| Faculty and Staff The ETC has its own talented pool of faculty in addition to having access to the faculty in the greater Carnegie Mellon University Community. The department also sometimes has industry professionals lead project groups and/or teach courses. |
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| Co-Directors | |
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Don
Marinelli, Co-Director
of the ETC Most recently, he has accepted an appointment as a researcher in the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, devoting his energies to the Informedia Project, applying dramatic and cinemagraphic theory to multimedia interface and application design. |
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Randy
Pausch,
Co-Director of the ETC He was a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. In 1995, he spent a Sabbatical with the Walt Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio, and currently consults with Imagineering on interactive theme park attractions, particularly for the "DisneyQuest" virtual-reality based theme park. Dr. Pausch is the author or co-author of five books and over 50 reviewed journal and conference proceedings articles, and his primary interests are human-computer interaction, entertainment technology, and undergraduate education. |
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Tina
(Bean) Blaine |
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Roger
Dannenberg Roger Dannenberg is a Senior Research Scientist and Artist in the Department of Computer Science with an adjunct appointment in the School of Art. He is also a fellow of the CMU Studio for Creative Inquiry. He is internationally known for his research in the field of Computer Music and serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He and his students are currently involved in a number of music-related projects. The idea that explicit timing specification can substitute for explicit synchronization has led to a number of functional language designs, including Nyquist, all of which share a novel temporal semantics and support behavioral abstraction. Spectral Interpolation Synthesis is a sound-generation technique which adds controlled spectral variation to existing powerful analysis/synthesis methods. Several Computer Accompaniment systems, which listen to live performers, follow them in a score, and perform synchronized accompaniments, have been implemented. The SmartMusic product by Coda is based on this work and is licensed from CMU. Current research includes new music understanding systems and work on content-based music retrieval. Dr. Dannenberg also has interests in music representation and multimedia computer -based education systems. In addition to his research, Dr. Dannenberg is an active jazz and experimental trumpet player, and he composes works for interactive computer animation, music, and live performers. |
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Drew
Davidson , Affiliated
Professor in The Entertainment Technology Center Drew Davidson is the Academic Department Director for Game Art & Design and Interactive Media Design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He is also an Affiliated Professor in the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a professor, producer and player of interactive media, exploring narratives and mediums across texts, comics, games and other media. Primarily, he is interested in conceptual interactive design, integrated narrative and interwoven media, collaborative design and development, applied media and game logics. He completed his Ph.D. in Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to that, he received a B.A. and M.A. in Communications Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has presented at international conventions and conferences and has created interactive projects revolving around narrative, media, and learning. He has been an Adjunct Faculty Member at St. Edward’s University, Southwest Texas University and Austin Community College. Professionally, he often works as a consultant. He has worked as a Senior Project Manager in the New Media Department of Holt, Rinehart and Winston. He was also a Project Manager in Learning Services at Sapient, and before that was a Producer in Learning Technologies at HumanCode. He is the Founding Director for the Applied Media & Simulation Games Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Currently, he serves on the IGDA Education Committee, the ACTlab Steering Committee, and is also a development partner with GridBloc. For more information, see http://waxebb.com.t |
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David
Gurwin, Adjunct Professor
of Entertainment Technology David A. Gurwin is an attorney and Shareholder with the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll PC, resident in the Firm's Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania office. A professional jazz pianist himself, he chairs the Firm's Entertainment and Media Law Group. He also chairs the Firm's Technology Transactions Group and is also a member of the Emerging Companies Group. Mr. Gurwin represents clients in a broad variety of industries, with a particular focus on Internet, computer and technology clients, as well as those involved in the entertainment industries. In the entertainment industries, his clients include and have included musicians, record companies, recording artists, record producers, concert promoters, songwriters, music publishers, advertising and interactive agencies, fine artists, video game developers, authors, literary publishers, television personalities, broadcasters, webcasters, playwrights, video production companies, arts organizations, professional athletes and sports organizations. In the technology arena, Mr. Gurwin represents and has represented clients in a broad variety of industries including Internet, e-commerce, software and information technology, biomedical, health care, advertising, consumer products, manufacturing, insurance and retail in connection with licensing and other business transactions involving the sale, acquisition and commercial exploitation of software, biotech and other technology assets. He also practices extensively in the areas of copyright, trademark and intellectual property law. Mr. Gurwin received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree, summa cum laude, from The Ohio State University in 1982. He received his Juris Doctor degree, with honors in Law, from The Ohio State University in 1985, where he served as Article Editor of The Ohio State Law Journal and was elected to The Order of the Coif. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. He is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association (Member, Arts & the Law Section); the American Bar Association (Member, Science and Technology Section; Intellectual Property Law Section; and Forum Committee on the Entertainment and Sports Industries); and The Computer Law Association. He is a frequent lecturer and author on the subjects of entertainment law, Internet and computer law and intellectual property law |
