Congratulations to ETC faculty member Jesse Schell and all of our friends at Schell Games! Last week at the 4th annual DATA Awards, Schell Games won in the Joystick Games & Applications category for Race for the Beach.

The Makeshop at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh won in the Kids and Creative Technology category. The ETC has had two projects with MakeShop, Digital Dream Lab and The Makeshop Project , so we are very happy to hear of their success.

The DATA Awards are given to seven regional companies at the intersection of art and technology by the Pittsburgh Technology Council.

More information on the DATA awards can be found here.

It's expansion time again at Disneyland in California. Disney announced plans this week for a major, multiyear upgrade to the newer of the resort's two parks, Disney's California Adventure, including the creation of a 12-acre "land" inspired by the Disney/Pixar film Cars. Cars Land, as it will be called, will include a major Cars-themed thrill ride and two lesser family-friendly rides.
Disney also will beef up other areas of the 6-year-old park with the addition of rides themed to the movies Toy Story and The Little Mermaid, a new "nighttime spectacular" water and lighting show, a new entryway and other improvements. The announcement follows Disney's groundbreaking last month for a 250-room expansion of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.

The small footprint of Disney's California Adventure when it opened in 2001 drew criticism from Disney die-hards, but Disneyland president Ed Grier says the park has been a success. "This expansion builds on a commitment we made more than a decade ago to create and grow the Anaheim resort area as a world-class tourist destination," he says.

No word on when everything opens.