Fall 2025 Project Lineup
- Communications Coordinator, UEIS
- Email hkinneyk@andrew.cmu.edu
Each semester, students at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) take on a slate of intensive, team-based projects that serve as the cornerstone of their graduate experience. These interdisciplinary efforts bring together designers, programmers, artists, and producers to develop functional prototypes that explore new approaches to storytelling, play, and interaction. Many of the projects are developed in collaboration with external partners, giving students the opportunity to tackle real-world challenges in emerging areas of technology and design.
The Fall 2025 lineup includes a wide range of ideas, platforms, and clients, including Sunset Jive & Hive, an interactive mystery game for the 50th anniversary of a classic children’s book series; Sacred Mountain VR, which uses foot-tracking tech to simulate the experience of hiking using VR; and EchoTrio, an interactive conversation between Andrew Carnegie and Andy Warhol that incorporates holograms and AI.
Below is a complete list of this semester’s projects:
Sunset Jive & Hive
Student Team: Josh Kaplan, Benjamin Walker, Eliana Huang, Moe Aguilar, Fay Li, Azu De
Faculty Advisors: John Dessler & Tom Corbett
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Billy Jo Jive Super Private Eye detective book series, students will create a card-based mystery game with interactive elements, where players collect clues, interview suspects, and scan cards to reveal secrets in this tribute to classic detective storytelling.
EchoTrio
Student Team: Brian He, Shiwei Hong, Terri Lim, Aurora Liu, Ye Wei
Faculty Advisors: Shirley Saldamarco & Mo Mahler
Combining holograms with AI-driven natural language processing, this project brings Andrew Carnegie and Andy Warhol into an interactive conversation with each other — and the audience — via ETC’s synthetic interview studio.
ReNuShu
Student Team: Isabella Chen, James Huang, Victor Jhou, Esme Han, Yingje Wang
Faculty Advisors: Charles Johnson & Heather Kelley
Through a partnership with tech company Magnes AG, this project is developing a fitness game using Magnes AG’s sensor-embedded NUSHU footwear — providing personalized, real-time feedback to people who have home-based exercise routines.
Little Owl Construction Co.
Student Team: Jasmin Ali-Diaz, Ean McFadden, Melanie Danver, Devika Santosh, Courtney Singleton
Faculty Advisors: Shirley Saldamarco & Drew Davidson
In collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club of Western PA, this project is working on developing an interactive play space inspired by Junior Achievement’s BizTown, focused on regional industries like robotics and storytelling, with the goal of sparking curiosity and joy in learning.
270° Fun
Student Team: Yuhuai Huang, Sally Jin, Jose Mireles, Alivia Park, Dennis Sun, Enn Ruan
Faculty Advisors: Mike Christel & Drew Davidson
In partnership with Simcoach Games, this student team will develop a multiplayer game for the ETC’s CAVERN: a 270-degree space that immerses guests through motion tracking and stereoscopic 3D. They’ll work together to build a multiplayer training module that highlights the CAVERN’s unique capabilities.
Trinity
Student Team: Xueyan Liu, Vector Liu, Yifan Jiang, Helen Yang, Max Zhang, Jerry Zheng
Faculty Advisors: Brenda Bakker Harger & Scott Stevens
Inspired by the split-screen co-op game It Takes Two, this student pitch project will explore how more players change the dynamics of gameplay, emphasizing teamwork through puzzle-solving in a multi-character environment.
Kicks Lab
Student Team: Libby Egan, Skye Gao, Samantha Lai, Jiwon Park, Steven Wang
Faculty Advisors: Charles Johnson & Ricardo Washington
This student team is building a tablet-based game for young learners in emerging economies that demystifies sneaker design and manufacturing through a digital twin of the footwear production process that teaches creativity, engineering, and entrepreneurship.
Intergalactic Buttoneers
Student Team: Yifan Chen, Nina Gamboni, Derek Wong, Junru Yang, Emily Zhang
Faculty Advisors: Ruth Comley & Dave Culyba
Students will design a series of location-based entertainment experiences for the ETC’s 5th-floor “space bridge” installation, culminating in a prototype that the public can interact with during this year’s Fall Festival. 2006 ETC graduate and VP of Production at Schell Games Estefania Harbuck will also help advise students as a subject matter expert.
Ascent
Student Team: Jialan Dong, Joy Lim, Zhanqi Yang, Xiaofan Zhang, William Zhang
Faculty Advisors: Jonathan Walton & Ricardo Washington
The students working on this project will design a VR hiking simulation that captures a realistic experience of hiking — terrain, exhaustion, weather, and altitude — while also incorporating emerging foot-tracking technologies.
Tacit
Student Team: Yufei Chen, Jack Chou, Jing Chung, Alex Hall, Winnie Tsai, Michael Wong
Faculty Advisors: Heather Kelley & Vivian Shen
This student-pitched project is focused on emotional literacy, encouraging players to identify, express, and engage with their feelings through interactive storytelling, haptics, and feedback loops.
ByteMX
Student Team: Michelle Fan, Grace Rodríguez Gomez, Nellie Tonev, Wendy Wen, Ethan Zhu
Faculty Advisors: Scott Stevens & Ruth Comley
Alongside Pittsburgh’s own Ruach Bicycle Club, this project will design a tabletop STEM game experience for K-12 students. Using 3D-printed BMX track components and mixed reality, the game introduces concepts in engineering and community development.
Together, these projects reflect the ETC’s emphasis on hands-on learning and interdisciplinary collaboration. Over the course of the semester, teams will prototype, test, and refine their ideas — contributing to ongoing conversations around the future of entertainment, education, and interactive media.
Follow the blogs on each project website for updates!