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Kerry
Handron Kerry Handron is the Director of the Earth Theater at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and an Adjunct Professor in the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. With a technical background in physics and astronomy, she comes to the world of entertainment and education through the planetarium field. She was instrumental in the planning and design phases of the Earth Theater, which is one of the first to utilize a very large format digital projection system. She wrote and produced the opening show, the Millennium Show, and has worked on several others for the theater and other planetaria. One of her goals for the theater with the ETC is to create effective digital presentations utilizing interaction techniques to engage the audience to the greatest possible extent. |
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Brenda
Harger Brenda Bakker Harger is a professor of Entertainment technology who lends her expertise as a director (MFA Carnegie Mellon Drama) and as an improviser. Harger has focused most of her directing in developing new plays; her new association with technology has presented a new forum of exploration. In addition to having performed as an improviser for the Pittsburgh Chapter Theatresports, and for many years as part of SAK Theatre, she has taught improv in workshops nationally and internationally, and until recently was the Entertainment Director for the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival. Bakker Harger
also uses improvisational techniques as director of a unique award
winning company at Carnegie Mellon, which uses live interactive theatre
to address controversial issues in the workplace and classroom. She
has produced an exploratory DVD-ROM for interactive theatre, and is
currently pursuing her interest in further applying her theory and
skills in directing and improvisation to electronic mediums. Harger
also has a long association with the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum
where she currently serves as a consultant. |
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Jessica
Hodgins Jessica Hodgins is an Associate Professor in Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. From 1992-2000 she on the faculty of the College of Computing and the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center at Georgia Tech. She received an NSF Young Investigator Award, a Packard Fellowship and a Sloan Foundation Fellowship. She is editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Graphics. Her research focuses on the coordination and control of dynamic physical systems, both natural and human-made, and explores techniques that allow robots and simulated humans to control their actions in complex and unpredictable environments. Ongoing projects include data-driven animation, simulation of human motion, adapting control systems to new dynamic models, animation interfaces for naive users, animation of passive objects, and measurements of human perception of animated motion. |
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Craig
Lipchin, Adjunct Faculty |
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In 1991, David Polinchock used virtual reality to create Experiential Advertising(tm) programs for clients ranging from Avis to Cutty Sark. He was a featured speaker on the topic of creating experiences that allowed the consumer to enter and interact with a marketing message at conferences both in the US and abroad. Previously, David was the CEO of Location Based Branding, specializing in oneline brand experiences that allowed the guests to enter and interact with brand stories. Projects included the creation of a Synthetic Interview for the Court TV Mall Tour and consultation with the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU, to commercialize ETC's proprietary experience-based technologies. He also served as the VP of Interactive Ideation for the DVC Group. As a key part of their Strategic Services team, David evaluated, recommended, and created interactive strategies in order to optimize investment of marketing and promotion initiatives. Clients included the Coca-Cola Think Tank, GSK and Viacom Mall Entertainment. He began his work in the new media industry in 1991, when he founded the CyberEvent Group, Inc., (CEG). CEG created Experiential Advertising(tm) programs and was one of the first companies in the US to work with fully immersive virtual reality. Clients included the City of Avignon Festival, People Magazine, USA Network, Westwood One Radio Network, American Express, Merrill Lynch and the Grateful Dead. CyberEvent Group also produced many of the major national tours that used virtual reality, including the award winning Cutty Sark Virtual Voyage, grand opening tours for Blockbuster stores and won a MARCOM Award for Best Trade Show Exhibit with our Immersive Animation Theatre for Cabletron Systems. David has over 20 years of experience in
event marketing and strategic ideation. He is an Adjunct Professor
at the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU and has taught courses
on Experiential Branding at the NYU School of Continuing & Professional
Studies Marketing and Management Institute. He also writes frequently
about brand experience topics for a variety of publications, including
EM and Event Marketer. |
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Scott
