Case C
The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon University offers a two-year Masters of Entertainment Technology degree. This unique degree is jointly conferred by Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts and School of Computer Science, and was created in 1999.
The concept behind the ETC is to have technologists and fine artists work together on projects that produce artifacts that are intended to entertain, inform, educate, inspire or otherwise affect an audience, guest, player, and/or participant. Our mission is to foster leadership in education and research that combines technology and fine arts to create new processes, tools, and vision for storytelling and entertainment.
After experiencing much success in Pittsburgh, PA, the ETC decided to embark on international initiatives in 2006, enhancing the program to become ETC-Global. Our first global initiative was to open a site in Adelaide, Australia.
In January, 2007, the ETC-Global received a visit from representatives of the City of Osaka who invited the ETC to open a campus in Osaka, Japan. Typically, opening a new campus outside of the United States is a long process, but due to the strong support of the City of Osaka, as well as keen interest for study in Japan, we were able to open ETC-Japan within one year. The timeline is as follows:
- January, 2007: Invitation to open ETC in Osaka
- April, 2007: MOU signed between City of Osaka and Carnegie Mellon, ETC
- October, 2007: Marketing Event in Osaka to promote ETC-Japan
- January, 2008: ETC-Japan opens: First Semester
- March, 2008: Grand Opening of ETC-Japan
As mentioned, study at the ETC-Japan began in January, 2008. During this first semester, five ETC-Global students chose to study in Osaka. All of these students were US citizens. During this semester, the students did research on two projects that were sponsored by SHARP Corporation. Also during this semester, our students took an elective course which focused on the study of Japanese Culture and Language.
During semesters two and three of ETC-Japan, 8 additional students traveled to study in Osaka. They worked on projects with SHARP Corporation and NEC Corporation. In addition to their ETC course work, they attended various lectures at Osaka University and participated in the Tokyo Game Show.
Much of the success of the ETC-Japan is due to the huge amount of support we have received from the City of Osaka. Their support has encompassed a variety of areas. They have provided us with office space for our students and faculty members at the Asian Trade Center in Osaka. In addition to the space, they negotiated with local companies for the donation of technical equipment. They also assisted with rental company discussions to help our students and faculty members find housing in Osaka.
The City of Osaka has also lead the initiatives for marketing the ETC throughout Japan. They have coordinated several business conferences for us and have scheduled many meetings with the press, including newspaper and television. The industry-sponsored projects with SHARP and NEC were initially developed through the City of Osaka, and they have also introduced us to a variety of local universities (Osaka University, Ritsumeikan University, Keio University) to establish collaborative projects.
As we look to the future of ETC-Japan, we hope the program will grow in size, by having more students take advantage of the wonderful opportunity to study in Japan. We also hope to recruit more Japanese students to study at the ETC-Global. With the continued support of the City of Osaka, we plan to develop more industry relationships for both student projects and potential student internships.
We are very pleased with the progress we have made thus far by opening the ETC-Japan. The speed with which this campus opened is quite unusual, and was only possible due to the strong support from the City of Osaka. Having a site in Osaka offers all ETC-Global students a superb opportunity for studying in a wonderful city.