Lisa Brown, a first-year graduate student at the Entertainment Technology Center,is one of four recipients of the first annual Randy Pausch ScholarshipFund established by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences(AIAS).

"With the fund, the Academy hasestablished a scholarship that will advance the game industry bysupporting students interested in taking game design and development tothe next level," said Drew Davidson, program director for ETCPittsburgh. "Randy excelled at challenging students to innovate as theyworked together on interdisciplinary teams to create engaginginteractive experiences. The recipients of this scholarship havealready shown that they've accepted this challenge and it will beinteresting to see how they exceed expectations."

Brown,from Louisville, Kentucky, plans to use her background in traditionalart, comic art, computer science, theater and animation to create gamesfor interactive museum exhibits. "I'm extremely honored to be chosenfor this scholarship. It is because of Randy Pausch and theEntertainment Technology Center that I am able to advance in the worldof game design at all, and I hope to live up to that honor," she said.

Otherwinners are Diana Hughes of the University of Southern California,Garrick Williams, of West Virginia University and Jason Williams ofMemphis, Tenn., an online student of the University of AdvancingTechnology.

"It makes sense that the Academy'sfirst scholarship honors Dr. Randy Pausch who is an inspiration topeople who want to be involved in making great games," said JosephOlin, AIAS president. "We hope these scholarships may help the nextWill Wright (creator of The Sims) or Mike Morhaime (president ofBlizzard Entertainment) gets their start."