I wish that I could have a conversation with the late Dr. Randy Pausch, the
Carnegie Mellon professor of computer science and design and co-founder
of the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC). Also, Dr. Pausch was the presenter of the infamous “Last Lecture.” I
had some correspondence with him and the Entertainment Technology
Center at Carnegie Mellon University in 2004-2005 in response to a
traumatic lawn mower injury that resulted in the partial amputation of
my left foot. I recognize that the traditional consumer and industrial
product safety manuals were not effective in communicating how to
properly use a product or equipment safely. Actually, I believe that the actual number of people who even read owner’s manuals is a very small percentage. Therefore,
I shuffled to Pittsburgh on several occasions to search out the
world-class Carnegie Mellon computer science, drama, psychology, and
business departments to pursue my vision of edutainment yard safety
software in order to educate and entertain the millions of users of
outdoor power equipment how to operate yard equipment in safe manner.
Furthermore, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that
200,000 individuals get hurt each year using outdoor power equipment.It is a serious complex problem.
I remember sending emails, having conversations, and dropping-off
Rescue Rick the Grass Cut Man leaflets with various individuals at
Carnegie Mellon, including the Entertainment Technology Center. Despite
a valiant effort of hitting several Randy Pausch “brick walls,” I
learned that Carnegie Mellon launched a spin-off company called
Etcetera Edutainment to focus on workplace safety applying gaming and
simulation technology.I am still trying to figure-out the proverbial Randy Pausch “head fake” related to this evolution without me. Rescue Rick the Grass Cut Man is a yard safety super hero that is here today so that yard accidents go away.
I wish that I could talk with Dr. Randy Pausch because I know that he
would tell me the truth and be fair with me regarding my concerns.Why the brick wall? What is the head fake?
Also,
I have pasted a wonderful story about Dr. Randy Pausch and his Last
Lecture that appeared on the The Tartan Online (Carnegie Mellon
newspaper) website http://www.thetartan.org/2007/9/24/news/pausch
Randy Pausch: How to achieve your dreams
Professor tells students to never give up, despite the odds
News | Tara Moore
Within the first
few statements of his lecture, titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood
Dreams,” Randy Pausch illustrated that he plans to live the time he has
left to the fullest. “We can’t change the cards we are dealt, just how
we play the hand. If I’m not as depressed as you think I should be, I’m
sorry to disappoint you,” said Pausch, who was diagnosed a little over
a year ago with pancreatic cancer.
Doctors recently told him he only has five months to live.
Pausch,
a professor of computer science and design and co-founder of the
Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), stressed that everyone can
achieve their childhood dreams if they try hard enough, but that it is
more important to help others achieve their dreams also.
The
lecture contained both humor and wisdom as Pausch explained that others
can get past the “brick walls” (things that get in the way of their
dreams), just as he did, and, like him, achieve all their goals.
Pausch’s
determination to help others is reflected in the impact he has had on
his students and all students who went through the ETC program. Laura
Pliskin, who will graduate in December with a master’s degree in
entertainment technology, said she might still be working in retail
were it not for Pausch, though she never had him as a professor.
“I
had earned my undergraduate degree in art, but had a hard time finding
a job,” Pliskin said. She met Pausch when he was shopping for an
anniversary gift for his parents at the store where she worked,
EngraveYard. Pausch told her about the ETC, a graduate program that he
had co-founded with Don Marinelli, the executive producer, in 1998.
The
ETC, as Pausch said in his lecture, involves “artists and technologists
working in small teams to make things,” meaning that the ETC strives to
create media that focuses on both its artistic and technological
qualities. In addition to the ETC, the professor also developed Alice,
interactive software that helps students learn computer programming in
a hands-on and engaging manner.
Although
Pausch had a hand in many of Carnegie Mellon’s classes and programs, in
his lecture the professor encouraged students to “focus on others, not
[themselves].” “Randy encouraged us to be forces for good. There are
enough people out there making zombie extermination games,” said Phil
Light, a student of Pausch’s who graduated last spring from the ETC.
Light
and two teammates started Electric Owl Studios, a company devoted to
making electronic toys that entertain children while they are
undergoing a hospital visit or cancer treatment.
Another
of Pausch’s students, Mark Tomczak, who graduated in 2005 with a B.S.
degree in computer science, took Pausch’s class Building Virtual Worlds
as an undergraduate student. He currently works to create training
worlds for occupations such as firefighters and police officers.
“Randy
believes people are capable of more than they think they are, and
encouraged us to push as far as we could,” Tomczak said.
Tomczak
couldn’t have taken Building Virtual Worlds without Pausch’s help, he
explained. It was Pausch who convinced administrators that
undergraduate students were capable of handling the course’s
graduate-level coursework and should be allowed to have access to the
course.
“The
only reason there are undergrads in there is because Randy believed in
us,” Tomczak said. “It was the single greatest experience I had in my
educational career.”
At the end of the lecture, Pausch posed a final question to the audience.
“Have you figured out the head-fake?” he asked.
A
‘head-fake,’ he explained earlier, occurs when someone is taught a
deeper lesson under the pretense of learning something simple — when a
high school football player learns determination, teamwork, and
perseverance while seeming to learn a proper three-point stance, for
instance.
Give up?
“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams,” Pausch said. “It’s about how to lead your life.”
THANK YOU DR. RANDY PAUSCH!
Richard T. Mudrinich
Rescue Rick the Grass Cut Man