What do you get when you put a computer scientist together with a graphic artist, violin player and business administration student?
At CMU’s popular “Building Virtual Worlds” class, you get four different people speaking four different languages and some highly creative art. You also might get a great job.
This Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. the selected finalists for the “Building Virtual Worlds” class will present their projects to a "standing room only" crowd on campus, a program that has become a phenomenon over the past 10 years. Created by renowned Computer Science Professor Randy Pausch, the hilarious and colorful show attracts a multidisciplinary crowd, not to mention job scouts for some of the most sought after jobs in the country. (In a sidenote, Pausch received the 2007 Karl V. Kalstrom Outstanding Educator Award for his development of an innovative software teaching curriculum and his contribution in founding CMU's Entertainment Technology Center.)
“We have a huge hiring rate, 95 percent, from this event,” says Jesse Schell, assistant professor in the ETC who teaches the class these days. “People have gone on to work on Halo 3, the movie Shrek, Sims. One of the most powerful things about being a student at ETC is you become part of this alumni network that goes on to do great things.”
The class draws a mix of students--artists, technicians and generalists--and teaches them how to work together on themes to create a new kind of experience, says Schell. Using ETC platforms like Jam-O-Drum and camera based interaction techniques like Quasi the robot, the final show is a strange virtual reality audience experience.
“It is a mix of performance art, video games, computer animation and audience participation—a virtual reality vaudeville show that has become a Carnegie Mellon tradition.” Schell says.
To view a live feed simulcast of the program today at 6 p.m., click here.
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Jesse Schell, ETC
Image courtesy of CMU