Scholarship Winners of Pausch Fund Named

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced the four recipients of the first annual Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund. They are Lisa Brown of Carnegie Mellon University; Diana Hughes of University of Southern California; Garrick Williams of West Virginia University; and Jason Williams of University of Advancing Technology. Dr. Randy Pausch, for whom the scholarship is named, was a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University who passed away earlier this year. He was best known for giving an inspirational speech called “Last Lecture,” and subsequently writing a book of the same nature. “It makes sense that the Academy’s first scholarship honors Dr. Randy Pausch who is an inspiration to people who want to be involved in making great games,” said Joseph Olin, president of AIAS. “We hope these scholarships may help the next Will Wright or Mike Morhaime gets their start.” The Recipients Jason Williams is an online student from the University of Advancing Technology, who resides in Memphis, Tennessee. He is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in game design. He also has congenital muscular dystrophy. Lisa Brown, from Louisville, Kentucky, is a first-year graduate student at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center which Pausch co-founded. Brown’s background in traditional art, comic art, computer science, theater, and animation has laid the groundwork for her goal to create games for interactive museum exhibits. Garrick Williams, from Bridgeport, West Virginia, is studying computer science at West Virginia University, but has been studying game development since high school in Virginia and then at Christopher Newport University. Diana Hughes, a third-year MFA student at University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, is from Pekin, Illinois. She is specializing in game design and production, hoping to refine the production process so that it is efficient and effective, while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to creative ideas and changes in design