New Scholarships Announced for Game Students

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has established a new scholarship fund for video game development students. Called the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund, the monies will support students pursuing careers in game design, development, and production. Collaborating on the scholarship fund with the AIAS is Bing Gordon, chief creative officer of Electronic Arts. The AIAS will award four $2,500 scholarships to students attending accredited universities. The fund honors Dr. Randy Pausch, professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Pausch, a co-founder of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, has greatly influenced the industry through his teachings, sabbaticals at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts, and consultation with Google on user interface design. The AIAS has stated it will donate one dollar for every Academy member’s vote for the 2008 Interactive Achievement Awards. The scholarship recipients will be selected by a committee comprising AIAS board members from Electronic Arts, Stormfront Studios, Epic Games, University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon. The AIAS will begin accepting applications for the scholarship after the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit. Additional information on the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund and the application process will be available at www.interactive.org.