What’s been going on at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy? Three alumni and two students show how they are changing the world.

FIEA Alumnus Wins Emmy For VR Story

Jeremiah Graves ’12MS won a Daytime Emmy for ASTEROIDS!, an interactive short story starring two bumbling aliens.

While the world of television is recognized at the 70th Emmy Awards tonight on NBC, one of those coveted shiny, gold trophies has already found its place in the home of Jeremiah Graves ’12MS.
The interactive entertainment alum from UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy won a Daytime Emmy earlier this year for ASTEROIDS!, an interactive, virtual reality, short story starring two bumbling aliens.
Read the full story on UCF Today.

FIEA Alumna Changing The Game for EA SPORTS

Whether she is creating characters or getting more females into video games, Karen McCarthy ’13MS leans in.

“Story is king” Karen McCarthy ’13MS says with emphasis when asked about her approach to making a character.

The FIEA alumna and current character artist at Electronic Arts’ Tiburon Studio has worked on EA SPORTS Madden NFL, NBA Live and Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. And before she sculpts the first pixel, she thinks about the small details that will reveal a character’s backstory.

Read the full story on UCF Today.

New FIEA Programmer Uses Code To Connect People

Whether building an antenna, creating an app or speaking one of four languages, Pratik Chougule loves bringing people together.

In 2017, Pratik Chougule sat on the roof of his house in Dapoli, India snipping wires. He was building a FM antenna for his parents, so they could hear the radio stations in Mumbai, a large city more than 250 kilometers from Chougule’s small fishing village.
“I’m fond of radio because in my family, everyone is using the radio,” he says. “My grandfather was fond of radio. He also used to listen to songs every day in the morning. My mother also likes the radio while she’s cooking or doing some house chores.”
Read the full story on UCF Today.

FIEA Fulbright Scholar is a Student of Many Talents

Speak to Pamela Figueroa for five minutes and you can immediately tell she has just as many interests as she does talents. Dragons, guitar playing, Guns N’ Roses, Bolivian culture, medieval castles and game-development contests are some of the topics she can talk about at length.
Growing up in Bolivia—where videogames are not a common household item and games are not considered a real career—Figueroa needed that passion to pursue her dreams, now as a student at UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.
Read the full story on UCF Today.

From Army to Animation

When it comes to hard work, Brenda Raza ’97 certainly knows how to push through. From living in a cave in South Korea to photo editing catalogs of major retailers, she has done it all. Now Brenda is ready to get back to her true passion, animation. This graphic design graduate talks about being in the military, being a mom and starting her master’s degree at UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.
Read the full story on UCF Today.