(Bob Gregg, 11:30 pm) (Posted to: Main)
2007-10-07: Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture
Although this has been posted all over the place, I’m going to post it here too. Randy Pausch is a professor of Computer Science (among other things) at Carnegie Mellon University, which is where I did my graduate work. The professor is now dying of pancreatic cancer, and will leave behind a wife and three young children. Before he left the university for good, he gave one final lecture, where he talked about achieving your childhood dreams. The actual lecture is about an hour and twenty minutes, and well worth the time invested - right up to the last second of the speech. Funny and moving. It made me proud, very proud, to be a CMU graduate.
In addition, Dr. Pausch is the founder of the Alice software project. According to the web site, Alice is an “innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation that tells a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web.” But it’s more than that. It’s nothing less than the ultimate fulfillment of what started with Logo back in the 1960’s and 70’s - it teaches kids how to program computers, without realizing they’re learning it. Picture an application programming environment with full graphics, allowing users to “script” 3D actors, objects, video, with drag and drop tools that literally prevent you from ever making a syntax error. And you can instantly see the results of your work, as virtual worlds come to life and move around with the touch of a key. How far we’ve come from turtle graphics!
Apparently Alice is already being used on a significant percent of college campuses to teach undergraduates about programming. What an astounding legacy to leave to the world. Thank you, Professor Pausch. I wish I had had the chance to get to know you when I was at CMU.