On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch delivered an exceptional last Olecture“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. This was part of an academic tradition where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk. When he presented this lecture to his audience he already knew that he had metastatic pancreatic cancer, a terminal illness. Since then he became an international prodigy with an Internet video viewed by millions, an international media story and a best-selling book. Randy’s lecture has been one of the most powerful accounts of hope, grace and optimism.

Randy Pausch was a professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. He worked with Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), and Walt Disney Imagineering, and pioneered the non profit Alice project. (Alice is an innovative 3-D environment that teaches programming to young people via storytelling and interactive game-playing.) He also co-founded The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon with Don Marinelli.

Unfortunately, Randy lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008. But he taught millions of people about living. Randy’s lecture is about following your dreams, dealing with the ones that don’t come true, importance of overcoming obstacles and having fun along the way. It’s about seizing every moment. His legacy will continue to inspire us all, for generations to come.

It’s never too late to listen, learn and really live.

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