Randy Pausch has been included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people of the year for 2007.
For more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733756_1...
During Nintendo's annual fiscal report, Satoru Iwata, President and CEO of Nintendo, mentioned how much he liked the indie game World of Goo, which is being developed for WiiWare by 2D Boy. World of Goo got it's start when ETC Alum Kyle Gabler was a student at the ETC and created Tower of Goo for the Experimental Gameplay Project. Gabler has since founded 2D Boy to focus on independent game development and their first game is the wonderful and award-winning World of Goo.
Iwata praises World of Goo and it's prominently featured, with illustrative video, during the report. For more, check out the links below. Congratulations to Kyle and 2D Boy!
Webcast of the Nintendo Report
http://www.irwebcasting.com/080425/60/278760cef3/main/index_hi.htm
Transcript of the portion of the talk that mentions World of Goo
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/080425/06.html
2D Boy
http://www.2dboy.com/
The 2008 Robot Hall of Fame was a red carpet, star studded evening at the Carnegie Science Center. Major celebrities from the world of science and entertainment attended the event which recognizes excellence in robotics technology worldwide and honors the fictional and real robots that have inspired and made breakthrough accomplishments in robotics. Event Producer, Shirley J. Saldamarco, credits Master of Ceremonies, Anthony Daniels to jettisoning the night to spectacular new heights with his humorous wit and irresistible charm. Joining the festivities were Lars Nyengaard, Director, Innovation and Education Projects, LEGO Education, accepting on behalf of LEGO Mindstorms; Todd Jochem, President, Applied Perception, Inc. and Group Director, Foster-Miller, Inc. accepting on behalf of Navlab 5; Marc Raibert, President, Boston Dynamics, accepting on behalf of the Raibert Hopper; and Zachary Quinto, star of the television series “Heroes” and also starring in the soon to be released “Star Trek: the Next Generation” as “Spock,” accepting on behalf of Lt. Cmdr. Data.
Presenter Matt Mason, Director, CMU Robotics Institute, emphasized how the fascination with robotics continues to bring together people from business, technology, and education. Carnegie Science Center Director, Johanna Haas announced plans to open roboworld, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive permanent robotics exhibition, in spring 2009. Roboworld will become the permanent home for the Carnegie Mellon University Robot Hall of Fame. Robotics Trends president, Dan Kara, once again included the induction ceremony as part of the 6th annual RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition Conference. The conference has become a ‘must attend’ event for those interested in the business and technical issues related to the development of the personal, service and mobile robotics industry. Entertainment Technology Center Executive Producer, Don Marinelli, regaled the audience with tales of his vision of having science and entertainment come together in a single application. The ETC embodies the limitless capabilities when right brain and left brain come together.
Other notable guests included Jim Morris, professor of Computer Science and dean of the West Coast Campus of Carnegie Mellon University, Robin Shoop, Director of the Robotics Academy, Mark Hamill, Star Wars Luke Skywalker, and “Quasi,” the animatronic ambassador for the ETC.
"Get Behind the Scenes; be inspired at the Walt Disney animation Studio"
A group of ETC Silicon Valley students and faculty was invited to participate in the Disney Animation Studio's "Get Behind the Scenes" Event on April 3rd. The ETC-SV folks had such an amazing time at Disney Animation Studio.
Disney presented a full day of inspirational lectures on how they create the 'magic' for feature films.
In the morning session, the ETC students heard great presentations about Disney's film making process. The day started off with Directors Dave Goetz and Dan Cooper doing a session on Art Direction. 3D Visual Effects Supervisor Steve Goldberg talked about the 3D Animation Pipeline. Then, to finish the morning session, 2D Visual Effects Supervisors Kyle Odermatt and Jenni MacGee Cook presented on the Classic 2D Animation Pipeline, and Production Management.
In the afternoon, there were two tracks from which the students could choose, "CG track : What inspires You?" and "2D Hand Drawn Animation : What Inspires You?" – most of the SV folks participated on CG track. There, we heard presentations about what it's like to work on animated feature films from three different perspectives. Animator -- Wayne Unten, TD -- Heather Pritchett, and Modeler / Sculptor – Dan Platt who has done tremendous sculpture and modeling for many movies and showed us his portfolio. (http://tinyurl.com/3l2dcd)
Finally, we had a chance to tour the Disney Animation Studio to close the day.
The event was a lot of fun, and it was definitely worth our day trip from Silicon Valley to Burbank. The SV folks got a lot of inspiration from the events. Not only the great presentations, but the students' feedback session was also spectacular.
Disney also announced their summer internship program, "Talent Development & Associate Programs". This program is a great opportunity to look behind the scenes and experience the process. http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/walt_disney_animation_studios_int...
CMU's Johnny Lee gave a talk on his Wiimote research at TED2008.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/245