Stevens Scott Stevens is senior systems scientist in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute as well as faculty in the Entertainment Technology Center. His research interest's lie in the emerging, complex field of multimedia. Most applications fail to take full advantage of the information bandwidth, much less the capabilities of a multimedia, digital video and audio environment. To achieve, in part, a new model of multimedia systems, Scott's research includes interface designs that consider the complexity of multimedia objects, create high-fidelity environments, and incorporate an understanding of cinema and of digital video's temporal, spatial, and psychological nature. Scott's work also aspires to take the captivating power of story and fantasy, and combine it with motivating design, for applications ranging from learning and entertainment to information access and scientific visualization. |
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Jesse Schell is a Professor of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon, specializing in Game Design. Formerly, he was Creative Director of the Walt Disney Imagineering VR Studio, where his job was to invent the future of interactive entertainment for the Walt Disney Company. Jesse worked and played there for seven years as designer, programmer, and manager on several projects for Disney theme parks and DisneyQuest (Disney's chain of VR entertainment centers). His most recent work at Disney involves design of family-friendly massively multiplayer worlds, such as Disneys Toontown Online. He came to the ETC to impart real-world experience, and to build exciting new things. He has a BSCS from Rensselaer, and an MSIN degree from Carnegie Mellon. In a previous existence, he was writer, director, performer, juggler, comedian, and circus artist for both Freihofer's Mime Circus and the Juggler's Guild. Jesse is also the the coordinator of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the International Game Developers Association |
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Ralph Vituccio is the Director of Media Development in Communications Design and an Adjunct Professor in the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon. He has developed, written, and produced numerous films, videos, CD-ROM’s, DVD-ROM’s, web sites, and multimedia projects for Carnegie Mellon as well as many corporate and commercial clients. He is also an adjunct faculty at Pittsburgh Filmmakers where he teaches film and video production. His media work has received several communication and media awards and his interactive training CD-ROM’s on racism and teaching conflict management skills have both won National Educational Media Awards and International Television and Video Awards. As an independent artist, Vituccio has
received numerous grants in support of his work form the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Region Media Arts Fellowship
Program and the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition, he has
been the recipient of three Media Fellowship Awards. Vituccio’s
documentary, "PERFORMANCE: The Living Art ", won an Artist
Distinction Award at the 1990 Berlin International Film Festival and
has aired nationally on several PBS stations and internationally in
several countries. His latest documentary, “When The Video Came”,
slated for release summer of 2003, considers the early formation of
video as an art form and profiles many of the original pioneers in
the field. Currently, Vituccio is in preproduction on his first feature
film. |
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Shawn Walters, Adjunct Faculty Shawn Walters is co-founder and President of XGAMING®, INC development firm which creates high end gaming accessories for all game systems. Shawn created the X-ArcadeTM, an award winning arcade joystick built on XGAMING's pioneering input device platform, which works with all current/future game consoles and PC/MacTM computers. He spent 5 months in China setting up manufacturing facilities and production staff responsible for building XGAMING's products. Shawn left university at 19 to start his first gaming company and has been successfully creating and marketing video game products for the past 7 years. Shawn is working with the ETC on a one year sponsorship to impart his entrepreneurial experience in the game industry to students and collaborate on the development of interactive entertainment products. Shawn can usually be found working, reading or traveling. |
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Greg Wieder, Maya Instructor BFA, Applied Media Arts, Edinboro University
of PA '97 |
| Staff | |
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Steve
Audia, Technical Coordinator If Steve hadn't discovered computers at the age of seven, he'd probably still be building transformers out of Lego. Pursuing his love of both technology and creative process, he decided to study architecture, and received a Bachelors of Science degree in Architectural Design from the University of Virginia in 1999. Upon graduation, Steve spent a one-year residency with Randy Pausch's Stage3 research group as a digital artist. This landed him a job as an artist and python programmer for Walt Disney Imagineering's DisneyQuest, where he helped design and prototype virtual and augmented reality attractions. Now back at Carnegie Mellon, Steve is also working towards being an animation teacher and developing animation tools to augment software used in the ETC curriculum. Steve still hasn't given up his dream of one day being a Y2K engineer. |
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Todd Bowers, Program Coordinator Todd retired from the United States Air Force where he completed his service as the Director of Human Resource Programs and Associate Professor with the Air Force ROTC at the University of Pittsburgh and CMU (1976-1994). He then started working for Pitt and soon progressed to Departmental Administrator for the Department of Geology. He was instrumental in assisting with the development of the new Environmental Studies Program. (1994-2002). Todd is a graduate from the University of Maryland with a BA in Business Management and University of Chicago with a MBA in Business Administration. Hobbies include, but not limited to, gardening, hiking, camping, and anything that involves nature. He also raises and shows Yorkshire Terriers. He is currently the President of the Greater Pittsburgh Yorkshire Terrier Club. |
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Charles Palmer, Communications Coordinator |
