CMU’s Randy Pausch’s S.T.A.R. Moments

By Nancy Duarte

The meetings at Carnegie Mellon were amazing. The students and faculty here are very energetic and smart. The first order of business was a critique that Ryan Orcutt and I held with the grad students. The students are working hard on the AIGA Aspen Design Challenge. The water crisis is so vast we could see the struggle the students had in narrowing their focus because there’s just too much to solve. These bright students have come up with some intriguing solutions. Good luck!

I hosted a workshop and delivered a lecture. But how could I make a trip to Carnegie Mellon without remembering one of CMUs most compelling presenters of all time, Randy Pausch? The delivery of his Last Lecture has been viewed nearly eight million times on YouTube but many more saw him on Oprah or have read his book. I re-watched the presentation this morning as a tribute to him. He incorporated many S.T.A.R. moments in his presentation. Eric on my team coined that acronym. It stands for Something They’ll Always Remember. Each presentation should have at least one. Randy’s had about ten.

Randy used personal stories, props, humor and surprise, which are some of the components in a great presentation. He was a fantastic human and a spectacular presenter. He’s sorely missed.