The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) is a department at Carnegie Mellon University in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is located at the Pittsburgh Technology Center. The ETC offers a two-year Masters of

Entertainment Technology Entertainment technology is the discipline of using manufactured or created components to enhance or make possible any sort of entertainment experience. Because entertainment categories are so broad, and because entertainment models the world in m ...

(MET) degree, jointly conferred by Carnegie Mellon University's

College of Fine Arts The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include: The Americas North America *Alabama School of Fin ...

and School of Computer Science. Students enrolled in the ETC learn interdisciplinary skills in design, art and technology, and are prepared for environments where artists and technologists work hand-in-hand, such as theme parks, interactive museum exhibits, website design and development, and the creation of video games.

History

The ETC was co-founded by Donald Marinelli, a Professor of Drama, and Randy Pausch, a Professor of Computer Science, in 1999. The ETC has a history of having agreements with certain companies, such as

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

, and

Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...

, where the companies agree to hire a set number of ETC graduates each year.

Curriculum

The ETC's curriculum is split into 4 semesters, with a required industry internship in between the second and third semesters. The first semester includes required classes, such as Building Virtual Worlds, Fundamentals of Entertainment Technology, Improvisational Acting, and a Visual Storytelling class. The next three semesters all consist of a semester-long project course, and one elective class, which can be any other class taught at Carnegie Mellon University. The project course consists of 5 team-based projects, each of which is completed with a scrambled team of students, and in a two-week period.

Faculty

* Don Marinelli * Drew Davidson * Brenda Bakker Harger * Mike Christel * Ruth Comley * John Dessler * Chris Klug * Jiyoung Lee * Michelle Macau * Carl Rosendahl * Shirley Saldamarco * Jesse Schell * David Culyba * Scott Stevens * Jessica Trybus * Ralph Vituccio

Adjunct Faculty

* John Buchanan * Mk Haley * David Gurwin * Kerry Handron *

Jessica Hodgins Jessica K. Hodgins is an American roboticist and researcher who is a professor at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute and School of Computer Science. Hodgins is currently also Research Director at the Facebook AI Research lab in Pittsburgh next ...

* Eric Paulos * Luis Von Ahn * William J (Chip) Walter * John Wesner * Josh Yelon

Staff

* Steve Audia * MaryCatherine Dieterle * Rebecca Lombardi * Bryan Maher * Cari Marty * Julie McKenzie * Janice Metz * Vicki Poklemba * David Purta * Valerie Sofranko * Susan Timko * Jon Underwood * Caitlin Zunic

Corporate partners

* Maiy El-Wakil * Craig Lipchin * Shawn Walters

Visiting scholars

Anthony Daniels Anthony Daniels ( ; born 21 February 1946) is an English actor and mime artist, best known for playing in 10 '' Star Wars'' films. He is the only actor to have either appeared in or been involved with all theatrical films in the series, and ...

* Nick Fortugno *

Michael Keaton Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), known professionally as Michael Keaton, is an American actor. He is known for his various comedic and dramatic film roles, including Jack Butler in ''Mr. Mom'' (1983), Betelgeuse in '' Beetlejuice'' ...

* Oscar Garcia Panella * Mickey McManus *

Katie Salen Katie Salen Tekinbas is an American game designer, animator, and educator. She is a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, she taught at DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media, Parsons The New School for ...

In memoriam

* Anne Humphreys * Randy Pausch

References

External links

* {{coord, 40.43184, -79.96192, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title Educational institutions established in 1999 Schools and departments of Carnegie Mellon 1999 establishments in Pennsylvania