Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch giving his last lecture.

History

Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis: "3 to 6 months of good health left" [1].

The Last Lecture

Randy gave an upbeat lecture entitled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video and led to other media appearances. He then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme, which became a New York Times best-seller. Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008" [2].

The mascot of the Alice Programming Language.

Alice

Pausch created Alice, a 3D programming environment allowing users to create animations for telling stories, playing interactive games, or creating videos to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface intended to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.