ETC Celebrates the Class of 2025
On Sunday, May 11, Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) proudly celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2025 in front of friends, family, and members of the ETC community. With excitement, gratitude, and no shortage of applause, we recognized a cohort of storytellers, artists, programmers, and more — all ready to shape the future of entertainment technology.
Alumni Award Winner: Estefania Harbuck
This year’s Alumni Award winner was ETC Class of 2006 graduate Estefania Harbuck. The ETC Alumni Award is given to honor an alum who exemplifies leadership and innovation in entertainment technology fields through their engaging and inspiring work. After graduating, Harbuck spent over a decade at Walt Disney Imagineering, where she designed attractions and experiences for the Disneyland Resort, Tokyo Disney Sea, and Disney California Adventure. She’s currently the Vice President of Production at Schell Games, and continues to adjunct at the ETC — providing feedback on student projects and occasionally teaching a course on location-based entertainment.
Honoring Student Excellence
Each year, the ETC community celebrates three graduating students whose work and spirit have left a lasting mark on our program. The recipients are chosen by the faculty, who keep the winners a secret until they receive the award at the ceremony. This year, the students being honored are:
Eva Chang, Anne Humphreys Memorial Award recipient
The Anne Humphreys Memorial Award is given in honor of late ETC faculty member Anne Humphreys. In recognition of Anne’s indomitable character, the award is given to a student who focused on community building projects during their time at the ETC and who is committed to making the world a better place.
During her time at the ETC, Eva produced the Fall 2024 project StepUp — a partnership with the international nonprofit World Shoe Fund. Team StepUp created a transformational game intended to teach children living in poverty around the world the importance of proper hygiene and shoe wearing; Eva and her team went to Ghana to playtest their game with local students there, and the Fund has plans to use the game globally.
Samantha Trimboli, Tornado Award recipient
The Tornado Award is given in honor of ETC Co-founder Don Marinelli. The award is given in recognition to the student who goes up against the status quo, the existing parameters and limitations of the entertainment technology industry and makes an impact.
Samantha came to the ETC from Yale University after receiving the ETC Fellowship. During her time here, she served as a producer on Puppamatics, Quest Line, and Mic Check. In her final semester working on Mic Check, Trimboli pushed the limits of generative AI with the project, which had players compete in a rap battle against an AI-powered opponent.
Nina Wang, Randy Pausch Award recipientThe Pausch Award is inspired by and in honor of ETC co-founder Randy Pausch is awarded to the ETC graduate who best epitomizes interdisciplinary leadership through artistic, technical and interpersonal initiative growth and excellence.
During her time at the ETC, Nina worked as a producer on multiple projects —- Flow, MoonRover, and ImmerX. Flow, the first project Nina worked on at the ETC, was the result of a pitch she made to the faculty. Utilizing the CAVERN space, Nina and her team developed an immersive, interactive experience based on traditional Chinese culture and folklore. The project extended beyond a single semester, with Flow being a finalist in this year’s SXSW Innovation Awards and a 2025 winner of the Communication Arts Award of Excellence.
