoughts about how to prepare students for the new world of interactive digital media. His suggestions, including the idea of having everyone in the program study improvisational acting, were priceless. He helped us make the ETC a place where right-brained and left-brained individuals can work together successfully.”
Catmull co-founded Pixar, which has produced such films as “Toy Story,” “The Incredibles” and “Wall-E,” and created two other leading centers of computer graphics research — the computer graphics laboratory at the New York Institute of Technology and the computer division of Lucasfilm Ltd. These three organizations have been home to many of the most academically respected researchers in the field of computer graphics and have produced some of the field’s most fundamental advances. Catmull is one of the architects of the RenderMan rendering software, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary and has been used in 44 of the last 47 films nominated for an Academy Award® in the Visual Effects category.
Catmull has been honored with four Academy Awards, including a Technical Achievement Award, as well as the ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award for his lifetime contributions in the computer graphics field. He earned the IEEE’s John von Neumann Medal for contributions to computer graphics and a pioneering use of computer animation in motion pictures. Catmull earned a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Utah.
Recipients of the Pausch Prize, which includes a $2,500 cash award, will present a lecture at Carnegie Mellon. Catmull will accept his prize and present the Pausch lecture at 9:15 a.m., Sept. 26 in McConomy Auditorium in Carnegie Mellon’s University Center, the site of Pausch’s famous “last lecture.”
The lecture also serves as the keynote address for the ICEC, which is hosted this year by the ETC. The ICEC is the largest and most prestigious conference for entertainment computing, where leading experts from academia and industry present their newest insights, products and demonstrations. In addition to Catmull, speakers include Stan Szymanski, senior vice president of Digital Production and Creative Resources for Sony Pictures Imageworks; Jesse Schell, assistant professor at the ETC, president of Schell Games and author of the new book “The Art of Game Design;” and Keiji Yamada, director of NEC Corporation’s C&C Innovation Research Laboratories.
About 300 researchers are expected to attend the ICEC Sept. 25-27. For information, please visit http://www.etc.cmu.edu/icec2008/
About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre Pittsburgh campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses in Silicon Valley, Calif., and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia and Europe. For more, see www.cmu.edu.
The Carnegie Science Center has announced the Spring 2009 opening of roboworld, a premier robotics exhibit.
"The $3.4 million exhibition will permanently occupy a 6,000 square-foot exhibit area on the second floor of Carnegie Science Center currently used for touring exhibitions and will feature more than 30 hands-on, interactive exhibit stations in three thematic areas focusing on robotic sensing, thinking and acting."
For more information: http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/explore/roboworld_digi_kit.pdf
DATASOURCE: Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
CONTACT: Jennifer Reeves, Public Relations Manager of Pancreatic Cancer
Action Network, +1-310-321-6542,
Web site: http://www.pancan.org/
The famed professor speaks about the urgent need to fund pancreatic cancer research
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., April 2, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (http://www.pancan.org/) released today a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) featuring Carnegie Mellon Professor, Dr. Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer and whose "last lecture" reflecting on life's lessons has become an internet sensation. During the PSA, Pausch speaks about his diagnosis and the urgent need to fund pancreatic cancer research. Currently, less than 2% of the National Cancer Institute's federal research funding is allocated to pancreatic cancer, a figure far too low given the severity of the disease. Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer death in the United States, yet it is the most under-recognized and least studied among all leading cancer killers.
"Randy Pausch has been an amazing champion for the pancreatic cancer community, and we are grateful for his time and efforts on behalf of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network," stated President and CEO, Julie Fleshman. "While Randy's efforts will not save his life, we hope the public will understand the sense of urgency behind his message. We need to take action now by raising the appropriate funds for pancreatic cancer research that will ultimately lead to a cure."
"There are very few advocates for this disease because patients don't live long enough, but I have been given a platform by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to raise my voice for this community," added Dr. Pausch. "With increased funding for research, the best scientific minds can make strides against this deadly disease and give patients a fighting chance."
Please contact Jennifer Reeves at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to request a DVD copy.
About the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is the only national organization creating hope in a comprehensive way through research, patient support, community outreach and advocacy for a cure. The organization raises money for direct private funding of research -- and advocates for more aggressive federal research funding of medical breakthroughs in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network fills the void of information and options by giving patients and caregivers reliable, personalized information they need to make informed decisions. We create a sense of hope and community so no one has to face pancreatic cancer alone. The organization helps support individuals and communities all across the country work together to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for pancreatic cancer.
