Rensselaer Magazine: Winter 2004: Class Notes Features

Jesse Schell ’92 Named to Technology Review’s Top Innovators

Jesse Schell ’92

Jesse Schell ’92, a specialist in game design, was named to the TR100, Technology Review’s fourth annual selection of 100 top innovators under the age of 35 who it heralds as transforming technology — and the world. These innovators, says the Review, “are developing technologies that defy easy classification, often fusing recent advances in computing, medicine, and nanotech.”

Schell was included as one of the innovators in computing. His citation reads: “Invents new forms of digital visualization. The professor of entertainment technology teaches game design and heads simulation projects, including one that helps firefighters deal with terrorism.”

Schell is an instructor of entertainment technology for Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (www.etc.cmu.edu), a joint master’s program between Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts and School of Computer Science.

Before joining Carnegie Mellon, he was creative director of the Walt Disney Imagineering VR Studio. He worked as a designer, programmer, and manager on several projects for Disney theme parks, and was lead designer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Buccaneer’s Gold, a virtual reality attraction at the DisneyQuest interactive theme park in Orlando, Fla.

Schell received his B.S. in computer science from Rensselaer and M.S. in information networking from Carnegie Mellon. He is chairman of the International Game Developers Association and in November was keynote speaker at the Game Design and Technology Workshop at Liverpool John Moores University in England.

Schell is a former writer, director, performer, juggler, comedian, and circus artist for both Freihofer’s Mime Circus and the Juggler’s Guild. In July, he opened Schell Games, a videogame development studio, in the city of Pittsburgh’s South Side.

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