“He put his arm around my shoulders, and we went for a little walk, and he said, ‘Randy, it’s such a shame that people perceive you as so arrogant. Because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life.’ What a great way to tell you you’re a jerk,” Pausch marveled.Brown Alumni Magazine - It's Not Time Yet
Then he returned to Carnegie Mellon, where he and his team developed Alice, free 3-D software designed to reverse the shrinking numbers of computer science majors and graduate students by teaching middle school and high school students how to create programs. They recently persuaded the game company Electronic Arts to let them use the Sims 2 characters. Reasoning that younger children, especially girls, would be more attracted to creating programs that told stories, one of his graduate students created a version of Alice based on narratives.
While he recently became a household name with The Last Lecture, he was a longtime proponent of gaming as a vehicle for computer science education. His work at CMU, and partnerships with Disney and Electronic Arts, helped legitimize gaming and play in the university, and brought the university into the video game industry. Even before The Last Lecture anyone who had the chance to study with him or just chat with him for a few minutes knew they were talking with a man with a passion for play, technology and life, and a lifelong sense of wonder we can all emulate. Three cheers for Randy Pausch!
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