Matt Leeke & Andrew Ingram By Randy Pausch & Don Marinelli Introduction The ETC Course Criticisms The Future References Questions Experience working in interdisciplinary teams is the best preparation for working in digital entertainment industries Important to create an experience where students can learn, rather than using a hard and fast “pass or fail” system Content is always more important to digital entertainment than the supporting technology Private research university in Pittsburgh Ranked among the best universities in the US Interdisciplinary approach to education 15 Nobel Laureates, 9 Turing Award winners, 7 Emmy Award winners, 3 Academy Award winners, and 4 Tony Award winners Established in 1999 after an investigation into technology-enabled entertainment “Where fine art meets technology” Grants professional masters degrees that are intended to prepare students for the digital entertainment industries Co-founders of the ETC Co-founders of the Master of Entertainment (MET) degree course Marinelli is a professor of Drama Experience of computer science through his work on the Synthetic Interviews project Pausch is a professor of Computer Science Taken a sabbatical at Walt Disney Imagineerings Virtual Reality Studio, where he worked on the Aladdin VR attraction The popular public face of the Alice project Co-Directorship to ensure a balance is maintained between art and technology Only 4 ground rules for ETC to negotiate Degree Reporting Tuition Independence Emphasis on teaching made it initially difficult to attract faculty, particularly those on tenure-track Consulted digital entertainment industries before the MET degree first got underway Unanimous feeling that students could not work effectively in interdisciplinary teams Resulted in the adoption of a culture focused upon “left-brain working with right-brain” Many companies have entered into contracts with the ETC, guaranteeing placements and jobs for students and graduates Do not try and turn artists into engineers or vice versa Teach students how to work in teams that must utilise the contrasting and disparate skills of its members Emphasise deliverables and the needs of the real world above book-learning and personal interests Students 1999 -8 students 2007 - 100 student (50 in each year) 20% international students 25% female students Funded by loans, scholarships and personal funds, just like counterparts studying Medicine, Law and Business Faculty 1999 -Pausch, Marinelli and interested internal faculty 2007 - 15 dedicated staff and faculty “Imagine trying to describe the Cirque du Soleil in terms of the number of tigers, clowns and trapezes it has.” Entirely project based curriculum No lecture based coursework or book-work All students have a summer placement between first and second years First Year Fall The Visual Story Improv(Improvisational Acting) Building Virtual Worlds (Projects) Fundamentals of Entertainment Technology First Year Spring Project Course Elective Second Year Fall Project Course Elective Second Year Fall Project Course Elective Industry Involvement Full projects last for one semester Students assigned to interdisciplinary teams Dedicated project rooms and resources A faculty advisor oversees each project Project ideas may come from students, faculty or external companies Focus upon deliverable, not reports or exams Instead of pretending projects count, make them count by having real customers and clients whenever possible A member of each team is designated as the student producer Quasi An interactive robot Peacemaker Diplomatic simulation Animateering A digital puppeteering interface Jam-O-Drum A shared projection surface / input device A course taught in the first semester Students assigned into teams of four Team members each have very specific skills Teams given 14 days to create an interactive virtual reality world Teams are then reshuffled and the process repeats for a total of five project cycles Having five cycles means that students are not afraid to fail and hence can be ambitious “Experience is what you get when you didnt get what you wanted” Short cycle periods mean that student do not have time to become irritated with each other Significant challenge for faculty to provide critique that student accept Computer Scientists unfamiliar with subjective critique Artist unfamiliar with the assessment of deliverables First project critique takes place a quarter of the way into the first semester Following a project presentation each team is sent back to their own project room Faculty members then visit each team and deliver an independent personal critique of the project Feedback is wholly informal and does not affect student grades, though the student producer is required to take extensive notes Free food for students Builds social fabric Demonstrates faculty cares about students Dedicated budget for s