Randy Package

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Randy Package

Randolph "Randy" Frederick Pausch (born October 23, 1960 in Baltimore , Maryland ; † July 25, 2008 in Chesapeake , Virginia ) was Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , USA . In addition to his research focus on human-computer interaction and design , he founded the Alice project . In the last year of his life, he received global attention and sympathy for his open approach to his incurable pancreatic cancer .

Act

Package co-founded the CMU Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and spent a research vacation at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA), a computer game software company. Package advised Google on the design of the user interface. He wrote five books and more than 70 articles. He was also the founder of the Alice software project. Alice is software that enables students to learn to program in a 3D environment. It is already being used successfully in many schools. With Alice, students (especially girls) should have fun and interest in programming.

In 2008, Pausch shot a two-minute spot for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). He also addressed the Labor, Health & Human Services subcommittee on behalf of PanCAN at a convention on March 13 in Washington, DC. Both actions were intended to raise awareness that the pancreatic cancer research area is significantly underfunded, ultimately to persuade the US government to devote more resources to finding a cure.

Randy Pausch was married and had three children.

illness

In September 2006, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was one of the few patients who could have surgery on the pancreas . After the operation, aggressive experimental therapy with radiation and chemotherapy was carried out, which promised a better prognosis than conventional methods.

After metastases reappeared in August 2007, however , a cure was definitely impossible. However, Pausch continued to undergo palliative treatments to keep the cancer at bay for as long as possible.

In August 2007, the doctors assumed that Pausch, who already had numerous metastases in the liver and spleen, would live in good health for three to six months before physical decline occurred. In December, Pausch reported on his personal website that doctors rated his previous response to palliative chemotherapy very positive as “a 10 on a scale of 1-10”. At the end of December, he added that, based on statistical data, he would have an estimated two to four more months until the tumors would grow again.

In March 2008, Pausch was admitted to hospital with chemotherapy-related congestive heart and kidney failure . The same symptoms recurred shortly after he was released. In early May, Pausch reported on his website that the cancer had metastasized to the lungs and abdomen. After a further recovery period, he still planned to start a new type of therapy.

The day before he died, he was too weak to write any more himself - a friend reported for him on July 24, 2008 that he had grown swiftly in his tumor. Package took part in a hospice program in the last days of life . He died at home with his family.

"Last Lecture"

On September 18, 2007, Pausch gave his last lecture in the packed auditorium. This “last lecture” is a tradition at many universities: professors give a lecture as if it would be their last. When the CMU invited Randy Pausch to this lecture, it was already clear to the more than 400 guests that the motto was to be taken literally this time.

The title of the lecture was "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". In the beginning, a close-up view of Pausch's tumors was projected onto the screen, but he did not talk about cancer or how he dealt with death. Rather, he used the opportunity for a humorous, life-affirming speech about his personal wisdom.

His lecture was downloaded from the Internet by more than a million people in a matter of days. Package was invited to television programs; numerous articles are devoted to his fate. Package was surprised by the response itself - after all, the recorded lecture was mainly used to show it to his children at some point.

Together with Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow, he wrote the book The Last Lecture in 2007 and 2008 , in which he deepened the content of his lecture. Like the lecture, the main purpose of this book is to give your children some of their life experiences. The Last Lecture was published in April 2008 (also in German translation) and immediately landed on the bestseller lists in the USA and Germany.

The core theme of the “Last Lecture” - the insight and guidance on how to realize your childhood dreams and help others in them - is embedded in Randy Pausch's biography and personal life experiences.

"Time Management"

On November 27, 2007, Pausch gave a lecture on time management at the University of Virginia , which was attended by over 850 people. Package not only focused on special techniques to save time at work, but also emphasized that the primary goal of time management is to have more time for the people who are close to your heart.

Supporting role in a movie

Since Pausch was a big fan of the Star Trek television series all his life , director JJ Abrams made it possible for Pausch to be seen in a small supporting role in the eleventh Star Trek film . He donated his fee to a charity.

Awards

  • In December 2007, Pausch was named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery for his contributions to the use of programming environments for educational purposes .
  • In May 2008, Time declared him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

swell

  1. ↑ PanCAN Public Announcement (March 2008) “Dr. Randy Pausch featured in new PSA speaking about the urgent need to fund pancreatic cancer research " ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Pausch's statement before the congress with German and English subtitles (March 13, 2008) “Dr. Randy Pausch's testimony to the Labor, Health & Human Services Subcommittee " ( Memento from January 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Welt.de (July 27, 2008) Farewell to an indomitable man
  4. ↑ Randy Pausch at Memory Alpha
  5. ↑ Katie Couric: The 2008 TIME 100, Randy Pausch , Time, April 30, 2009

literature

  • Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow: Last Lecture. The lessons of my life. C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-570-01049-5 .
  • Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow: Last Lecture. The lessons of my life. (Audio book) Steinbach speaking books, September 2008, ISBN 978-3-88698-222-6 .

Web links

Wikiquote: Randy Pausch  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Package, Randy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Package, Randolph Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer scientist, lecturer in computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 2008
Place of death Chesapeake , Virginia