Go Steelers!

Jiyoung hosted a Superbowl party today that was well attended by west coast ETCers, past and present. She also had an ample supply of 3D glasses for the half time commercials. Thanks Jiyoung!

ICEC in Pittsburgh

We all headed back to CMU last week to attend the International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC). The ETC was one of the sponsors, and put on a great event. Some of the highlights included a great talk by the ETC's own Jesse Schell, the presentation of the Randy Pauche award to Ed Catmull followed by Ed sharing his insights, and an entertaining lunchtime talk from Anthony Daniels (C3PO), and Stan Szymanski of Sony Imageworks sharing some behind-the-scene secrets from the studio. Not to mention an open house at the ETC and the opportunity to see Don's newest acquisition: a lifesize Princess Leia in the hallway.

After the conference, the Tea & Sugar Train team visited the USS Requin at the Carnegie Science Center to see how the interactive displays done by ETC there work.

Soft Launch Celebration

This was a big day for the teams - they "soft launched" the projects they've been working on all semester. We celebrated this evening with a BBQ at Carl's house. I was so busy cooking that I forgot to take pictures of the real meal, but we did s'mores for dessert.

This is a candid picture, but it looks like a posed picture from a magazine. I mean really, one person cooking and everyone else standing around being entertained by it? But you can see that everyone else was already eating. BTW, Soo is trying the advanced s'mores technique where you jam the chocolate INTO the marshmallow before you roast it - that melts the chocolate, too. Yumm.

Play Day in San Francisco

A bit of R&R was in order after a month of intense work by both teams, so Jiyoung organized a tour of San Francisco for everyone. We enjoyed the view of the City By The Bay from atop Twin Peaks, walked under the Golden Gate Bridge, hit the beach, and finished up on Alcatraz.

Atop Twin Peaks


The beach, City Hall and the Golden Gate Bridge


Heading out to Alacatraz