Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch
Dr. Randy Pausch
Born	(1960-10-23)October 23, 1960 Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Died	July 25, 2008(2008-07-25) (aged 47) Chesapeake, Virginia
Cause of death	Pancreatic cancer
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University
Known for	Creator of Alice software project Co-founder of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center Virtual Reality Research with Disney Imagineers Inspirational speeches regarding life #1 best-selling book Battle with cancer
Awards	Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education Time's Time 100
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science
Institutions	Carnegie Mellon University University of Virginia
Doctoral advisor	Alfred Spector

Randolph Frederick ("Randy") Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in Columbia, Maryland. Pausch received his bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University in 1982 and his PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in August 1988. Pausch later became an associate professor at the University of Virginia, before working at Carnegie Mellon University as an associate professor.

He gave his "The Last Lecture" speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. Pausch conceived the lecture after he learned that his previously known pancreatic cancer was terminal. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", with a topic such as "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" The talk was later released as a book called The Last Lecture, which became a New York Times best-seller.

Early life

Pausch was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Columbia, Maryland. After graduating from Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, Pausch received his bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University in May 1982 and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in August 1988. While completing his doctoral studies, Pausch was briefly employed at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and Adobe Systems.

Career

Pausch was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1988 until 1997. While there, he completed sabbaticals at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA). In 1997, Pausch became Associate Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design, at Carnegie Mellon University. He was a co-founder in 1998, along with Don Marinelli, of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), and he started the Building Virtual Worlds course at CMU and taught it for 10 years. He consulted with Google on user interface design and also consulted with PARC, Imagineering, and Media Metrix. Pausch is also the founder of the Alice software project.

He was a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. Pausch was the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles. He also received two awards from ACM in 2007 for his achievements in computing education: the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award and the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education. He was also inducted as a Fellow of the ACM in 2007. The Pittsburgh City Council declared November 19, 2007 to be "Dr. Randy Pausch Day". In May 2008, Pausch was listed by Time as one of the World's Top-100 Most Influential People.

Cancer

The poster for Pausch's "The Last Lecture"

Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) on September 19, 2006 in an unsuccessful attempt to halt his pancreatic cancer. He was told in August 2007 to expect a remaining three to six months of good health. He soon moved his family to Chesapeake, Virginia, a suburb near Norfolk, to be close to his wife's family. On March 13, 2008, Pausch advocated for greater federal funding for pancreatic cancer before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. In the week prior to this, he had been hospitalized in order to have needle aspiration of pleural effusion in his right lung.

On May 2, a Positron emission tomography (PET) scan showed that he had very tiny (5 millimetres (0.20 in) or less) metastasis in his lungs and some lymph nodes in his chest. He also had some metastases in his peritoneal and retroperitoneal cavities. On June 26, 2008, Pausch indicated that he was considering stopping further chemotherapy because of the potential adverse side effects. He was, however, considering some immuno-therapy-based approaches. On July 24, on behalf of Pausch, a friend anonymously posted a message on Pausch's webpage stating that a biopsy had indicated that the cancer had progressed further than what was expected from recent PET scans and that Pausch had "taken a step down" and was "much sicker than he had been". The friend also stated that Pausch had then enrolled in a hospice program designed to provide palliative care to those at the end of life.

Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia on July 25, 2008, having moved there so that his wife and children would be near family after his death. He is survived by his wife Jai, and their three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe.

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Main article: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture", titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, at CMU on September 18, 2007. Randy Pausch gave an abridged version of his speech on the Oprah show in October 2007. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", with a topic such as "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, "Make me earn it," some in the audience shouted back, "You did!"

During the lecture, Pausch was upbeat and humorous, alternating between wisecracks, insights on computer science and engineering education, advice on building multi-disciplinary collaborations, working in groups and interacting with other people, offering inspirational life lessons, and performing push-ups on stage. He also commented on the irony that the "Last Lecture" series had recently been renamed as "Journeys", saying, "I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it." After Pausch finished his lecture, Steve Seabolt, on behalf of Electronic Arts—which is now collaborating with CMU in the development of Alice 3.0—pledged to honor Pausch by creating a memorial scholarship for women in computer science, in recognition of Pausch's support and mentoring of women in CS and engineering.

