Faculty Advisors
Dave Culyba
Dave received a B.S. in Computer Science and a Master’s in Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. He has since worked at Electronic Arts as part of the team that created the computer game Spore, was a co-founder of the startup Interbots which worked on combining robotics and apps to create both entertainment and therapeutic experiences for kids, and is also one of the core members of the Alice research team working to create software to help teach students how to program. He is an active participant in game jams and was the co-organizer of the “Now I Get It!” jam.
Ricardo Washington
Ricardo serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. He specializes in giving the students instruction and guidance in art related areas of their program.
Ricardo was a faculty member at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the Game Art and Design department. He taught classes in 3D art, specializing in modeling and texture creation. He also taught game design, animation, and production classes. Ricardo helped to improve the academic culture with consistent and robust service on various committees and boards, organizing multiple events, updating classes and curricula, and connecting with the community in Pittsburgh. Before AIP he worked for small game company with a great team. He also did freelance game art, focusing on creating content for games for training. He worked with Simcoach games during this time to create content for interactive game based safety training material.
Before his life as a digital artist, Ricardo worked as a research specialist in the Neurobiology department at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine. As a lab assistant he spent many hours conducting in the trenches bench top science and microscope work. It was a productive time resulting in four publications.
Ricardo uses his skills and knowledge to teach students outside of the traditional academic environment. He developed and implemented the video game design programs for a local nonprofit Homewood Children’s Village and the Carnegie Library in East Liberty. He has also served as a volunteer mentor with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History EnergyNet and Game Jam programs.
Team
Yuzhu(Clare) Zhou / Producer, Character Artist
Yuzhu Zhou is a 2D and 3D artist and she loves telling stories through her works. The reason for her to come to the ETC is that, through her undergrad years, she realized the importance of working with people from different backgrounds when making a good game.
Tianyi Cao / Co-producer, Sound Designer
Tianyi Cao is a game designer, sound designer, and producer. He loves almost all sorts of entertainments, such as games, animes, films and novels. He got his undergraduate degree from UCSD with a double major in cognitive science and music. He is currently studying at Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University to pursue his master degree.
Anran(Arianna) Gong / Look Dev Artist, Environment Artist
A 3D game environment artist who is interested in culture and social topics
Rui Xi / Game Designer
Rui Xi is an UX designer, game designer and sound designer. In order to make the best immersive virtual wonderlands with emotion evoking interactions, Rui is currently in ETC master program of CMU for making games and learning relevant designing skills.
Zhongyan(Josh) Li / Level Designer
Zhongyan (Josh) Li studied cognitive science at UC Berkeley, along with many film classes that put great emphasis on critical analysis. He has a sharp sense at integrating his taste in film and literature into game design and storytelling. He strives to become a great game design & creative director someday and add a Chinese voice in the ever expanding game industry.
Shuxing Li / Programmer
Shuxing Li is a full stack video game developer who studied computer science for his undergraduate school. He has a strong interest in creating retro styled video games – as looking back is the best way of moving forward. As a full stack developer, his responsibilities covers from top to bottom of a video game.
Video game should be friends that people can put their full trust in. In the future, he aims to start an indie studio and create games that can bring everyone joy.
Kayi Ng / Outsource Artist
Kayi Ng is a current Master of Entertainment Technology graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2021,with a bachelor of Fine Art in painting, and has a deep understanding of human anatomy, art fundamentals, design principles, and color theory.
Kayi’s main focus is concept art design and illustrations based on her interest in Chinese fantasy. Other than traditional painting and digital painting, she is also proficient in major 3D modeling software such as Maya, Fusion 360, and Cinema 4D.