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Entertainment Technology Center
The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) is a department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The ETC offers a two-year terminal Masters of Entertainment Technology (MET) degree.
Students enrolled in the ETC learn interdisciplinary skills in design, art, and technology, and are prepared for industries where artists and technologists work hand-in-hand, such as video game development, theme park design, location-based entertainment, interactive storytelling, animation, visual effects, robotics, and technology.
The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon University was founded in 1999 by computer science professor Randy Pausch and drama professor Donald Marinelli as a joint initiative between the School of Computer Science and the College of Fine Arts. Conceived as an interdisciplinary graduate program, the ETC was created to bridge the gap between technology and the arts by preparing students to work collaboratively in emerging entertainment industries, including video games, themed entertainment, animation, and interactive media.
The program grew out of Carnegie Mellon’s longstanding emphasis on interdisciplinary research and experimentation. Pausch brought experience in virtual reality and human-computer interaction, including work with Walt Disney Imagineering, while Marinelli contributed expertise in theater, arts management, and digital storytelling. Together, they designed a project-based curriculum centered on team collaboration, rapid prototyping, and experiential learning.
The ETC is the first and only to offer a Master of Entertainment Technology (MET) degree, emphasizing production-oriented work over traditional academic research. Early courses such as Building Virtual Worlds became widely recognized for immersing students from artistic and technical backgrounds in emerging technologies like virtual reality (VR) and requiring them to collaborate on rapid prototypes.
The ETC gained international visibility through Pausch’s viral 2007 talk The Last Lecture, which highlighted the center’s philosophy of creativity, teamwork, and applied learning in the context of Pausch’s life. Following Pausch’s death in 2008, the ETC honored Pausch’s legacy by naming the building’s largest space — the Randy Pausch Interdisciplinary Studio — in his honor.
The ETC developed strong relationships with industry partners in gaming, location-based entertainment, tech, and film. One example of this is the program’s annual West Coast Trip, where first-year students visit companies in Los Angeles and San Francisco including Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Naughty Dog, Riot Games, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Blizzard Entertainment.
In 2007, the ETC opened a Silicon Valley campus embedded within Electronic Arts’s offices in the Bay Area. Run by ETC faculty members Carl Rosendahl and Jiyoung Lee, students could choose to spend a semester at the Silicon Valley campus working on projects with the faculty there and with EA often serving as a client. The campus closed in 2020 during COVID.
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Entertainment Technology Center
The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) is a department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The ETC offers a two-year terminal Masters of Entertainment Technology (MET) degree.
Students enrolled in the ETC learn interdisciplinary skills in design, art, and technology, and are prepared for industries where artists and technologists work hand-in-hand, such as video game development, theme park design, location-based entertainment, interactive storytelling, animation, visual effects, robotics, and technology.
The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon University was founded in 1999 by computer science professor Randy Pausch and drama professor Donald Marinelli as a joint initiative between the School of Computer Science and the College of Fine Arts. Conceived as an interdisciplinary graduate program, the ETC was created to bridge the gap between technology and the arts by preparing students to work collaboratively in emerging entertainment industries, including video games, themed entertainment, animation, and interactive media.
The program grew out of Carnegie Mellon’s longstanding emphasis on interdisciplinary research and experimentation. Pausch brought experience in virtual reality and human-computer interaction, including work with Walt Disney Imagineering, while Marinelli contributed expertise in theater, arts management, and digital storytelling. Together, they designed a project-based curriculum centered on team collaboration, rapid prototyping, and experiential learning.
The ETC is the first and only to offer a Master of Entertainment Technology (MET) degree, emphasizing production-oriented work over traditional academic research. Early courses such as Building Virtual Worlds became widely recognized for immersing students from artistic and technical backgrounds in emerging technologies like virtual reality (VR) and requiring them to collaborate on rapid prototypes.
The ETC gained international visibility through Pausch’s viral 2007 talk The Last Lecture, which highlighted the center’s philosophy of creativity, teamwork, and applied learning in the context of Pausch’s life. Following Pausch’s death in 2008, the ETC honored Pausch’s legacy by naming the building’s largest space — the Randy Pausch Interdisciplinary Studio — in his honor.
The ETC developed strong relationships with industry partners in gaming, location-based entertainment, tech, and film. One example of this is the program’s annual West Coast Trip, where first-year students visit companies in Los Angeles and San Francisco including Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Naughty Dog, Riot Games, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Blizzard Entertainment.
In 2007, the ETC opened a Silicon Valley campus embedded within Electronic Arts’s offices in the Bay Area. Run by ETC faculty members Carl Rosendahl and Jiyoung Lee, students could choose to spend a semester at the Silicon Valley campus working on projects with the faculty there and with EA often serving as a client. The campus closed in 2020 during COVID.
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