CMU president Jared Cohon spoke emotionally of Pausch's humanity and called his contributions to the university and to education "remarkable and stunning". He then announced that CMU will celebrate Pausch's impact on the world by building and naming after Pausch a raised pedestrian bridge to connect CMU's new Computer Science building and the Center for the Arts, symbolizing the way Pausch linked those two disciplines. Brown University professor Andries van Dam followed Pausch's last lecture with a tearful and impassioned speech praising him for his courage and leadership, calling him a role model.

The Last Lecture

The Disney-owned publisher Hyperion paid $6.7 million for the rights to publish a book about Pausch called The Last Lecture, co-authored by Pausch and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Zaslow. The book became a New York Times best-seller on June 22, 2008. The Last Lecture expands on Pausch's speech. The book's first printing had 400,000 copies, and it has been translated into 17 languages. Despite speculation that the book would be made into a movie, Pausch has denied these rumors, stating that "there's a reason to do the book, but if it's telling the story of the lecture in the medium of film, we already have that."

Media coverage

Randy Pausch and his wife Jai met Sting at a Police concert at the University of Virginia on November 6, 2007.

Pausch was named "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson on September 21, 2007. His "Last Lecture" has attracted wide attention from the international media, became an Internet hit, and was viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery. On October 22, 2007, Pausch appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show where he discussed his situation and summarized his "Last Lecture". On October 6, 2007, Pausch joined the Pittsburgh Steelers for the day during their regular practice, after the organization learned that one of his childhood dreams mentioned in his "Last Lecture" was to play in the NFL.

A devoted Star Trek fan, Pausch was invited by film director J. J. Abrams to film a role in the latest Star Trek movie. Abrams heard of Pausch's condition and sent a personal e-mail inviting Pausch to the set. Pausch accepted and traveled to Los Angeles, California to shoot his scene. In addition to appearing in the film, he also has a line of dialogue and donated the $217.06 paycheck to charity. On April 9, 2008, the ABC network aired an hour long Diane Sawyer feature on Pausch titled "The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life". On July 29, 2008, ABC aired a follow up to the Last Lecture special, remembering Pausch and his famous lecture.

Other lectures and appearances

Pausch gave a lecture about time management on November 27, 2007 at the University of Virginia, to an audience of over 850 people. In March 2008, Pausch appeared in a public service announcement video and testified before Congress in support of cancer research. On May 18, 2008, Pausch made a surprise return appearance at Carnegie Mellon, giving a speech at the commencement ceremony, as well as attending the School of Computer Science's diploma ceremony, and on May 19 Pausch appeared on the Good Morning America show. His lecture, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", was nominated at the 2007 YouTube Video Awards.

Selected list of works

• Dann, Wanda P.; Cooper, Stephen; Pausch, Randy (2005-07-25). Learning to Program with Alice. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0131872893. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Pausch, Randy; Zaslow, Jeffrey (2008-04-08). The Last Lecture. Hyperion. ISBN 1401323251. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

See also

• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (lecture)
• The Last Lecture (book)

External links

• Quotations related to Randy Pausch at Wikiquote
• Randy Pausch's Home Page at Carnegie Mellon University
  • Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center
• The "Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch at YouTube
  • Randy Pausch addressing the CMU 2008 graduating class
  • Randy Pausch on Good Morning America, May 19, 2008
  • The Wisdom of Randy Pausch: A tribute to a man who inspired us all
• "Time Management" by Randy Pausch, November 2007 at Google Video (presentation slides)
  • Randy Pausch ABC Special about the "Last Lecture", April 2008
  • Randy Pausch discussing his book "The Last Lecture"
• A Beloved Professor Delivers The Lecture of a Lifetime at The Wall Street Journal
  • The Professor's Manifesto: What It Meant to Readers
  • A Final Farewell
• News about Randy Pausch at the University of Virginia

Template:Persondata {{subst:#if:Pausch, Randy|}} [[Category:{{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:1960}}

|| UNKNOWN | MISSING = Year of birth missing {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:2008}}||LIVING=(living people)}}
| #default = 1960 births

}}]] {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:2008}}

|| LIVING  = 
| MISSING  = 
| UNKNOWN  = 
| #default = 

}}